‘President’ Filmmakers on Zimbabwe’s Ban of the Doc and Long Fight for Democracy
Danish filmmakers Camilla Nielsson and Signe Byrge Sorensen say the argument that their Sundance-winning documentary could "incite violence" is part of a wider crackdown on free speech in the African nation: "People are being thrown in prison for a tweet. It's pretty bad."
From her home in Copenhagen, Denmark, director Camilla Nielsson is fighting for justice. Justice in Zimbabwe.
The filmmaker has shot two acclaimed documentaries in the landlocked African nation: Democrats, which won the best documentary feature honor at Tribeca in 2015, and President, which premiered in Sundance in January, where it won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award.
The first looks at efforts by the opposition parties allied against long-serving dictator Robert Mugabe to reform the country’s constitution and push Zimbabwe towards democracy. Mugabe’s government banned it. Only in 2018, following Mugabe’s resignation and the election of former Mugabe supporter Emmerson Mnangagwa as the country’s new president, did the country’s courts lift the ban.
President follows that election, documenting the widespread fraud that accompanied it. The film contrasts the campaign of 79-year-old Mnangagwa, known by the moniker “the crocodile,” with that of opposition candidate Nelson Chamisa, 44, running on a promise of real political change.
But when the filmmakers submitted President to Zimbabwe’s censorship board, it banned the doc as well. The constitutional court recently upheld that ban, claiming the film has the potential “to incite violence” ahead of Zimbabwe’s presidential elections next year. President had its U.S. premiere on PBS’ award-winning documentary series POV on Aug. 8. Its future in Zimbabwe, like that of the country’s democratic movement, remains unclear though.
The ban on President follows the conviction of Zimbabwean journalist Jeffrey Moyo, a freelance correspondent for the New York Times who was given a suspended prison sentence of five years for allegedly breaking immigration laws by helping two international reporters obtain press accreditation needed to enter the country. The court ruled the accreditation was fake, a charge denied by the Times.
The Mnangagwa government has also come under fire for the ongoing trial of acclaimed Zimbabwean author and activist Tsitsi Dangarembga (This Mournable Body), who was charged with public incitement to violence, breach of the peace and bigotry in connection with her participation in an anti-government protest in 2020.
Nielsen and her President producer Signe Byrge Sørensen spoke to The Hollywood Reporter via video chat from Copenhagen on their decision to fight the ban, why freedom of speech is under attack in Zimbabwe, as well as their fears that Mnangagwa’s government, elected with the promise of bringing real democracy to the country, has turned towards brutal authoritarianism.