A GROUND BREAKING 360° fulldome documentary born from a unique Zimbabwean-Welsh collaboration will make its world premiere tomorrow at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the world's largest documentary event.
Titled The Rift, the six-minute immersive film will be showcased within the ARTIS-Planetarium, a twenty-metre dome at the ARTIS Amsterdam Royal Zoo.
It is one of the select productions chosen for the prestigious IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction and will also feature in the DocLab Exhibition.
The film is the fruit of an initiative called XR Labs, which brought together the Welsh immersive arts studio 4Pi Productions with Harare-based organisations: the media company Matamba Film Labs and the dance company AfriKera Arts Trust.
Supported by the British Council International Collaboration Programme, the project aimed to empower female creatives through cutting-edge extended reality (XR) storytelling.
Filmed over three weeks in diverse locations across Zimbabwe, The Rift uses water as a unifying element. It weaves together powerful contemporary dance and music to confront pressing issues such as water access, fast fashion, and plastic pollution.
The production features four dancers—Delvin Pikani, Sasha Kakono, Ngonizashe Kamudyariwa, and Dazel Matake—who perform a shared choreography across settings ranging from dense forests and open plains to urban landscapes and ancient ruins.
An official statement described the visual tapestry: “Boundaries blur between built environments and natural structures, and the dancers bring all these places and times together into a single, cohesive whole.”
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The soundtrack includes a poem by Rox Mathazia (Sister Xapa) and a special remix of “Mvura” by songstress Mary Anibal.
It features a poem by Rox Mathazia (Sister Xapa) and a special remix of “Mvura” by songstress Mary Anibal. Mauricio Martin handled sound design, visual effects, and editing. The core production team included Janire Najera and Matt Wright as directors and filmmakers; Soukaina M-L Edom as principal choreographer; Victor Peturo as co-choreographer; producers Siza Mukwedini and Kuda Makuzwa (Zimbabwe) and Lauren James (Wales); studio filmmaker Rhys Davies; and Jamie Wilson as compositor.
The project also provided training for a cohort of female creatives, ‘The Future Femmes’, coordinated by Matamba Film Labs.
“The participants produced a VR behind-the-scenes documentary of the project, further developing their expertise in immersive storytelling technologies,” the statement noted.
Reflecting on the collaboration, Najera told IndependentXtra that working with the Zimbabwean teams was a profoundly positive experience.
“Their way of approaching the bureaucratic challenges they face with openness, patience and care left a lasting impression,” she said.
“Collaborating with Afrikera Arts Trust was especially rewarding; their choreographers and dancers are exceptional and responded intuitively to each location... It was a privilege to support their development and witness them taking ownership of the creative process.”
Mukwedini highlighted the strategic benefits for the local industry.
“The unique advantages are that production value is much higher and skills exchange on both ends is really beautiful. Now, we have access to much newer markets and audiences which we have struggled to have,” she said.
“Working with 4Pi Productions provided invaluable insights that are now informing Zimbabwe's Film Strategy, particularly around international partnerships and production protocols.”
Edom echoed the sentiment, expressing keen interest in future international collaborations.
“It means we are not working in silos and that other people are interested in our work. In this world where budget funding is shrinking it is ideal to join forces and collaborate, we can actually contribute to the enrichment of the sector,” she said.
The festival runs from November 13 to 24 at various venues across Amsterdam, showcasing around 300 films.
The Rift will have an additional screening on the evening of November 18 at the ARTIS-Planetarium.
