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| 'President' by journalist/filmmaker Camilla Nielsson |
President is a 2021 Documentary film about Nelson Chamisa and MDC Alliance. The movie was shot during the run up to 2018 General Elections. The film opened the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival in Johannesburg on 10 June. It will also play in select South African cinemas from 11-21 June.
The film, directed by Camilla Nielsson from Danmark documents Chamisa’s battle against the governing Zanu-PF party leader and Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa.
President received 89% score from 18 film critics on popular movie review site Rotten Tomatoes. It is also a Winner of the prestigious Sundance Film Festival’s Special Jury Award for Verité Filmmaking.
The film deploys an “in the moment” technique that avoids feeding the audience a lot of background history and politics as it follows the lead-up to the 2018 general elections.
"We try to be there when things happen, instead of telling it all backwards and coming up with some sort of analysis." says Camilla Nielsson, a graduate of visual anthropology and filmmaking at New York University. She previously covered Zimbabwe’s 2010-2013 constitution-making excursion in a 2014 Documentary titled Democrats.