Saving the world, from Zambia

Emmanuel Mwape (Lusaka, 1991) is an award-winning Zambian   filmmaker and cinematographer for producing fiction and non-fiction films in his native country and abroad. With its own identity and an interesting aesthetic subject, his productions revolve around urban, social, community issues and collective beliefs with powerful and poetic tones almost saturated with human gestures.

Emmanuel is also an academic in the Tobacco Harm Reduction Program at Knowledge Action Change, whose scholarship provided him with producing his latest short film, “Saving Chalo,” which premiered on November 27. We spoke with Emmanuel via WhatsApp.

The Vaping Today : What’s Saving Chalo all about?

Emmanuel Mwape :  Chalo is a word in our local language that means “world”; and “Saving Chalo” can be translated exactly as “Saving the world”.  It is a short film project that focuses on the character Justina, who lost her husband to cancer due to smoking cigarettes, and who now wants to save the community by introducing safer nicotine products through her cooperative. It is a fictional film that uses visual storytelling to amplify unheard narratives and to encourage conversations and training about tobacco harm reduction.