Amil Shivji
Directing
Biography
Amil Shivji is based in Tanzania, his homeland, as a freelance filmmaker and lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam. He believes in using images to challenge the powers that be, in particular deconstructing urban facades of development and emphasizing the strength and struggles of marginalized communities. He has set up an independent production house called Kijiweni Productions that is committed to telling local stories with an international standard. He has written, directed and produced a few short fiction films that have addressed issues ranging from corruption and land grabbing to a commentary on the growing class divide. They have received worldwide recognition, participating in prestigious festivals such as International Film Festival Rotterdam and FESPACO in Burkina Faso as well as picking up many accolades on the way including winning People's Choice Award in Zanzibar and Best Director and Best Short film in Africa. His debut as a feature film producer was with Aisha (2015) and has been screened in Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington, Tanga, Toronto, Singapore and picked up four awards at the ZIFF in July 2016. He released his directorial debut for a feature film called T-Junction (2017) that opened ZIFF 2017 and garnered three awards on the closing night. He is now in post- production on his latest feature, Vuta N'Kuvute (A Tug of War)- a story of love and resistance set in British colonial Zanzibar, 1950s.
Known For
A coming-of-age political love story set in the final years of British colonial Zanzibar. Denge, a young freedom fighter meets Yasmin, an Indian-Zanzibari woman in the middle of the night as she is on her way to be married. Passion and revolution escalate.
Tug of War
Tanzanian queer singer Tofa Jaxx in conversation with HIV/Trans activist Aunty Ali, exploring issues of sex work, gender and being out.
Call Me Uncle
After the passing of her estranged father, Fatima makes an unlikely friend at a hospital, Maria. Bound by pain, Fatima keeps coming back to hear Maria's tale of the T-junction where she found love and loss in a ragtag community.
T-Junction
Set in a busy street of Dar es Salaam, a shoeshine boy offers us a conscious and subconscious perspective of the space and people of his city ranging from the local politician to University students as well as the neighbor tea maker. This short-film is both a social commentary and an artistic depiction of the life, aspirations and perspectives of a working child.
Shoeshine
Mozizi, a female anthropomorphic character (half Anopheles mosquito, half human) is on a quest to find a new ‘home’ after her breeding grounds have been destroyed by fumigation. She takes us through her day as she trounces through the urban scape of Dar es Salaam with a housing agent.
Mozizi
This film follows John Kitime, a Tanzanian musician now in his 60s, as he sets out on a mission to put together an all-star band from the old days to revive the classic sound of Zilipendwa music. Along the way, he meets the people who played key roles in the music scene of Tanzania during the struggle for independence and the nation's formative years under the first president, Julius K. Nyerere. As Kitime plays with the band, spends time with musicians and digitizes reel-to-reel tapes from the 1960s and '70s, he reveals a fascinating and little-known story about the power of music to bring together a people and a nation.