AUDIO: Joe Njagu talks Tete B, younger brother movie debut and ambitious movie-a-month drive

We caught up with director Joe Njagu who just launched his latest movie, Tete B at an Ster Kinekor on Saturday.

The movie stars seasoned stars Eddie Sandifolo, Munya Chidzonga and Doc Vikela as well as debuts for Joe’s younger brother Charles and theatre veteran Nyaradza Nhongonhema.

Of his brother’s debut he Joe says:

He is someone I have always told, ‘Dude you need to get in this’. He is someone who is intense. I know him. I grew up with him. I can tell that he is a good actor. And this is a nice introduction to the cinema for him and it is nice to see him killing it with these badass veteran actors.

Of Nhongonhema he adds:

Nyari is nuts, She is a method actress. And I remember telling her [in the scene where she is chained to the bed]. “Don’t overdo it’ and she said, “No I wanna do it”. And when we finished the scene her hand was bruised.

Njagu says the ambition is to produce a film in a thirty day cycle. That is taking existing scripts from production to premiere in that period.

If I spend 6-7 months making a film and I am not earning any money from it, we do not have a market that pays enough to cover that 6 month period. So if I spend month and if I push the film for 60-70 thousand paying everyone, it makes sense.