Filmmaker brings Zimbabwe to Boulder

BOULDER, Colo. — At age 21, Tatenda Muchiriri founded the Machapro Boys Club in his home village in Zimbabwe, with the goal of changing the way African men view and treat women.

It was a revolutionary idea there.

"I've heard of people doing programs with young women to empower them to take care of their bodies, take care of themselves and prevent AIDS from affecting them," said Robin Truesdale, a University of Colorado graduate who met Muchiriri on a 2006 trip to Zimbabwe. "But I've never met a young man who was interested in approaching it from the male angle, and I just found that fascinating."

5 Questions for Robin Truesdale, musician and curator

BOULDER, Colo. — Robin Truesdale and Bonnie Carol are co-curators of the Zimbabwe Art Show, which is part of ZimFest, a festival that celebrates the culture, music, art and people of Zimbabwe. ZimFest will be in Boulder, this June, for the first time since the annual festival began in Seattle in 1991.

Truesdale, who started playing marimba music in 2002, ended up making a trip to Zimbabwe four years later as a result. She immersed herself in and developed a love of the Zimbabwean culture after her two sons, who are both musicians, introduced her to the music. Truesdale is also part of Pick Up Sticks, a Boulder-based marimba band, and has made two movies on Zimbabwe, one of them sponsored by the National Geographic All Roads Film Project.