Rise is featured in FastJet’s inflight magazine - Asambé

The British Council in Harare held a special screening of RISE.

‘Stories like this deserve to be seen"

“Packing a punch: the true story behind the first Zimbabwean film to qualify for Oscars”

Jessie discusses RISE in Variety Magazine

2x wins at REFFA Awards in Ghana

Invited by Authentic Brands and Universal Studios to attend the London Premiere of Bad Luhrmann’s new EPiC Elvis Documentary

Isaiah Thomas - 2 x NBA All Star athlete - speaks out in support of RISE.

RISE screened at the Sun Valley Film Festival with NBA All Star Isaiah Thomas’ new documentary.

Rise screens at the iconic Lincoln Centre in New York City

Acclaimed photographer and Academy Award Nominated Filmmaker Misan Harriman hosts the London Screening of RISE

Rise screened in Los Angeles at an event hosted by Hollywood Actress Thuso Mbedu, best known for her performance in The Woman King.

Misan Harriman - Oscar Nominee and first black photographer in British Vogue’s 104-year history to shoot its September cover - joins RISE as an Executive Producer

The Regal Film Festival Awards in Accra, Ghana

Winner of the top prize at ENIFF Nigeria

RISE continues its incredible festival run with over 40 festival acceptances and 15 awards in 5 months since its historic World Premiere at Tribeca.

New Work shot on 16mm Film Coming Soon

Rise wins 3 Awards in Beverly Hills

Best Short film

Best Actor

Best Up & Coming Child Actor

In The Herald

Winner of Best Female Director at the Tokyo Film Festival & Screenplay Awards 2025

Rise wins the Social Impact Award at HollyShorts

RISE screens for the first time on the West Coast at the TCL Chinese Theatres as part of the Oscar Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival

RISE was awarded the Shine Global 2025 Children’s Resilience Award at Indy Shorts Film Festival in Indianapolis.
The prize aims to shed light on the challenges faced by children and their remarkable strength.

July 2025

Rise will have its US West Coast Premiere at Holly Shorts in Los Angeles, California.

The film will screen at the TCL Theatre Los Angeles in August. More info to come.

Rise has its Irish Premiere at Galway Film Fleadh - Ireland’s leading film event and International Oscar - qualifying festival.

Rise will screen in competition on Wednesday 9th July at 13:15 at Pálás Cinema, Galway

In the Film & Television Business Magazine

Deadline announces RISE in Tribeca 2025 Festival lineup as first Zimbabwean Film ever to play at the festival.

Thrilled to announce RISE will have its World Premiere on 8th June 2025 at Tribeca Festival in New York City!

Invited to the UK Premiere of Amazon Prime’s new movie G20 starring Viola Davis

-April 2025

New article about Jessica published in national newspaper

Sikhanyiso Ngwenya becomes the youngest winner in history at the NAMA Awards for his performance in RISE.

The team is reunited to celebrate a historic NAMA nomination for RISE!

Featured in a Women’s History Month article in The Chronicle Newspaper

-March 2025

Sikhanyiso Ngwenya is the youngest person in history to win a Best Actor NAMA award for his outstanding performance in RISE.

-March 2025

RISE features in Afrika magazine

Hosted a celebratory dinner in Victoria Falls to celebrate some of the people that made RISE happen

The RISE team watched the film together in Victoria Falls.

-November 2024

Celebrating RISE with the team and community that inspired the film.

-november 2024

Ster kinekor Cinema, Joint City, Harare

-November 2024

Jessie and Team RISE are featured on a ZBC news broadcast about the film.

Jessica helped organize the Shangano Arts Festival in Hwange, Zimbabwe and spoke to young filmmakers and aspiring creatives.

-November 2024

Private screening for locals in the township where the film is set

We want the first audience to be the locals from the community where the film was made, so we spent a week creating a makeshift screen in the township in Zimbabwe where the film is set

Completed by Simon Panayi, sound designer and mixer at the NFTS Beaconsfield Campus

After months of hard work by the team at the Quarry, the picture is locked!

Jessica and RISE Executive Producer Elizabeth Morse Gilcreast attend Remi Bond concert in London

For Royal Ballet School London

Cut by acclaimed editor Paul Watts and Roman Kuznets at the Quarry Editing House in London

For NYAD Premiere in London!

with Team RISE. We did it!

