Dominic Kanaventi

Last updated
Dominic Kanaventi
Born
Zimbabwe
OccupationActor
Years active1980s to present

Dominic Kanaventi is a Zimbabwean film and stage actor. He has appeared in Shamwari in 1982, Mandela , Cry Freedom in 1987 and The Midday Sun in 1989. He has had major roles in Neria , released in 1993 and Salone, released in 2016. He was also president of the Zimbabwe Actors Guild (ZAG).

Contents

Background

Kanaventi started out as a stage actor. In the early years he was a member of the Catholic sponsored drama center, the Mabvuku Youth Center. [1] In film, he had parts in Shamwari and Cry Freedom , both films in the 1980s. In 1992, he had a leading role in Neria , and by 2001, he had acted in 14 productions. [2]

As of 1997, Kanaventi was the president of ZAG, which is the Zimbabwe Actors Guild. He has been outspoken about the exploitation of Zimbabwean actors and the disparity between them and their other counterparts. [3] [4]

In an interview with Alan Tempest for The Standard, he said that he had until January 2002 before he would be formally declared a stateless person. This apparently came about as Kanaventis father was born in Mozambique. He had walked all the way to Salisbury as it was called then, and married his mother. Kanaventi was born in October 1950. [5] As a result of his statelessness, he emigrated to the United States in April 2002. He worked as a furniture salesman and car salesman and on the way became a US citizen in 2009. He also became a student and in December 2014, he completed his B.S. in Marketing Management. He then became the CEO of a consultancy firm. [6]

Career

Stage

As a stage actor, he along with Walter Muparutsa received the 1983 Best Actor Award for their work in the Andrew Whaley production, Platform Four. [7] Other work includes working in collaboration with Ben Sibenke for a 1985 play. The play was Sizwe Banse is Dead, a well known Zimbabwe Arts Production. [8] For the 1997 play Platform Five, which was a play about the tramps and their world in Harare around the station area, Kanaventi and Walter Muparutsa dressed like tramps and went into the area and interacted with the people there to get the feeling of what their life was about. [9]

Film

He appeared in The Midday Sun which was released in 1989 and The Power of One which was released in 1992. [10] In Neria , Kanaveti played Phineas, a greedy and nasty brother in law, who after his brother's death, makes his brother's widow suffer. [11] His performance was noted in The Standard. [12]

Filmography (selective)

FilmsActor
TitleRoleDirectorYearNotes #
Shamwari Guard force memberClive Harding1982
Mandela Organizer manPhilip Saville1987TV movie
Cry Freedom Black frontier policeman Richard Attenborough 1987
The Midday SunAnthony KaculaLulu Keating1989
The Power of One John G. Avildsen 1992 [13]
Neria Phineas Godwin Mawuru 1993
SaloneLoyolaAswar Rahman2016
TelevisionActor
TitleEpisodeRoleDirectorYearNotes #
Kongo1959-1960Partijman1997
The KnockEpisode #3.2KamanoGeoff Harris

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References

  1. ↑ Theatre and Performance in Zimbabwe, Martin Rohmer - Page 57
  2. ↑ Zimbabwe's Cinematic Arts: Language, Power, Identity, By Katrina Daly Thompson - Page 219
  3. ↑ Moto, Issues 169-183 - Page 76
  4. ↑ Inter Press Service , Aug 5 1997 - DRAMA-ZIMBABWE: Actors Say ‘No’ to Third-Rate Parts and Peanuts By Lewis Machipisa
  5. ↑ The Standard - Zimbabwe: Kanaventi-Stateless By 2002 By Alan Tempest
  6. ↑ Western Governors University, 3/07/2016 - Different Country, Different Rules: A Cultural Education
  7. ↑ Almasi Collaborative Arts - Walter Lambert Walter Dehwe Muparutsa, The Beginning Archived 2021-02-04 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ Who's who in Contemporary World Theatre, edited by Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe - Page 279 Sibenke, Ben (1945-)
  9. ↑ Making People's Theatre, Robert Kavanagh - Page 21
  10. ↑ Zimbabwe's Cinematic Arts: Language, Power, Identity, By Katrina Daly Thompson - Page 219
  11. ↑ The Zimbabwe Herald, March 4, 2016 - Neria role swallowed Jesesi Mungoshi for five weeks
  12. ↑ The Standard.co.zw, June 2, 2013 - Arts industry poorer without Godwin Mawuru
  13. ↑ Zimbabwe's Cinematic Arts: Language, Power, Identity, By Katrina Daly Thompson - Page 219
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