Zen Takunda Aaron Chimutashu
- Editor
- Producer
- Director
Takunda Aaron Chimutashu aka Zen ISA is a Zimbabwean Film Director, Writer, Photographer and Pan African with a background in Engineering, Entrepreneurship and Social leadership. He is the founder and head of Immortal African Studios and a co-founder of award-winning production house Visual Sensations Media. As a self-titled "Universal Creative" Zen loves to explore art in all its forms and seeks to investigate all the amazing ways art can influence and inspire our society for the better.
Zen was born to Ndakaitei Lilly Chimutashu and Anyway Aaron Chimutashu (mother and father respectively) in Harare, Zimbabwe, though he spent some of his early years in Bulawayo before returning to Harare where he spent a majority of his early life. Anyway Aaron Chimutashu, Zen's father, passed away in the year 2000, leading to Zen and his brother, Norman Tapiwa Chimutashu (8 years senior) being raised in a single mother household. During the 2007 recession, the family was forced to relocate to the rural areas of St Borniface, Hurungwe, where Zen claims to have began to solidify his fascination with creativity as an outlet. The family would later return to Harare when Zen went on to volunteer for the Harare City Junior Council at age 17 and become the Junior Mayor of Harare.
Later, after acquiring an Honors Degree in Mechatronic Engineering at University and further exploring his passion for social leadership through volunteering at Harare City Junior Council for nearly a decade (Initially as the Junior Mayor of Harare ad subsequently as a Respectable Junior Alderman), Zen found himself still hungry to learn and expand. It was through this hunger and the subsequent journey to sate it that he found himself on film sets doing technical jobs like being set engineer or a grip. Witnessing films and TV shows being made created a deep and powerful passion for Filmmaking in him and set off his journey to becoming a full time film director. He went on to be an executive producer on #NoFilter, a show that featured Zimbabwean Celebrities discussing women's issues and to direct the 2021 Let Them Festival, which saw him direct and shoot 25 films with various young artists. After these creative endeavors, Zen, alongside his longtime producer and Fiancée Amanda Tait Tait, created "CreateZim: Art Across Cities" a documentary about his experience traveling around Zimbabwe working with artists. CreateZim won Best Documentary at the European Film Festival and was nominated for best documentary at the Z.A.F.T.A awards.
At the core of Zen's growth were the principles of Pan-Africanism. All this combined means Zen's greatest desire is to foster the creation of a vibrant and diverse Film and art industry that spans the African continent and Diaspora, allowing artists to live off of their passion and for previously ignored stories from the African perspective to hit the mainstream.
Zen was born to Ndakaitei Lilly Chimutashu and Anyway Aaron Chimutashu (mother and father respectively) in Harare, Zimbabwe, though he spent some of his early years in Bulawayo before returning to Harare where he spent a majority of his early life. Anyway Aaron Chimutashu, Zen's father, passed away in the year 2000, leading to Zen and his brother, Norman Tapiwa Chimutashu (8 years senior) being raised in a single mother household. During the 2007 recession, the family was forced to relocate to the rural areas of St Borniface, Hurungwe, where Zen claims to have began to solidify his fascination with creativity as an outlet. The family would later return to Harare when Zen went on to volunteer for the Harare City Junior Council at age 17 and become the Junior Mayor of Harare.
Later, after acquiring an Honors Degree in Mechatronic Engineering at University and further exploring his passion for social leadership through volunteering at Harare City Junior Council for nearly a decade (Initially as the Junior Mayor of Harare ad subsequently as a Respectable Junior Alderman), Zen found himself still hungry to learn and expand. It was through this hunger and the subsequent journey to sate it that he found himself on film sets doing technical jobs like being set engineer or a grip. Witnessing films and TV shows being made created a deep and powerful passion for Filmmaking in him and set off his journey to becoming a full time film director. He went on to be an executive producer on #NoFilter, a show that featured Zimbabwean Celebrities discussing women's issues and to direct the 2021 Let Them Festival, which saw him direct and shoot 25 films with various young artists. After these creative endeavors, Zen, alongside his longtime producer and Fiancée Amanda Tait Tait, created "CreateZim: Art Across Cities" a documentary about his experience traveling around Zimbabwe working with artists. CreateZim won Best Documentary at the European Film Festival and was nominated for best documentary at the Z.A.F.T.A awards.
At the core of Zen's growth were the principles of Pan-Africanism. All this combined means Zen's greatest desire is to foster the creation of a vibrant and diverse Film and art industry that spans the African continent and Diaspora, allowing artists to live off of their passion and for previously ignored stories from the African perspective to hit the mainstream.