Veteran filmmaker Shemu Joyah’s short film Strike A Blow and Die, which tells the story of one of the country’s freedom fighters, Reverend John Chilembwe, failed to claim the Efere Ozako Award for Best Short Film on Saturday at the Africa Movie Academy Awards (Amaa).
The event was held in Nigeria, where The Last Shoemaker from Uganda claimed the award.
Apart from Strike A Blow and Die, some of the films that were nominated in the category include Seben from Mali, Dear Future Wife from South Africa, Isolated from Nigeria, Jolie from Angola, Don’t Call Me Beautiful from Ghana and Sins of a Father from Zimbabwe.
“We would have loved to win it for Malawi but it has not been the case. It was still a great honour to get nominated,” the award-winning filmmaker said.
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Apart from the Efere Ozako for Best Short Film Award, Several awards were given out and they included Best Film, which went to The Weekend.
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Recently, Joyah said Strike A Blow and Die will be accessed on iPlus streaming platform.
Strike A Blow and Die is a rough cut where Joyah only took two scenes off the yet-to-be-produced Chilembwe feature film and it runs for less than 15 minutes.
The short film, produced using funds from Copyright Society of Malawi through the Copyright Fund, has two scenes of young John Chilembwe in 1891.
According to Joyah, the current budget for the full Chilembwe feature film is $3.5 million (approximately K6 billion).
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FirstDawn Arts has said that it is working with three budgets for the film, which is curated in US dollars.
“If we are going to do it the way we want it done, $3.5 million is the first budget at the current rate,” he said recently.
