Motswana film producer presents Tiger Kloof documentary

As is the case with most creative disciplines, the passion and talent for telling stories is a calling, according to film producer Mpho Dintwa. “You don’t just wake up in the morning and say, I want to do this and that. You should be pushed by passion,” he says. He should know. He has been pushing passion and even when the tough gets going, he sticks it out because he is focused on the bigger picture. His latest offering, a documentary titled Tiger Kloof, a symphony in stone will be screened at the National Museum tomorrow (Thursday).

He explains that he is always looking for new ideas and realised that most of Botswana’s foremost leaders are Tiger Kloof alumni. The founding president of Botswana Sir Seretse Khama, second president of Botswana Sir Ketumile Masire went to Tiger Kloof, as did ‘woman of firsts’ former minister Dr Gaositwe Chiepe, opposition leader and Rivonia trialist Motsamai Mpho, among other members of the ‘Old tigers’ as the alumni is fondly referred to. “The institution has an undeniable link with Botswana. The school offered the best Christian aligned education at the time.

All but one of the first members of our parliament went to TigerKloof. We should wonder if we would have had such intelligent democratic leaders if they had not gone to this school.” The hour-long screening will attract several high profile guests including Dr Gaositwe Chiepe, Potlako Molefe, one of the founders of the University of Botswana, as well as directors of Multichoice, National Museum and the department of Archives, together with several stakeholders and students from AFDA and acquaintances from the film industry.

A representative from the Botswana Society will do the introduction. This was passion project and while there were several financial challenges, Dintwa managed to secure sponsorship from the Tutu Foundation (Desmond Tutu’s mother is an alumni of the school) among other generous sponsors. He says that there are many challenges that come with being a film producer, chief among them being financial setbacks and poor appreciation for the arts. He is positive that the situation will improve with time, but insists that more than can be done to improve the landscape of arts in Botswana by the practitioners. “We can do better. We should do it for ourselves,” he notes. Dintwa completed his undergraduate in television production in London and his post-graduate studies in Canada, specialising in script writing and production. He runs a television and film production company, Box Screen Pictures.