The film industry is yet to get there in the country but positive steps are being undertaken by filmmakers as observed by a number of movies on the market, some of which have gone on to earn nominations on the international stage.
Recently veteran filmmaker Shemu Joyah excited the country when his short film, ‘Strike A Blow and Die’, which tells the story of one of the freedom fighters Reverend John Chilembwe, got a nomination in the 2024 Africa Movie Academy Awards (Amaa).
This is short film which only has two scenes off the full feature movie which had a big budget to be finished.
In most cases, we talk about actors and directors when it comes to fil making and yet there are other equally important players, who are in the background.
One of such is make-up artists, who add special effects to films. In their creative strides, these make-up artists for instance fashion wounds on a body of a person using their techniques.
There were not enough make-up artists in Malawi that specialised in make-up for films in the past years but the trend has changed now where the market has a good number of make-up artists nourishing the film industry.
Blantyre-based Memory Nkata Black is one of them and in recent years, she has established herself as among the top make-up artists that are serving the film industry.
In her walks, she has done make-up for several films including award-winning movies, ‘Seasons of A Life’ by Joyah and ‘All We Have is Us’ by Ashukile Mwakisulu.
Although she pursued beauty therapy, which has a module of make-up, Nkata Black describes herself as a self-taught artist when it comes to make-up for films.
Born in Likuni in Lilongwe, Black, who is married and has three children, is the third born in a family of five children.
Growing up, Nkata Black never envisaged that she would be a beauty therapist but she embraced it with time and now she is so passionate about it.
Her beauty therapy modules she learnt consisted of make-up, massage and anything about beauty.
“I am also an entrepreneur because I am also engaged in other businesses but make-up is something I revere,” she said adding that it was all about make-up but she has had to bring in special effects over the way.
Before she ventured into beauty therapy, Nkata Black started acting in 2001 while residing in Zingwangwa, Blantyre.
“At that time we used to go to Blantyre Youth Centre. I joined a youth group known as Afro Lifestyles and we used to do different programmes including producing adverts and that is when my passion for acting grew,” she said.
Having gained the much needed experience and exposure, Nkata Black joined Wakhumbata Ensemble Theatre where she got exposed to stage drama.
“I love stage drama but I was not comfortable and so, I shifted a bit to concentrate on radio plays and I recall we managed to produce plays like ‘Sizobisa’ and ‘Focal Point’,” Nkata Black said.
Having had spells doing radio plays, the make-up artist then found prospects in the film industry as she went on to audition for Joyah’s ‘Seasons of A Life’.
This turned out to be a breakthrough for her in the film industry as she found herself being invited by Joyah to do make-up in his movie.
“This time, I had started school, I was doing beauty therapy but it was general make-up. In fact Shemu Joyah asked me if I could do make-up for his movie ‘The Road to Sunrise’, it was a challenge as I was not familiar especially with make-up for films,” she said.
But the make-up artist challenged herself to partake in it and so from here, she started exploring make-up art for film through watching videos and reading.
“I got a lot of information online as regards make-up art for filmmaking and this is where I mastered some tricks. I went on to do make-up for Shemu Joyah’s film which collected five nominations during Africa Movie Academy Awards (Amaa) and make-up was one of the categories that got a nomination,” she said.
Since then Nkata Black has never looked back and has gone on to do make-up in different film projects including Mwakisulu’s ‘All We Have is Us’ and ‘Souvenir’ by Flora Suya.
“I cannot remember some of the films and projects but I have done quite a lot,” she said.
When she is watching films particularly Hollywood, she gets amazed at how make-up is utilised.
“I try as much as possible to learn new things when I am watching movies. I normally watch films that challenge me, films that contain special effects in terms of make-up,” she said.
Nkata Black said the country needs to revisit its beauty therapy modules and breathe in make-up for films.
“This is not taught and all what is there on the ground is general make-up for weddings which does not go beyond such things like creating effects,” she said.
Today Nkata Black can create anything you can talk of through the skills she has learnt online and that she believes she has more room for improvement.
But what are some of the challenges that are there in make-up for filmmaking?
“Most of the materials I improvise because we do not have them in the country. If you are to get the materials then you have to order from outside,” she said.
The make-up artist said the industry is not valued and that it is overlooked.
“When you are called for assignments, payment is not satisfying and there is little in terms of creativity on our part because there is little action or no action at all. Most of the films or even music videos, it is straight forward drama and so, there is no challenge at all,” she said.
She however looks ahead with hope saying with time things will improve and that make-up artist will be given more opportunities to practice their trade.
And so for Nkata Black, the sky is the limit and that Malawi has what it takes to excel in make-up art for films.
