After a string of awards and a strong festival run, the dramatic film ‘Shaina’ is set to arrive on Netflix Africa on November 29th earning an important spot in the streamer’s growing portfolio of African movies.
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In the movie, a group of teenagers struggle to find hope after a tragic death. As parents and adults in the community fail them, they must work together to survive and build new lives.
‘Shaina’ has been officially selected at 15 festivals around the world from Durban to Zanzibar to Seattle. At the African Movie Academy Awards in Lagos, Nigeria, Wilmah Munemera (who plays Shine) won the Best Young Actor Award and Beautie Masvaure Alt was nominated for Best First Feature Film Director. Beautie was again nominated for Best First Feature Film Director at the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) in LA. ‘Shaina’ also won an Audience Award at the New African Film Festival in New York City, Best International Film at the Portland Film Festival, and was nominated for the prestigious Peabody Award.
“We’re honoured to continue building the number of African productions on Netflix Africa. The world now recognizes Africa as a major creative centre and the wide array of talent that exists on our continent,” says Executive Producer and Creative Director of Quizzical Pictures, Harriet Gavshon.
Production
Directed by Beautie Masvaure Alt and written by Wanisai Chigwendere, ‘Shaina’ was produced by Quizzical Pictures, one of the continent’s leading production houses and Impact(Ed) International. ‘Shaina’ brings together unique collection of fresh on-screen talent including Wilmah Munemera, Tinodiwanashe Chitima, Gamu Mukwakwami, Tarumbidzwa Chirume, Tadiwanashe Tsitsi Marowa, and Fadzai Simango alongside well-established talent from Zimbabwe in the likes of Jesesi Mungoshi, Leroy Gopal, Eddy Sandifolo, Marian Kunonga, and Charmaine Mujeri.
“It was an exciting, challenging and rewarding experience to tackle my first feature, telling a story deeply rooted in my home country. I really wanted to highlight the point of view of these young characters, to show the strength and ingenuity needed for these girls and boys to reach for their dreams against overwhelming odds.
This is the story of young people in today’s Africa and I wanted the story-telling and visual style to portray that. Every frame, every line had to be authentic to a young audience. I hope my vision for this film will leave a lasting impression,” says Director Beautie Masvaure Alt.
“Shaina takes a bold stand against gender-based violence by shining a light on young people taking on traditional power structures – taking it upon themselves to create a world in which they want to live,” says Aric Noboa, Executive Producer with Impact(Ed) International.
Impact(Ed) International:
Through entertaining movies, television, and other media, Impact(Ed) creates measurable change and engages tens of millions of people around education, life skills, gender equity, the environment, and public health. Established by Discovery (now Warner Bros. Discovery), Impact(Ed) works across genres and platforms to entertain while creating lasting change at an individual and societal level.
Quizzical Pictures
Quizzical Pictures is one of South Africa’s leading film and television production houses. A black-owned company (level 2 BBBEE) with thirty years of experience, Quizzical is recognised for the quality of its productions, its attention to detail, finding new talent and a commitment to telling resonant and relevant stories.
Its reel includes hit shows like Intersexions, Heartlines, Masterchef, Rhythm City, A Country Imagined, presented by Johnny Clegg, Savage Beauty and iNumber Number Jozi Gold on Netflix, Reyka, Desert Rose, and Hartklop, the first Afrikaans medical drama on KykNet.
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