Celebrating the final shot in Harare, Zimbabwe

We travelled 12 hours to Bulowayo to shoot on the only moving train in the country

Jessie and Mmeli Mabhikwa the production designer on RISE after succesfully pulling off the most technically challenging shot for the PD team

on set in the midday sun, shooting in the township that inspired the story

Anything for the shot.

The toughest shot of the shoot is in the can. A shot at the base of Victoria Falls, never before captured for cinema, racing against the sunset and incredibly tough conditions.

Shooting underway on locations across Zimbabwe

Pictured: Dinner at Jessie’s house with the team the night before the first day of shooting

Our star has arrived and rehearsals have begun

before shooting begins

thanks to Panavision South Africa!

We climbed down to the bottom of the Victoria Falls - one of the 7 natural wonders of the world - to scout the location for the shoot.

South African born Cinematographer and documentary filmmaker Jacques Naudé joins team RISE as Director of Photography

Celebrated Zimbabwean actor Eddie Sandifolo joins the RISE team as Casting Director and Acting Coach

Our lead actor is learning to box for the film

6 week rehearsal period begins with our lead child actor

The core cast for RISE has been finalised, with 7-year-old Sikhanyiso Ngwenya set to star opposite acclaimed Hollywood actor Tongayi Chirisa.

Running call backs in the form of acting workshops with kids that have the most potential to play Rise.

We drove 7 hours to Bingo to host auditions for a leading role in RISE and provided acting workshops and filmmaking Q&As with the kids.

Hosting auditions at 7 rural schools in the Hwange area

Auditions have kicked off in Victoria Falls to find untapped talent amongst Zimbabwean kids between 5-11 years old

Website Launched for new project “rise”. Click below to watch the teasers.

-2023

Article published in The Chronicle about jessica’s upcoming project

-12 March 2023

jessie ATTENDED THE 21st NAMA Awards in harare. Pictured with producer joe Njagu, who won best feature film for “NGODA” and farai chigudu, nominated for best actor.

-february 2023

ZIMBABWEAN-BORN HOLLYWOOD ACTOR TONGAYI CHIRISA IS ATTACHED AS THE LEAD JESSIE’S NEW FILM. THEY RECENTLY VISITED VICTORIA FALLS TOGETHER WITH ACCOMPLISHED ZIMBABWEAN PRODUCER JOE NJAGU.

-february 2023

“Wild Hearts” has been named the Drama category winner in the Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest 2022.

-January 2023

-october 2022

With the family at ZIFFT in Harare

‘Wild hearts’ has advanced to the top 3 in the final draft big break screenwriting competition!

-9 December 2022

“WILD HEARTS” has made the top 5 in the prestigious final draft screenwriting competition.

-2 december 2022

running an acting workshop in rural Zimbabwe

“WILD HEARTS” will be featured on the 2022 Most Viewed Projects List on Coverfly and distributed to over 10,000 industry professionals.

This list celebrates the top ten projects that appeared in the most searches by Coverfly industry users in the 2022 calendar year.

-december 2022

-october 2022

jessie attended the red carpet gala for Sam Mendes’ new film “EMPIRE OF LIGHT” and the Press and Industry screening of Noah Baumbach’s “WHITE NOISE” among others

“PRINCE” HAS BEEN SELECTED AS NUMBER 1 SHORT SCRIPT ON COVERFLY

-OCTOBER 2022

-OCTOBER 2022

-september 2022

-august 2022

PERCY (FEATURE), WILD HEARTS (FEATURE), PRINCE (SHORT) AND RUBY (PILOT) ARE ALL IN THE QUARTERFINALS OF THE PAGE AWARDS!

-JULY 2022

at the london independent film awards

-MAY 2022

wild hearts (feature), just like sarah (short), ruby (tv pilot)

-july 2022

“kipepeo” is in the finals of the holly shorts film festival 2022

-MAY 2022

-MAY 2022

WILD HEARTS (FEATURE) AND JUST LIKE SARAH (SHORT) ARE BOTH IN THE FINALS OF ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL. THIS IS A FIRST IN THE HISTORY OF THE FESTIVAL TO HAVE ONE WRITER WITH TWO PROJECTS IN THE FINALS.

-NOVEMBER 2021

“JUST LIKE SARAH” MAKES THE FINAL 5 IN THE SHORE SCRIPTS SHORT FILM SCREENWRITING COMPETITION.

-OCTOBER 2021

Jessie attended the New Filmmakers red carpet event in California.

-January 2020