Zambian Women in Cinema, Visual Media and Screen Culture

Zambian Women in Cinema, Visual Media and Screen Culture

"You can make a difference" Musola Cathrine Kaseketi

Musola Cathrine Kaseketi, the first Zambian woman filmmaker, is recognized for her work in raising consciousness through cinema regarding people with disabilities. Musola, who also has a disability, founded Shungu Namutitima International Film Festival of Zambia (SHUNAFFoZ) in order to showcase, the capabilities of people and women in particular, with disabilities. Wanting to share her skills with aspiring filmmakers she established Vilole Images Production in 2002 whose aim is "to provide a platform for skills and knowledge enhancement, development and promotion of the film and television industry through training workshops throughout the year and hosting of a film festival each year that will screen products with various themes that contribute towards social change and improve livelihoods."

Having attended the Newtown Film and Television School in Johannesburg, which incorporates the empowerment of black women in its mission, she in turn has been mentor to other women. Jessie Chisi who was trained by Musola acquired filmmaking experience while working on her film Suwi. In 2015 at the Women of the Year Awards--designed to honor some in various fields who have made a contribution in shaping Zambia--she received the Woman of the Year in Film. She had this to say about receiving the award: "I was honoured amongst many other great women including the Honourable Inonge Wina, the first female vice president of Zambia, and also with two of my mentors, Dr. Tukiya K. Mabula, Deputy Governor at the Bank of Zambia, and the woman who taught me filmmaking Musola Cathrine Kaseketi. How cool can that be? Being honoured together with the women who you look up to?" A decade before in 2007, Musola was recognized at the Harare-based International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF), during which she received the Distinguished Woman of African Cinema Award at its inaugural reception. In 2013, Jessie Chisi founded the Zambia Short Film Fest to support emerging filmmakers. In 2022, she founded Zambian Women in Film to empower women's voices.

Like Jessie Chisi, women are aware of the important cultural exchange and support that the international experiences can provide. Because of the training and production opportunities outside of Zambia, women navigate in myriad locations, their home country always the point of departure. Seya Kitenge Fundafunda attended high school at the International School of Geneva, later enrolling in a film internship program in Helskinki, Finland. From these experiences she honed her filmmaking and organizing skills as director of a media company African Reel, whose mission is, to tell realistic African stories, to inspire, educate, motivate, challenge, as well as entertain the world in general and Africa in particular. Another project, Amka Arts Festival is a multi disciplinary arts festival whose main goal is to promote Zambian art and showcase its diverse culture. She had this to say about the empowerment of women: "Women are the major players in the development process and need to be empowered. Media is a powerful tool to educate women on issues that affect them, because what people see they believe and begin to practice." Rungano Nyoni, born in Zambia, emigrated to Wales at the age of nine. She directed several short films, and her first feature film, I am not a Witch, was selected at the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes.

Through the efforts of women in Zambia and the Diaspora, Musola Kaseketi's vision of her country continues to resonate: "Zambia is a nation filled with artists who have great potential in the area of acting and production."

These Zambian women are among the growing cohort of filmmakers and film activist who contribute to the vibrancy of a cinema culture in the country.

Report by Beti Ellerson

Links to articles on the African Women in Cinema Blog:

I Am Not A Witch by Rungano Nyoni (Zambia | Zambie)
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/02/fespaco-2019-i-am-not-witch-je-ne-suis.html

Jessie Chisi: Woman of the Year in Film Award
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2015/04/jessie-chisi-woman-of-year-in-film_15.html

Jessie Chisi talks about "Between Rings: The Esther Phiri Story" and her hopes for Zambian cinema
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/09/jessie-chisi-talks-about-between-rings.html

I Am Every Woman: Call for Entry View Special Images Film Festival 2012 (Zambia)
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2011/08/i-am-every-woman-call-for-entry-view.html

Rungano Nyoni: Mwansa the Great
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2011/11/rungano-nyoni-mwansa-great.html

A Conversation with Sam Kessie
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2011/05/conversation-with-sam-kessie.html

Musola Cathrine Kaseketi: You Can Make a Difference
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2011/03/musola-cathrine-kaseketi-you-can-make.html

Jessie Chisi: Woman of the Year in Film Award 2015 (Zambia)

Jessie Chisi had this to say to Beti Ellerson on winning the Woman of the Year in Film Award:

The Women of the Year Awards were designed to honour women in their various fields, who have made a contribution in shaping Zambia. On 10 April 2015, the Hotel Inter-Continental Grand Ball Room was packed with such women, the kind who I have seen on television or read about in the press. Women who have done so well and yet very little has been known or said about them. As each and every woman’s profile was read, one marvelled at how much they all had achieved in their own right, it felt like one had just discovered gold and how deeply it shines.

I am very honoured to be recognised as Woman of the Year in Film. I thank God because he made me come this far. I certainly did not imagine in a million years this could happen to me at my young age. For the first time I am as shocked as the persons who were not yet convinced that I could actually succeed in my career. I was honoured amongst many other great women including the Honourable Inonge Wina, the first female vice president of Zambia, and also with two of my mentors, Dr. Tukiya K. Mabula, Deputy Governor at the Bank of Zambia, and the woman who taught me filmmaking Musola Cathrine Kaseketi. How cool can that be? Being honoured together with the women who you look up to?

