Zanzibar International Film Festival

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a ‘lil bit of a TV junkie…and seeing as there is no TV to be had on this lovely island, imagine my excitement at an INTERNATIONAL Film Festival!! (After all, it’s not a huge leap from TV to film…ya? ;) I figured I’d make believe I was at Cannes, or at least Sundance, or, barring that, Telluride…and surely I’d rub shoulders (or share breathing room) with at least one celeb…right?!?! At the very least, we’d see a few movies, before most of the rest of the world got to see them. So we excitedly Googled everything we could about ZIFF and planned to stay in Stone Town the two weekends of the festival to ensure we didn’t miss any of the fun…Woop!! We pored excitedly over the program – @500 Tanzanian shillings/~USD$0.31, splurged for two (gotta think about scrap-booking…), and mentally noted which films we [thought we] wanted to see. As it happened, one of Stephanie’s and my professors was visiting – partly to make sure that we were actually working at the hospital, and not just living it up in Stone Town – so we got to share part of this exciting experience with her and her daughter.

I was especially proud of two Kenyan films (and they even won awards…yay!) – Nairobi Half Life & Ni Sisi – both a realistic depiction of lives one may live in Nairobi/Kenya. Sadly, we didn’t get to see quite as many films as I/we envisioned, but Maggie, Steph, and I did get to see one awesomely bad film…which we will never ever EVER forget. It’s been a few weeks, but we still talk/wonder about it occasionally…usually when some aspect of life in Stone Town is so puzzling, that the only thing we can relate it to is the film. I guess, in the big scheme of things, it was worth every bit of our time and free entry in that it still entertains every once in a while as we try to decipher the (or any) point of the story. Maybe it will be available on NetFlix someday, so y’all can watch it too!

ZIFF verdict: I’m glad I got to experience an actual film festival, but I still wanna go to Cannes…or Sundance…or Telluride…or a movie theater…. Heck…I’d settle for a teensy, tiny, handheld, battery-operated TV at this point – even one that only worked at the beach. Or, just a radio. Even if it just had baseball…. :-/