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UK filmmaker shoots in Tanzania

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:05

SCREEN AFRICA EXCLUSIVE: Martin Chemhere writes… UK filmmaker Nick Broomfield will shoot the screen adaptation of the novel The Catastrophist in Mwanza, Tanzania this summer, with co-producers Donall McCusker (The Hurt Locker) and Paul Miller (Prozac Nation).

Broomfield arrived in Zanzibar on Sunday night for this year’s Zanzibar International Film Festival, which runs until 26 June, where he is a special guest at a documentary training workshop.

Talking about his film project, Broomfield said that the novel, The Catastrophist, was written by Irishman Ronan Bennet and short-listed for the 1998 Whitbread Novel Award. The Catastrophist is set in the Belgian Congo at the time of Patrice Lumumba in 1960.

“I spent quite a lot of time visiting different countries to find locations and really felt that Mwanza was most suitable. We have received great co-operation from the Tanzanian military and of course from the President and the Mayor and the town council in Mwanza,” explained Broomfield.

The director and producer of films such as Biggie and Tupac (2002) and Battle for Haditha (2009), Broomfield also spoke about ZIFF and East Africa: “This part of the world has become part of my life. It’s a region that fascinates me - I'm kind of in love with East Africa. Last year I was filming in Tanzania as executive producer on a film called Albino United, about a football team in Dar Es Salaam, so I got to know it quite well.”

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