Strike A Blow and Die, a short film by veteran film producer Shemu Joyah, has been nominated at the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) 2024.
In an interview on Thursday, he expressed his gratitude for the nomination, saying it will help in fundraising for the John Chilembwe’s full film.
“This is very exciting to me and the whole team because it shows that our efforts were not in vain,” said Joyah.
He said the movie is a short film, Strike a Blow and Die, has two scenes of the young John Chilembwe in 1891 and was shot as a promo for the full film.
“Actually, this short film was short so that it should be used as part of the fundraising. We will soon start a campaign to raise funds here in Malawi and abroad. We think that this nomination will help to bring credibility to our efforts to produce the full John Chilembwe film,” said Joyah.
He also expressed gratitude to the Copyright Society of Malawi (COSOMA) for funding the short film.
According to COSOMA’s Copyright Fund manager Blessings Botha, the fund was established under Section 98 of the Copyright Act (Cap. 49:03) for the enforcement of the Copyright law, promotion and improvement of creativity and artistic skills, promotion and preservation of works which depict a cultural identity of Malawi and civic education.
He said the nomination of Joyah’s movie is a testament which underlines the objective of the fund which seeks to set up a support mechanism for cultural industries in Malawi to boost creativity and productivity.
Strike a Blow and Die has been nominated alongside other seven movies from across the African continent.
The other movies are The Last Shoe Maker (Uganda), SEBEN (Mali), Dear Future Wife (South Africa), Isolated (Nigeria), Jolie (Angola), Don’t Call Me Beautiful (Ghana) and Sins of A Father (Zimbabwe/US).
The 2024 AMAA ceremony will take place on 2 November in Nigeria.
