By Twimepoki Mangani & Monica Tambala
Lilongwe, Mana:Highbrow, a Malawian movie on the 2013 Cash gate scandal has made it to Showmax; a high-profile streaming platform for various movies and series.
Speaking to Malawi News Agency (MANA) Producer of Highbrow, Chawezi ‘Chaz’ Munthali who is based in Atlanta, America, has commended the movie as one of his greatest achievements that will inspire many others in the Malawian film industry.
“I am very excited about it because it will encourage many actors, writers and directors as well as help the film industry blossom.The biggest highlight of the movie is that it debuted in the top twenty when so many other movies and serieslike power by 50 Cent came out that week,”
“When the movie came out, we took it to different cities in England, USA to Blantyre and Lilongwe.Depending on the contract we have with Showmax, we shall see if one day we can bring it to the televisions in Malawi because not everybody has Showmax or m-net. At the moment I am working on another movie called Misnomer inspired by the killing of peoplewith albinism in Malawi,” He said
In a separate interview, Essim, one of the Malawian videographers who shot Highbrow appreciates the progress being made by the industry.
“It is a great achievement to have my work on platforms like Showmax, it means as Malawi film industry we are going in the right direction. However, the equipment we are using is entry level for movie production, so to achieve good results we have to think outside the box and put in extra effort to maximise the little we have,” he said.
In agreement, President of Film Association of Malawi, Gift ‘Sukez’Sukali hailed the latest development sincethe world is going digital with content transitioning over the last two decades from tapes and Compact Disks to online platforms effective for preserving content.
“We have to be very proud; I would encourage Malawi to support the local movie industry. People should patronise movie screening events to encourage the actors,we are a young industry, lets continue striving and getmore films on Showmax,” he said.
Highbrow made it to M-net movies, which was the first one to buy it.
They were showing different movies from Africa, for a month whereas this contract with Showmax will run for 18 months making it one of the longest deals.
