Tapiwa Chipfupa, an AFDA (The South African School of Motion Picture and Live Performance) Johannesburg Masters student from Zimbabwe, is attracting attention in the local and international film industry.
Her movie The Bag on My Back was screened at Encounters South African International Film Festival in Cape Town in June, and she has been selected as one of 40 participants in the 6th Talent Campus Durban at the DIFF (Durban International Film Festival), which opens on Thursday 18 July.
Chipfupa, a cum laude graduate from AFDA and a 2008 Mandela Rhodes Scholarship nominee, is currently completing her Masters degree in Fine Arts in Motion Picture Medium at AFDA.
As part of an exchange programme with Finland, she produced and co-directed two documentaries currently screening at festivals in Europe, and won the Best Student Award at the 2010 Tampere International Film Festival in Finland. She pitched The Bag on My Back at Africadoc, securing sales in Europe and West Africa.
Well-known South African producer David Max Brown mentored Chipfupa through the production of the film, which is about her life in exile and the land issues in Zimbabwe as she followed her parents from farm to farm in the 1980s and 1990s until her outspoken father was retrenched from his job as a farm manager.
Says Chipfupa: “I am really pleased that this film is getting so much attention. It was really encouraging to have had David’s guidance, and I have learnt so much in the process. As far as Talent Campus is concerned, I am really looking forward to being in Durban.
“I have heard such great things about it. From the opportunities to gather information and expert knowledge and networking with peers from across the continent to meeting filmmakers from around the globe who are at the top of their game. And of course seeing so many brilliant films we would not usually be able to access.’