This award has come at the right time, to stir my drive even more and help me reach my desired goals. This award means a lot to me because it opens many possibilities for other young people and women. I think when young people like me are honoured; it inspires the nation and brings hope for others.

I now realise that persistence, consistency and simply being oneself garners immediate results towards one's success. Though my young career has had more setbacks than successes, there was never a day when I felt I should quit, and even in those short moments when I may have felt that way, I immediately returned to my goal. I do not regard myself as someone special or privileged. I do believe that whatever I have achieved to date has been a result of hard work, criticism and long hours of dreaming. Everyone must follow her or his intuition and talents and desire. The first sign of a successful career is to be at peace with whatever you are doing, with its thorns or roses. I have come to be confortable in what I do. It is a drive that does not seek attention but rather, it is a freedom of expression that cannot be marginalised by gender, culture or age.

Just to echo the voice of the founder of the Women of the Year Awards and Afro beats Karen Nakawela who said, “The first Women of the Year Awards, my dream to celebrate Zambian women, has come true and I am still dreaming. Let us do this every day, it is pointless to celebrate someone when they are dead. Let us show our women that we love them and appreciate their efforts. If we do not who will?”

These were such powerful words coming from the founder as she talked about what stirs her motivation. I just want to take this opportunity to celebrate Karen Nakawala for her efforts and her dream to put up such a great event that inspires others. I want to celebrate those nurses in hospitals that ensure lives are saved, I want to celebrate that single parent woman who has raised such amazing kids on her own, I want to celebrate the woman who sells tomatoes every day on the street to survive and help her family. I want to celebrate the woman that takes plight in helping others after the devastations of war. I want to celebrate my mother for giving birth to me. She would have been very proud to see the woman I have become. Rest in peace my queen.

Also see links on the African Women in Cinema Blog:

Jessie Chisi talks about "Between Rings: The Esther Phiri Story" and her hopes for Zambian cinema

Musola Cathrine Kaseketi: You Can Make a Difference

Jessie Chisi talks about "Between Rings: The Esther Phiri Story" and her hopes for Zambian cinema

Focus on Jessie Chisis

 

Updated text from the Zambia Short Fest - The Zambian Short Film Festival Facebook page, May 2025

Jessie Chisi holds a degree in Development Studies and a diploma in Film Studies, having trained in film in Finland. She is currently pursuing a further degree in film to deepen her craft. As a passionate filmmaker focused on African stories, her journey was shaped by attending the Durban Talent Campus (2009) and Berlinale Talent Campus (2010), which inspired her future work. In 2013, she founded the Zambia Short Film Fest to support emerging filmmakers. Her debut film, Between Rings (2014), co-directed with Salla Sorri, tells the story of her cousin Esther Phiri, Zambia's first female boxer, and premiered at the Copenhagen International Documentary Festival. Chisi also co-created Imagination (2016), directed Zambia's first telenovela Zuba (2018-2019), and produced socially impactful films including Remedy (2020) and Extracted: The People vs. Vedanta (2021). She was one of ten directors on Year Zero (2022), which premiered at Tribeca. In 2022, she founded Zambian Women in Film to amplify women's voices. In 2023, she worked on the impact film Faith is Fuel. She divides her time between Zambia and Switzerland. Jessie Chisi, who lives and works between Zambia and Finland, and is founder and director of the Zambia Short Film Festival, has recently completed the feature documentary, Between Rings: The Esther Phiri Story. She relates about her evolution and experiences in cinema.

Jessie what were your experiences with cinema while growing up in Zambia?

When I was growing up, cinema was like a luxury or fantasy, going there because it was a holiday or a special event in the family or as a reward for passing your exams.  Most of my childhood cinema memories were going to outdoor screenings that were set either in halls or under a plastic stall. I would often use money to pay for the entrance fee rather than for lunch. The films were always projected from a small screen but for me it was phenomenal, that excited me. I watched films such as Lion King, Chaplin and Good Fellas. One of the films that really left an impact on me was the South African apartheid story, Sarafina and stories like Shaka Zulu. I could relate to the pains and agonies of the people. Those stories were always with me. 

You are an emerging filmmaker, what inspired you to want to make films and what has been your learning process, training?

I started writing stories when I was twelve years old. In school I always did well in literature and storytelling, those subjects were my comfort zone; I would shine with them. But what inspired me to be a filmmaker was the fact that no one believed me and I wanted to prove them wrong. Everyone thought that I was a dreamer--filmmaking was a very lonely path for me. Who talks about being a film director at the age of sixteen, and breaths and thinks cinema in a country where at that time the industry was non-existence, barely starting? 

