ZIFF Reports on John Da Silva

Submission Information & Procedure

Zanzibar International Film Festival              June 29 to July 7, 2013

Submission Information & Procedure:

About ZIFF:  

The Zanzibar International Film Festival is the largest multi disciplinary art and cultural festival in Africa dedicated to the exhibition of films, music, Panorama.  Each year ZIFF exhibits more than 150 films made in Africa, Middle East, Europe, Latin America, USA and Asia. The 16^th Annual ZIFF will take place June 29^th to July 7^th 2013 in Stone town, Zanzibar. The theme of the Festival is Global Images Meet in Zanzibar.

DEADLINE LOOMING- 10 DAYS TO GO. 

We accept narrative and documentary features and shorts, as well as music videos.

You can submit through http://www.ziff.or.tz/submission-information-procedure-0
ZIFF is poud of its history as a launchpad for new and independent films.

You are our next finding!     JOHN DA SILVA IS NO MORE! 

JOHN DA SILVA

ZIFF mourns the passing today of one of Zanzibar's favourite sons- John Da Silva.

Awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 by ZIFF the late John Da Silva was lauded for his activism and care in conservation.

John Da Silva was one of the most prolific and acclaimed artists of Zanzibar and Tanzania in general. He was born in Goa and found his love for art when he fell in love with Stone Town. Later he said “I never went to an art class but I just wanted to keep the memory of Zanzibar forever”. Starting with painting and re- the Catholic Cathedral in Zanzibar, he moved on to sketching, drawing and painting the one love of his life- Stone Town. He has immortalized Stone Town through making art lovers encounter the present and the past in his furtive water colours.

Ulale Pema Peponi Ndugu yetu John Da Silva. SEMBENE OUSMANE PRIZE AT ZIFF 

For yet another year the Germany International Cooperation Agency is sponsoring the prestigious Sembene Ousmane Films for Development Prize at ZIFF.
Awarded $5000 the Prize celebrates the role of film communication in education , aesthetic and ethics in African society.

Please submit your film through: http://www.ziff.or.tz/submission-information-procedure-0

TARRUS RILEY AND JAH CURE FOR ZIFF 2013? 

As we go to press it is whispered that Tarrus Riley and Jah Cure, the top Jamaican Reggae artists are in this year's ZIFF artists list.
What a coup it would be if this were to happen!

WATCH THIS SPACE!

WOODSTOCK IN TIMBUKTU AT ZIFF 2013 

One of the films to watch out for at ZIFF 2013 is the stunning and hard hitting Woodstock in Timbuktu!
"Woodstock in Timbuktu – the art of resistance” is a feature length documentary (86min) about a music festival in the Sahara – the nomadic culture and way of life.
ZIFF is proud to be associated with films of such social and aesthetic strength.
  
Ngome Kongwe
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ZANZIBAR
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Zanzibar: John da Silva – Artist and Conservationist

3 Jan: Der Spiegel (Germany).  Zanzibar has a turbulent past. John da Silva is concerned about its future … He has lived there for more than 60 years having arrived there from Goa. He knew the last Sultan for whom his father made clothes. He became an artist, toured Europe and became one of the most famous residents of the island. “Tourism has corrupted the youth. Nobody now wants a real job,” he says … 1158 words. For the German original click here. [Ed: Two years ago I was on a cruise that included a two day visit to Zanzibar. Having heard of the legendary John da Silva, I rounded up a few of my fellow passengers to help to track him down and prevail on him to give us a guided tour of the Stone Town. It was by far the most memorable guided tour I have ever had. The photograph is one I took of him]

Zanzibar: prefabricated in paradise

Gordon Repinski

Island of Slaves, Sultan Empire and socialist reality - Zanzibar has a colourful past. 

Today, more and more tourists and investors discover the spice island in the Indian Ocean. 

John da Silva, artists and preservationists makes worrying about the future.

The morning sun burns on the skin. The turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean reflects the majestic tower of "House of Wonders", the most striking building of Zanzibar town. A dhow, a fishing boat with a large sail handgeknüpftem crosses the horizon. John da Silva is on the beach, pointing to the ship ". They come straight from the fish" His long gray beard moves in the light sea breeze. Over 60 years ago John came with his father from Goa in India in the capital of Zanzibar. As a child he has never seen the last Sultan, the father of tailored clothes.John began working as an artist, painting with water colours, toured Europe and became one of the most famous residents of the island paradise. Today, he is worried about the

future of Zanzibar. "Tourism has corrupted the youth. Nobody

goes more for a real job."

