LATEST PRODUCTIONS AND PRODUCTIONS IN PROGRESS
'WILL = WAITING IN LIMBO + LONELY VIDEO INSTALLATION PRODUCTION'
"WILL = WAITING IN LIMBO + LONELY" is a powerful video installation project that unearths the emotional toll of navigating a hostile immigration system. Through this deeply personal and evocative work, I recount a harrowing year spent waiting for a work permit in a foreign land—a year defined by uncertainty, isolation, and near-severe depression.
Having endured the uncertainty of waiting for a permit as a student and later surviving the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself facing a similar abyss during my year-long battle for a work permit. "WILL" weaves these shared struggles into a universal story of resilience and the transformative power of art.
This installation transforms pain into purpose, using art as a cathartic medium to confront the systemic barriers faced by immigrants worldwide. Each frame is a visceral reflection of waiting, longing, and resilience, inviting viewers to step into the shoes of those trapped in the liminal space of rejection and survival.
The loneliness of this ordeal was acutely felt during the festive season. Spending Christmas and New Year’s in isolation, without the warmth of family or the joy of celebration, amplified the sense of being in limbo. This "Christmas in Limbo" became a stark metaphor for the immigrant’s experience—a time that should have been filled with hope and connection instead marked by solitude and waiting.
The Video Installation Art is now ready to be exhibited worldwide from the year 2025. Peter Mutanda, the designer, is an experienced visual artist, media lecturer, performance arts, and visual arts workshop facilitator. He shall be available for bookings beginning in 2025.
Technical Aspects of Stage Craft:
The stage for "WILL = WAITING IN LIMBO + LONELY" requires a setup with a floor area of 4m x 4m and a height of 3m. The projection design depends on the number of available projectors:
Minimum Setup with 2 Projectors:
Parts 1 and 2 of the installation will be projected on the same wall.
Part 3 will be screened on the floor or a designated bed structure.
Enhanced Setup with 3 Projectors:
Part 1 will be projected on the front wall.
Part 2 will be projected on either the right or left wall.
Part 3 will be screened on the floor or a designated bed structure.
The projectors shall be mounted in buckets about 2m high, ensuring optimal alignment and clarity. The lighting of the installation is designed to be 50% dim, creating an intimate and reflective atmosphere. Additionally, the audibility of the sound is vital to fully immerse the audience in the narrative and emotional depth of the installation.
This flexible configuration ensures an immersive experience, enveloping the audience in the story's emotional depth and visual impact.
Through "WILL," I not only tell my story but also shed light on the broader narrative of immigrant struggles, using art to heal, inspire, and provoke necessary conversations about humanity and belonging.
Key Themes:
The mental toll of waiting and isolation
The resilience of the human spirit
The transformative power of art as a coping mechanism
Step into this immersive experience and witness a journey of pain transformed into power, despair into hope.
Running Time: 25 mins (Designer shall be available for a Question and Session)
'HOUSE ARREST FILM PRODUCTION'
THE BACKGRAOUND
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), almost 1 billion people worldwide are suffering from mental disorders right now. 1 in 4 people will be affected by a mental illness in their lifetime. Depression and anxiety went up by 25% after Covid-19 pandemic. 14.3% of deaths or approximately 8 million deaths are attributable to mental disorders. Apparently with such heinous statistics, mental health challenge has now become a calamitous pandemic.
Mental health challenge is indeed a global epidemic which is so mysterious to many people. The challenge has also been definitely exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic which has incapacitated billions of people world over; especially vulnerable people’s livelihoods and ultimately their mental health has been badly affected. Hence the need to trigger a dialogue on such a difficult yet vital topic often referred or seen by numerous societies as a taboo or stigma.
In response, the Zimbabwean diasporan community based in Botswana who have also been directly or indirectly affected by some mental health challenges came together under the directorship of Bongani Moyo and Peter Mutanda to produce ‘House Arrest Film Production’. The cast members of the production are all untrained, so as the crew members are mostly untrained except of a few who are semi-skilled.
THE SYNOPSIS
House Arrest is a story set on the backdrop of Ganda family. Mr. Edmond Ganda is a recovering alcoholic, Soneni was Mr. Ganda’s wife, she committed suicide at the hands of Edmond’s abuse due to alcohol misuse. Chiedza is their daughter; she witnessed all her mother’s monstruous abuse and eventually her suicide at first hand. Now she bares all the burden of living with this trauma as it constantly replays in her psyche.
Chiedza’s mental health has deteriorated and she has been secretly living with some mental disorders for a very long time. Rosemary, Edmond’s new wife and Chiedza’s step mum has become the family’s pillar of endurance. Theresa is Edmond’s beloved sister; she is very handy, always available for resources and emotional support.
Chiedza has become reclusive; spending most of her time in her tiny secluded, messy and disorderly room. She has physically become a jail bird in her own place, a prisoner to herself taken hostage by her own brain. She is afraid of leaving her room so she devotes her time laying on her dirty old mattress conversing with the voices that she keeps hearing. Sometimes she spends her time writing and reciting poetry.