However I began the quest. I met the necessary people who inspired me. People like Cathrine Kaseketi who trained me for a long period; and also Sakafunya Chinyinka who was my mentor; he made me believe in myself. Filmmaking has been a process of inquiring, discovering, experiencing, developing and having fun. I started out as a continuity supervisor, which allowed me to grow, and it opened my eyes since I was constantly working close to the director on any given project. I worked on Karl Francis’ Hope Eternal as continuity supervisor, Cathrine Kaseketi’s Suwi, and Zambian Kitchen Party. As I was looking within to discover myself, I served under people who inspired and challenged me. To think ten years ago that I would have a film that is screened in a festival—it was a far-fetched dream.

You attended the Durban Talent Campus in 2009, what was that experience like?

This was an awesome experience. Actually it was from Durban that I really started believing in myself. I pitched a film for the first time and I made a very good impression. Though it was a project that I never got to make, in Durban I was able to meet talented people and well-established filmmakers, which was a breath of fresh air. I was very motivated, and from Durban I never looked back. I was very young then, outgoing and extremely ambitious, never believing in failure. Then in 2010 I was accepted at the Berlinale Talent Campus.

What did the Berlinale Talent Campus entail and what did you get from the experience?

It is a very competitive campus and I was selected with my project, Woman on Hold. It was among the 12 selected projects from over a thousand applicants.  At the Berlinale my project got the best pitch review and for the most promising film. I was more than humbled and I knew from then on that my journey to real professional filmmaking had begun. Being young, African and a woman, this industry is tough. I had to brace myself for challenges because I knew it would not get any easier; but I remained persistent, focused and consistent. Art is about consistency and managing your inner desires. In addition, while there I learned how the international markets work, and the question I always ask is “where is Africa in this? Can African cinema fit in? Can women filmmakers fit in? And my answer was yes. The world is slowly changing and it is embracing diversity: I strive to take my stories across the globe. So the experience for me in the campus was all about acquiring knowledge, networking and making lasting experiences. 

Your film Between Rings co-directed with Salla Sorri is about your cousin who is a champion female boxer. Did you decide to focus on her in order to follow her training and progress leading up to the 2012 Olympics?

Time flies, and the film has changed a lot. Originally called Woman on hold, the film is now titled Between Rings: The Esther Phiri Story. It is a story about my cousin Esther Phiri, the first-ever Zambian female boxer who was torn between marriage and career because she could not have both worlds as one conflicted with the other. Again those kinds of situations disturb me, first as a human being and second as a woman. I was intrigued and started asking questions like "why shouldn’t she be able to if she loves it?"

Esther’s story is one of a woman who always puts her life on hold to achieve the other thing and always remains empty within herself. She gives up her love for boxing and gives up boxing for her independence. 

You are now living in Finland, working there in film and visual media. What have been your experiences? 

I actually have lived for the past 5 years 50% of the time in Zambia and 50% in Finland. My experience of having a torn life in two different countries has made me more aware of who I am as an artist. I went to Finland to train in filmmaking on a scholarship organized for local Zambian filmmakers. During my training there I made a 22-minute short called Every woman knows. Oh, please don’t ask me, “why another woman story”. I am always around women who protest that women should tell their own stories. This movie was more of my discovery stage. The following year I directed Goodbye, about a woman dying of cancer and her son is waiting to say goodbye and she wants lip gross because her lips are dry, however, the son misses the moment to say good bye but he puts the gloss on her lips anyway. Unborn is a story about a woman who has to make a very critical decision in her life. Between keeping her newly-promoted career or her unborn child. I am actually releasing a second version of a similar situation but this time to be set in Zambia. I am always fascinated about women and their decision-making; how we always have to give up one thing in order to have something else.

What has been the reactions of the Finnish public to your work?

Most of the Finnish who see my short films say that I have a melancholic Finnish way of storytelling. I suppose it is because I now know the culture there. I have studied the people. I have connected with Euphoria Boralise, a Finnish film association with whom I have been doing projects. To me, Finland is a good place to write and to be inside oneself as an artist. The film industry is small, but it is big compared to Zambia.

You are founder and director of the Zambia Short Fest, which is a visible part of the Zambian cinemascape.

The project was born from the fact that Zambia has no film school, yet there is a lot of talent. The Zambia Short Fest wants to encourage rising talents and filmmakers to use short films as their school. We showcase shorts of 15 minutes or less. 2014 is our second edition and we are going to screen 60 films, sixty percent of which are Zambian films and 40% international. There is a three-week intensive film-training workshop prior to the film festival where 24 young Zambians are enrolled. The training is in co-operation with Euphoria Borealis and is funded by the Finnish film foreign ministry.

A Zambian cinema culture is emerging as a result of talented filmmakers like yourself. You have already created the Zambia Short Fest, how else would you like to contribute to its growth and success?

I love Zambia. Zambia has untapped stories and talents and I want to explore that. I have just finished making my first feature-length documentary and I am excited especially to see and hear what Zambian thinks about it. I want to see where this boxer’s story leads me. I am working with an amazing woman, Victoria Thomas who has been a great pillar. She is in charge of African and world distribution of the film. 

Interview with Jessie Chisi by Beti Ellerson, September 2014.

Links of interest:

Wanjiku wa Ngugi talks about the Helsinki African Film Festival