Film for education and social change

This is Martin, he started the Zanzibar Film Festival. We talked while waiting for the “Memories of Struggles” workshop to begin. He was there with Fatma Aloo, a superstart organizer who has built one of the strongest NGOs in Tanzania (focused on women, media, advocacy and policy) and Professor ** who edited a book that they just published about **’s role in the Apartheid. Prof ** was one of the speakers.

I really enjoyed hearing Martin’s story. He is a filmmaker that focuses on inter-cultural issues and always makes his films with someone from another culture: “if we can communicate then the film will communicate.” He founded the Zanzibar International Film Festival, which draws ~200,000 people, the largest in Africa. The goal of ZIFF is to unite the “dhao countries,” those along the Indian Ocean (dhao is a one-sail boat) who have been in communication for 1000s of years. He wants ZIFF to “conscience-ize” people and therefore they hold discussions after each film as well as workshops, art and music. They also show packages of films from other local film festivals to teach people about other regions. A creative and fun social change agent!!! Martin’s latest film is at www.maungamizi.com.