Those who visit Zanzibar, located just geographically in Africa. The archipelago off the coast of Tanzania is a melting pot of many cultures, particularly evident are the influences from the Orient. A thousand years ago for the first time visited the Arabs main island of Unguja. In the 15th Century came the Portuguese, then the Persians. At the end of the 19th Century drove the business acumen, the Indians flock to Zanzibar.Today, in the narrow streets of Stone Town meet Arab ministers and Indian business people. Hawkers come from mainland Tanzania to sell wood carvings and lacquer paintings or offer mango, papaya, banana and pineapple.

The Stone Town is a World Cultural Heritage

John da Silva turns his camera on a house in the city centre, which was prepared for tourists. "Look at this! They just demolished the old balcony and replaced. Crooks are!" For seven years, Stone Town, with its stone houses and wooden balconies playful World Heritage Site by Unesco."Here in the place nobody cares about. People see only the quick money they can earn from the tourists."

John will not sit idly by as the historic buildings fall victim to the hotel boom. The photos he makes in order to document the depletion of the centuries-old substance and to draw attention. From every place, every street, every corner, he has also painted over the years pictures. Now he makes of this now historic motifs in London print postcards and sell in Zanzibar. "I want people to see the maps and ask - Where is the left who has destroyed it?"

In his apartment in an old house in an Arabian style John lives with his nieces Zita, Francine and the little step-son Kyle. The intricate carvings on the doors are reminiscent of the high culture of the Omanis, already in the 17th Century houses of this type were built. Children's dreams are more reminiscent of worldly things: Zita is 16 years old and wants to be a stewardess, the 14-year-old Francine would love to dance like Jennifer Lopez, and the four-year Kyle sees his future as Spiderman. Between the old and the young painter John Zanzibaris are felt more than two generations.

Stable walls, lots of room

A few hundred meters from the World Heritage Old Town, on the outskirts of the capital start-drab prefab settlements. Tanzania was in the sixties and seventies politicized by "African socialism" of the President and peace mediator Julius Nyerere. And so the aid was in the Cold War, especially from the fraternal socialist countries. What is now left of it are residential buildings, as they could also be in Berlin-Marzahn - apart from the massive palm trees in front.

In one of the buildings of the 30-year Bino lives with his family. The interior of his apartment is sparse. Individual pieces of furniture, an old mattress in the bedroom, in the bathroom sink, which looks as if it no longer works for a long time. He is happy. "The apartments are good, there is a toilet, stable walls, lots of room." His father is Italian. He once came as guest workers to Zanzibar to help in the construction of the airport road. Bino does not know him. After the end of the job he left the island again, leaving behind his children and their mother. Doing odd jobs Bino tried to feed them, and his own children. "It's hard," he says. "I worked as a tour guide, but now the company is bankrupt." He has not lost his smile.

The minibus Dalla Dalla to Nungwi, Zanzibar in the tourist center in the north of the island, costs 1500 shillings. That is about 90 cents for 45 km ride in a vehicle, the cargo area was provided with a roof and converted into a passenger transport. You sit opposite each other on two benches, in the hour and a half drive is always full and close, each comes with. At the end of the trip, three young men hanging outside on the roof, inside women sit next to boys with burqa schnatterndem fowl on her lap.

Still lack the infrastructure

Nungwi holiday dreams fulfilled all its visitors. Here you will find white sandy beaches, clear blue sea, palm trees, rocks and shells. In the high season, from December to February, you see more whites than blacks in the very tip of the island. From time to Masai walk on the beach and down. "Off the coast are some of the most beautiful reefs in the world," says Peter from Ireland. He knows what he's talking about. His girlfriend works in Sudan, he found a job as an instructor in Zanzibar. Previously he has worked in Asia - at least they are now on the same continent.

After only a few weeks in Zanzibar remarked Peter differences to South-East Asia: Despite the many hotel complexes that arise anywhere noisy, growing infrastructure not here. The only road to the north was only recently paved. "We have in the diving school is still no running water," he complained, pointing to the roof of the house. Where rain is collected and stored in a makeshift tank. Without the rain, there are also no running water.

A few steps along the beach, behind one of the many construction sites, are the Baraka Bungalows. Ali sits in his chair and stares at the radio that droning softly. "Every year it is more a hotel. Now they have to build five-star facilities." Ali was born in Nungwi, today he is 50 years old. In 1996 he was one of the first to let rooms to tourists. With only a single log cabin he had started. Then burned down the whole plot, Ali started again from scratch and build everything up again. Today large hotel projects threaten its existence.

In Stone Town John Da Silva has now got a new card shipment sent from London. He sorted the different motives. It is also one of the seventies.Before the old houses you can see a street musician with flared trousers."This is my favourite subject. At the time, the best time here."