The Zimbabwean FOCUS ON BULAWAYO

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At least four theater centers across Bulawayo have been a hive of activity over the past two days since the opening of the multidisciplinary arts festival, the Intwasa Arts Festival, that has pooled various art forms including the Visual Arts, Theatre, Dance, Music, Film, Fashion and Literary Arts in the city.
The annual festival is being run this year under the theme ‘the Dawn of a New Era’ and is expected to run until Saturday.
Festival organizers told The Zimbabwean that “the festival aims to celebrate the vast artistic talent in the City of Kings and Queens.”
The premier arts showcase is being hosted by various venues in the city that include the National Art Gallery, White City
Stadium, City Hall and the Rainbow Theatre.
Last year the festival attracted over 300 artists and an estimated 100,000 people. Show organizers said they envisaged a higher turnout this year because of the sumptuous menu of arts events. The highlight of the festival will be the screening of the South African award winning movie Yesterday and Hollywood film Philadelphia.
Konstantina Bougonikoloou of the Medicine Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders) who is coordinating activities on
HIV/AIDS during the festival said both films will be shown at the Rainbow Cinemas today (September 7).
‘Yesterday’, which won Best Film award at the third Pune International Film Festival in India and the Inaugural Human
Rights Film Award at the Venice Film Festival (2004), is about a young Zulu woman living in a small village with her daughter while her husband works in Johannesburg.
‘Yesterday’, played by prominent South African actor Leleti Khumalo, falls sick and discovers that she is HIVpositive
and had contracted the disease from her husband. Another award winning actor Kenneth Khambula plays the husband in
the movie.
Khumalo keeps the diagnosis a secret for some time but ends up telling her husband who ends up beating her up. The film was also nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars in 2004.
In the dance segment, groups such as the energetic Thandanani Women’s Group, IYASA, School of African Awareness, Ama Afrika Aqotho, Hloseni Arts, and Amawumbo will entertain visitors to the festival. All dance shows will be held at the Small City Hall.
On the music front, South African maskandi exponent Maqhinga Radebe is expected to perform alongside Bulawayo musicians Albert Nyathi and Jeys Marabini.
The music shows will be held at the Large City Hall. The literary arts will see three competitions that will include a
short story for youths organised through schools in Bulawayo. A workshop for experienced writers chaired by a Welsh writer,
Owen Sheers, who will be brought to the festival by an arts organisation from that country, Wales Arts International, will
also be held.
REPORTS BY GIFT PHIRI