Chiedza sees everyone as a dangerous suspect; no-one is allowed to enter her space.
House Arrest is a film about the realities of mental health challenges that many people try to cope with in their daily lives. The mysteriousness of these disorders often goes unspoken of, being perceived as inexplicable taboo in most societies.
This is a story of perseverance and resilience; breaking down of bondages, unchaining of shackles to overcome overwhelming multifaceted maladies. The production is reinforced by complementary sequential and juxtaposing metaphorical audiovisual effects. Its main objective is to raise awareness about alcohol misuse and the increasing dangers of mental health challenges. On the other hand, it is about spreading hope to those who might be suffering from these challenges to seek professional help.
Written and Directed by Peter Mutanda
Running time: 52 minutes and 43 seconds
Project link on film freeway - https://filmfreeway.com/projects/2887984
TO PARTNER WITH US, PLEASE GET INTOUCH.
Mobile Phone/Whatsapp: - +27 790966351 or +263 77371 8886
Email: - cameproductions@yahoo.co.uk
MATERNITY HELL (GEHENNA ON EARTH) VIDEO DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION (2020)
BY PETER MUTANDA
MATERNITY HELL (GEHENNA ON EARTH) SYNOPSIS
Zimbabwean filmmaker and academic Peter Mutanda takes us through the maternity 'hell' in Zimbabwe's collapsed health system. It is an inadvertently horrific journey which initially begins when Mutanda was documenting his wife's labour process for his family records and suddenly all hell broke. He helplessly follows his wife going through very distressing near death childbirth experiences.
However, he eventually takes a brave stance in pursuit of exposing the rot within the system. He desperately continues to literally watch his wife through the lenses being tossed from one health facility to another by demoralised and overwhelmed health care workers. In the process, Mutanda comes face to face with some heartless vulture health care workers reporting for duty only to unethically syphon some money out of the already tormented souls.
As exposed in the documentary, such heinous diabolic criminality is unnecessarily causing and exacerbating pain and trauma to the mothers. To make matters worse, some of these women end up suffering from life long mental health problems and babies are ultimately paying the price for this chaos.
It is estimated more than 3000 women die during childbirth every year. Towards end of July 2020, seven babies were still born at the Harare Central Hospital in one night.
Doctors and nursing staffs have been at loggerheads with the government for many years. The health system has been neglected and it has totally collapsed; it has been the ordinary citizens that continue to enormously suffer especially the mothers and babies. On the other hand the Zimbabwean leaders simply don't care as they continue with their corrupt activities and when they need medical attention they go to South Africa, China, Singapore or Dubai. It is the masses that continue to suffer from this mess that can easily be solved only if corruption can be uprooted. But to make matters worse the rot is now fast trickling within the very crumbled health institutions.
The situation is increasingly turning hospitals into mortuaries and fast becoming a soft genocide. Yet all this catastrophe can easily be avoided if only our leaders had will-power to turn things around. No one knows what shall be left of these once envied health institutions, only God knows.
Running time: 23 minutes 48 seconds
THE BESIEGEMENT VIDEO INSTALLATION ART PROJECT (ADVOCATING MENTAL HEALTH)
The Besiegement Video Installation Project (2018 – 2019)
An award winning video installation, the Besiegement project is a fusion of artefacts and short films that are a representation of existing mental illnesses. The project is aimed at raising awareness about mental health issues affecting people in Zimbabwe. The scenery of the video installation is a forest set up; the trees are leafless seemingly lifeless but in reality its portrayal of revival and rejuvenation which signifies the beginning of a new life. The dysfunctional old gadgets like an old radio, telephone, computer hard-drive and television are placed haphazardly within the exhibition are a juxtaposition of the human mental faculty which has deteriorated from mental health challenges. At the center of the installation is the big human head in symbolic of the person suffering from the mental illness. The head is wrapped in a hooded jacket illustrating the Besiegement ever tormenting the victim keeping them in seclusion. There are two 10-minute abstract video screenings within The Besiegement showing different age groups of people in a severe depressive state and the other one depicting the causes and symptoms of mental health. On top of that, there are loud voices, forest ambient sound and different harrowing sound effects portraying someone lost in the world of their own.
On 8 March 2019, the project was launched at the First Floor Art gallery, Karigamombe centre in Harare. (https://www.newsday.co.zw/2019/03/uz-embraces-new-art-form/). The exhibition was well attended and already a sign of its worthiness was witnessed when one of the audience members suspected being mentally and emotionally unwell after watching the exhibition. The Besiegement was then exhibited at the University of Zimbabwe Theatre Arts Department’ Arts week on 17 April 2019. “This was time well spent and from my ‘face value’ adjudication, the project is perfect especially in evoking feelings and emotions…” said Dr. Madhombiro from the University Of Zimbabwe College Of Health Sciences
Our next stop was at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) where we successfully exhibited from 23 – 27 April 2019. We recorded more than 200 appreciative and participating audiences, 2 cabinet ministers and other dignitaries.
Production Assistants: 2018 UZ 2:2 film Production Students
Video Installation Designed by Peter Mutanda