Yvonne Cherrie (Monalisa), I started acting in 1998.
The film industry in Tanzania has evolved tremendously and a lot of artists have earned a living from the industry.
However the industry is grappling with a lot of challenges, and these have to be addressed if the country’s film industry is to compete favourably in the market.
Who’s who Tanzania spoke to two of the leading stakeholders
Yvonne Cherrie (Monalisa) about the film industry in Tanzania, and here are their excerpt.
When I started acting in 1998, there was no regulator in the film industry as Tanzania Film Corporation (TFC) was not strong enough to regulate the products from the film industry.
When we started, it was just acting TV series, but the public responded very well with our shows which encouraged us a lot.
There were very few TV stations and few entertainment shows but with the public response, we opted to do a movie. Girlfriend (2002) was the first film that I can say revolutionized the film industry in Tanzania.
After the movie, “Girlfriend”, the industry took a new stride with new movies and upcoming artists all over Tanzania.
After a decade or so, the film industry is still growing big. More than 10 films enter the market on a weekly basis.
The numbers of producers, directors and other stakeholders have also increased.
This growth has led us to collaborate and invite our friends from Nollywood (Nigeria) and Ghallywood (Ghana), which actually is a major milestone in the industry.
I always tell my friends that I am happy to be one of the veteran actors in this industry in Tanzania, and also to be a model that has encouraged many young talented girls to like the industry and join it.
We however have a number of challenges in the industry. Our budgets are too small to meet the actual requirements of the film production. Besides the funding is still little or even uncoming.
The other problem is of our distributors; we have very few distributors and the existing ones are the ones enjoying on our sweat. Film pirating is another problem. There are many pirates than the distributors; this may be caused by the demand of the last consumer. Also the copyright and other legal issues are not that strong to protect the work of the artist.
Location of the site or shooting areas like courts, prison and others are also hard to be accessed. Producers don’t have enough funds to set sites like these. If it was possible to have areas of this kind, I believe we could have better films.
It is my view that if the government could come in and support this industry it could become a marketing hub for our country.
We have so many unique cultures, language and lots to show to the world through our movie production.
Besides, it is a source of employment for the many talented Tanzanians like any other sectors.
