kagablog

A few months back I followed a web link to an American website that congratulated Morgan Freeman on landing the role of Nelson Mandela in the soon to be made film about the life of Dr. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Upon reading the article my heart sank once more. I felt like a nine year old who has been promised a date by a school bully.

This got me thinking as to what makes a good producer, is it the one who gets the funding at all-costs or the one who shares my agenda.(My agenda is the creation of South African Cinema, free from Hollywood influence yet above any in terms of storytelling).

It’s a fact that the South African film industry needs all the help it can get to grow and blossom, but at what expense should this help come. I fear the history of our film industry might be judged by the coming generations as the era of spineless sell-outs. We have time and again sacrificed great stories and great moments in history for a few dollars. From Denzel Washington in Cry Freedom, James Earl Jones and Sydney Poitier in Cry the Beloved Country, Whoopie Goldberg in Sarafina, Ice Cube and Ving Rhames in Dangerous Ground and Taye Diggs in Drum. Some might say the stories had to be told and the American funders had terms. My question is to what extent do we go to make these films. Should a film about an historical figure or an historical event be ‘given’ to foreign producers who often impose foreign actors.

The history of South Africa is littered with injustices and discrepancies. The greatest discrepancy being that of the suffocation of African languages, and thus the suffocation of African cultures and arts. I see the unbalanced trading of South African stories to American funders as a continuing trend that denies South Africans a chance to engage in their own stories, their own history. People often argue that South Africans don’t have the money to finance these films thus producers have to go overseas for dollars. A fact I am aware of but then is it an excuse to sell your country’s history? Is it worth killing a great story for the perceived box office turnout, which all these films never really achieved. I have no problem with American actors playing in South African films but I have a serious problem with my history being misrepresented by a Henry Nxumalo who can’t even pronounce his surname, a Nelson Mandela who can’t shout ‘Amandla’ and a Steve Biko who can’t greet his people in their language.

The box office figures have shown over the years that a Hollywood face does not guarantee success, in-fact these films have been disappointing as South African audiences felt short-changed. The producer –director relationship of Paul Raleigh and Gavin Hood have proven to us that South Africa has all it takes to tell a truly South African story yet make it universally relevant (Filmography: The Storekeeper, A Reasonable Man - with Vusi Kunene, Gavin Hood, Ken Gampu - and Tsotsi. all these films featured South Africa’s best acting talent).

On the other, disappointing, hand the producer-director relationship of Anant Singh and Darrel Roodt has continued to upset my stomach with culturally insulting films and American casts that assume that just by being black they can automatically play an African character, truth is I have always been disgusted by the accents and the lack of emotion in the language. (Filmography: Dangerous Ground with Ice Cube (USA), Cry the Beloved Country with James Earl Jones (USA), Sarafina with Whoopie Goldberg…sad indeed).

A fellow film student and colleague asked me who i am to pass judgement and I asked him who are they to sell my history to the highest bidder.

The worse disservice that a producer can do to the development of South African cinema is to take away the very stories that highlight our shared pain and ‘perceived victory’ and submit it to foreign powers to cut, twist and package.