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Inside/Out with film director, producer and writer Rumbi Katedza
Kubatana.net
June 07, 2011

Full interview with Rumbi Katedza - Read and listen

Describe yourself in five words?
That's a hard one. Really.

What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
I suppose it came from my grandmother. We were talking about someone telling me to do something. She asked if I wanted to do it, I said no and she said ‘so?'

What's the most ridiculous thing you've ever done?
It involved New Year's Eve, Red Fox, the counter, a group of my best friends and high heels.

What is your most treasured possession?
I don't put a lot into the material. It's not a material possession, but an inner thing, my sense of community.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Being alone. When you're bereft of any kind of community or sense of being and you're alone I think that's very painful.

Do you have any strange hobbies?
I don't think so. I used to do the generic things. I used to collect stickers . . . there was a time when I used to collect movie paraphernalia: posters, books, pictures . . . so I've got a lot of those from the 80s in a box at home.

Interviewer: What was your favourite movie from the 80's?

Sixteen Candles. It was a time in my life when I was watching loads of movies because I lived in Japan, and there really wasn't any kind of age restriction on anything. But if you asked me about any specific movie, I could recite Sixteen Candles from beginning to end, the music and the words.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?
I like me the way I am.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Food, because I like trying new things.

What have you got in your fridge?
We've got a lot of cold meats and cheeses; we often eat on the go. I've got a lot of juice because we've got a little orchard outside our house; we have a blender so we like to try to make our juices.

What is your greatest fear?
Being alone.

What have you got in your pockets right now?
My cell phone, car keys and a business card.

What is your favourite journey?
The journey to being a mother. That was quite a journey; it taught me a lot about myself.

Who are your heroes in real life?
My grandmother. Her generation lived in a different time, but they have so much knowledge to share that is relevant to my time. I think of what they went through and they still lived to tell the stories with a positive twist, so they are my heroes. My mother, and mothers in general. I remember when I was growing up my parents were full time students and they were going to work, and they were raising children. I look at them and I'm like ‘how on earth did you do that?' and especially back then with all of those other struggles. And they did good.

When and where were you happiest?
I was happiest as a child in Japan. It was just such a happy time. It's always a gift when a person can say I had a happy childhood. I did. I had great friends and I was exposed to a lot that was different from my culture and my understanding and my background. That was a gift from my parents - the ability to be exposed to so much from such a young age. To appreciate the Zen nature of Japanese people.

What's your biggest vice?
My biggest vice is one of those off the record things!

What were you like at school?
That's a good question for my friends to answer because what I remember myself as being like at school is completely different from what they say I was like. It's only later, that we're adults that they've told me.

What are you doing next?
I'm editing some projects, a TV series and a feature film. The feature film is a project that I've worked on for years and it's very close to my heart.

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