It was about 10 years ago that I jotted down a note in one of my notebooks: Film idea, detective looking for body of Jesus. In 1999 we landed in Mazabuka, Zambia and started a church in that town. In 2002 we took that film idea and wrote out a script for a play entitled “James Tembo, Detective”. I had the first scenes written out and we performed them at an “overnight”. During the overnight the Peace and Harmony Brothers took to the stage and performed “My Redeemer” breathing life into everyone there at that late stage. That event added the idea of having a dance scene with James Tembo.
We purposely wanted to have as many characters in the play as possible, so as to be able to include as many people from the church as possible. We performed the play in Mazabuka and then took it to Lusaka and Livingstone. Moving 25 people on a budget in Zambia is quite the experience. In 2004 we again performed the play in Mazabuka and took it to Kitwe and Ndola. The performers did well despite a 12 hour train ride that turned into 36 hours.
In the spring of 2006 we performed the play in Mazabuka. We were seriously thinking about a film. I was teaching a group of 10th graders. I had a copy of Glen Reynolds book "An Army of David's" and I had cut and pasted the sections about African music making and African film making together for the students to read. I wondered if we could pull it off.
Preaching and teaching to some of the poorest people in the world can be disheartening at times. A consistent theme for us was the ideas of pursuing visions and dreams. I remember one young man asking me what my dream was. I mentioned how I wanted to make a film, specifically a film of our play. We bought a camera for $2000 including accessories. We bought a recording deck for about $500 and started filming in July of 2006.
We were involved in the film making process until the end of August 2006. We headed back for the states. Pastor Charles Tembo took ownership of my computer, Bright Mubika took ownership of the camera and Daniel Sox took ownership of the recording deck. They finished up the filming and Charles Chifuku began the editing work while the musicians recorded their music.
I received a finished DVD just before Christmas 2006. That New Year’s Eve the Mazabuka church had an “overnight” with their baby churches and the community of Mazabuka. There they screened the play for the first time. This web page is part of a commitment made to these talented actors and technicians to showcase their work and to bless them.
