The International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF) in Zimbabwe is the only regular women’s festival south of the Sahara. This festival provides much needed space for women to tell their stories of their joys, sorrows, triumphs and sadness in a country which has one of the highest rates of abuse of women in the world. And this year, against all odds, IIFF, celebrates its 10th Anniversary. The festival runs from 18 to 26 November in Harare and 1 to 3 December in Bulawayo.
This year’s anniversary theme is Women With Goals. Every woman has her own personal goals and Women Filmmakers Of Zimbabwe (WFOZ) will screen films which show how women have persevered and attained those goals. At the same time, the theme for this year’s festival reflects the United Nations’ Millenium Development Goals (MDGs’).
After a successful festival in 2010 WFOZ decided to get together on 4 February this year with sponsors, well-wishers and friends to find out how to make the festival even bigger and better. WFOZ wanted to make sure that the festival continues to amplify women’s voices and to tell women’s stories in a big way.
Many great ideas for a bigger and better festival in 2011 came from Roberta Wagner, the Director of Zimbabwe German Society (ZGS), Hanifa Gutu from the British Council, Chipo Muvezwa from the Culture Fund,Terrence Mapurisana the ZBC Arts Editor, as well as representatives from the National Gallery, and other media organisations. SIDA, Culture Fund, UNIFEM and Afrykamera were amongst the major 2010 sponsors.
