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‘The Designer’ movie launches amidst delays

Genre : Event evaluations
Principal country concerned : Column : Cinema/tv
Release/publication date : February 2015
Published on : 02/04/2015
Source : http://timesmediamw.com/the-designer-movie-launches-amidst-delays/ 1 April 2015


The 45- minute short movie by actress Chimwemwe Mkwezalamba was finally launched at Steers Garden in Blantyre on Sunday amidst delays from the organisers.



The launch was expected to start at 6pm but it delayed for sometime irking some of the people who patronised the event.



Mkwezalamba and team apologised saying they experienced challenges including rains and that they wanted to cancel the launch. Rains had fallen earlier and with the event being held outside there were fears that it would rain again but it didn't.



The launch was graced by several renowned people with the Mayor of the City of Blantyre Noel Chalamanda as the guest of honour.



Appreciating the movie and the talent from Mkwezalamba and team, Chalamanda and artist Tay Grin bought two DVDs for the movie at a total of K400,000 during auction.



There were only four DVDs which were on auction and the other two went to Dikamawoko Arts Director Tawonga Nkhonjera, who was also part of the movie production buying it at K20,000. The other person got it at K30,000.



During the launch, the audience also sampled a 15 minute documentary of a shoe shine man who sits close by the old Nandos area in Blantyre.



The documentary, directed by Ernest Chikuni, excited the audience as it chronicled the story of the shoe shine man, how he started, where he lives, his family and what happens during his work.



The documentary culminated from a film and documentary training which Dikamawoko Arts held starting early last month to the end.



The training was being facilitated by professional tutors from prestigious schools like Prague Film School in Czech Republic and Yangon Film School in Myanmar who were present during the launch.



About The Designer, this is a movie which delves into the story of Sharon played by Vinjeru Kamanga.



Sharon finds herself broke, things are not working, she has lots of debts but a window of opportunity comes up but it is that of designing the wedding of her ex-fiancé played by Daredevils' GD.



It turns out to be a difficult challenge for her taking into consideration that her fiancé disappeared after she had assisted him only to be greeted by the news of his wedding.



But life had to move on as she later accepted the task and the climax sees GD apologise. He later paid Sharon a fat cheque for her good work.



The climax sees Sharon linking up with another man played by Davie Maseya.



Film maker Shemu Joyah who prides in producing two successful movies Seasons of a Life and The Last Fishing Boat hailed Mkwezalamba and the team for managing to produce a good movie with low budget.



Mkwezalamba who has also starred in other movies including B'ella had indicated during her speech earlier that they produced the movie on a zero budget and that she did not even pay some of the actors.



" It's a good movie with potential looking at the person who produced the movie as she was only 16 by then, she tried as a female director," said Joyah.



He noted that technically the film could have been polished citing among others, the sound but was quick to say that this was understandable as the team was working on a low budget.



Nkhonjera also applauded Mkwezalamba for the movie describing her as a hard working person and driven.



The movie also won Mkwezalamba an award of Best Emerging Director at the Silicon Valley African Film Festival in USA. Other actors starring in The Designer include Simunye Nyamali and female artist Rina. The launch was also spiced by performances from Fredokiss and Mafo.

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  • Arterial network
  • Malawi : Blantyre Arts Festival

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