By Panashe Kaseke
Matamba Film Lab has made a groundbreaking stride toward women’s inclusion in Virtual Reality (VR), showcasing their innovative approach at this year’s Shoko Festival.
Matamba Film Lab, a Zimbabwean registered New-Media startup, aims to empower a new generation of women filmmakers and storytellers, providing them with the tools to tell authentic Zimbabwean and African stories through new media.
During her presentation, Siza Mukwedini, the creative director of Matamba Film Lab, highlighted the numerous barriers that women face in creating content and participating in VR.
“These challenges include a lack of resources, role models, and support, which have hindered women’s engagement in the rapidly evolving world of virtual reality,” she stated.
She also provided solutions for bridging this gap by encouraging young women to get involved in VR and offering practical exposure by giving everyone at the event the chance to use Matamba Film Lab’s VR gadgets and experience this new way of storytelling.
She also expressed her excitement for being part of the festival.
“It was such an honor to work with this year’s edition of Shoko Festival, which included audiences from both sides of Samora. Our core mission at Matamba Film Lab is to break technological barriers that prevent people from accessing new media. We demonstrated that regardless of your age or gender, you are welcome to work with us and produce content of this caliber.”
She further emphasized the importance of women being at the forefront of content creation.
“If we don’t create the stories and characters we want to see, others will do it for us with distorted views of what women or people from different parts of Zimbabwe should look like. We were thrilled by the engagement from young people at the festival who were eager to learn more,” she said.
Matamba Film Lab was featured at The Hub UnConference, hosted at Shoko Festival, an event focused on digital media, civic tech, and the creative economy. The event featured a series of engaging fireside chats, panel discussions, showcases, and masterclasses, featuring a lineup of notable local and international speakers, including Kenyan comic Justine Wanda, Senegalese musician Xuman, Dr. Millie Phiri from Conversation Africa, Antonio Kisemboi from Media-Challenge Initiative Hub (Uganda), and Zimbabwean academic Professor Nehemiah Chivandikwa, among others.
Matamba Film Lab’s participation in this year’s Hub UnConference further cemented its role as a leader in new media storytelling, working to amplify the voices of women in a rapidly changing industry.
As Zimbabwe gears up for a more inclusive and technologically driven future, initiatives like Matamba Film Lab offer a beacon of hope for the next generation of female storytellers.
