Award-winning filmmaker Shemu Joyah on Friday dared journalism students to rise to the occasion and take an interest in writing stories that are authentic, creative and bring about change in society.
Speaking at the launch of Storylab at Mubas in Blantyre, which is a hub spearheaded by the Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Joyah hailed Mubas for creating such a platform.
“There are lots of stories out there that need to be told and are yet to be told but there is a need to tell these stories better. I am happy that Storylab has been created and we, as a country, really need to invest in storytelling for social change,” he said.
At the event, Joyah, who was the guest of honour, took time out to share storytelling techniques he uses in filmmaking and went on to give examples of some of the scenes in one of his award-winning movies—The Last Fishing Boat.
Joyah was attending the event fresh from getting a nomination in the Africa Movie Academy Awards (Amaa) for Best Short Film for his film titled Strike A Blow and Die, which tells the story of one of the country’s freedom fighters Reverend John Chilembwe.
The veteran filmmaker also took time out to share some of the details of the movie and how he fashioned it, having received funds from Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma) through the Copyright Fund.
Through the short film, Joyah is seeking more support to create of full movie of Chilembwe, a project that has a huge budget with millions of Kwacha needed.
Programme coordinator Andrew Kaponya, who is also a lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies, said they were excited to launch Storylab, stressing that it was an outreach programme that aims to develop skills among journalism, media studies and communication students and practitioners.
“The students are ready to go out there and tell these stories; stories that have not been told. We will also connect [them] with practitioners out there,” Kaponya said.
The launch was spiced up by poetry, which was served by students, and storytelling—offered by veteran broadcaster, poet and actor Deus Sandram.
The event, at which officials also announced the resurgence of Journalism Students Society, was attended by the department’s head Jolly Ntaba and ethno-musician Waliko Makhala.
