‘SAVING CHALO’ premiered by Emmanuel Mwape

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By Derrick Sinjela

Tricenarian Emmanuel Mwape ‘Chungu’ (EMC)  is a 30-year-old Zambian film-maker born on Monday 18th March, 1991 and currently a Scholar of the Tobacco Harm Reduction a project funded by Knowledge Action Change,  a health promotion agency that focuses on harm reduction as a key Public Health Strategy (PHS).

As a tricenarian, a person between 30 and 39, Mwape or EMC is a MultiChoice Zambia Talent

Factory Alumni and multi-award winning film-maker with diverse experience in the production of fiction and non-fiction films.

An accomplished filmmaker ion his own right, Mwape recently produced a short film titled ‘Saving Chalo’ literally translated as Saving Mother Earth (Chalo) which premiered at the Numetro Cinemas in Lusaka, Zambia’s metropolitan capital city.

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This short film is a video advocacy project about Justina who loses her husband to cancer, ultimately depicts the widow setting up a local cooperative centre selling safer tobacco harm reduction products but has eventually to face local business cigarette sellers, whose merchadize is harmful to smokers, secondary smokers and the general environment.

The project uses digital storytelling to amplify unheard narratives and foster conversations and training on tobacco harm reduction, a feat that will ultimately cheer Centre for Primary Care Research (CPCR) Director Professor Fastone Goma and Zambia Network Against Tobacco (ZAMNAT) Chaiperson Ms. Paxina Phiri.

Through engaging with relevant stakeholders in colleges, communities, and bars, a smoke-free environment is envisaged and by creating an exit survey at the end of each screening enables Mwape to identify changes in knowledge and understanding of tobacco harm reduction as a result of viewing the film.

The film will also be uploaded on various media platforms, distributed to the press, local television stations, and to online forums.

The aim of Mwape’s project is to use film as a tool to examine the harms of tobacco and explore the options that are available to people for the safer usage of nicotine.

Mwape is a well-known for the production of a feature film ‘SAUL’, an award winning short ‘Zambian Cab’ and Zambia’s most travelled short film to International festivals called ‘Sex’ among his recent works is ‘The Painting’, an Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) nominated film and ‘Uncle Limbani’ drama series, in which he took the role of Director of Photography, both commissioned produced by M-Net (an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network) is a South African pay television channel established by Naspers in 1986.

Mwape’s movies have mainly been themed on urban crimes, social problems and beliefs.

Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards is an annual accolade presented by Multichoice recognizing outstanding achievement in television and film. The inaugural Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards ceremony was held in Lagos, Lagos State in Nigeria on Saturday 9th March, 2013, and was broadcast live in more than 50 countries.

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