kagablog

Mon, 05 May 2008

Young filmmaker Chris dos Santos’ short film At Thy Call will be screened at the Cannes International Film Festival which opens on 14 May. At Thy Call examines young men’s experiences of the border war which took place during the apartheid years.

South Africa, 1984. Every white male from the age of 16 that has completed high school is conscripted into the South African National Defence force to answer their call of “National Service”. Danie Joubert is a young and proud Afrikaner who’s family name is well respected in the army due to his older brother�s accomplishments at the Battle of Cassinga.

Danie proves to his corporal (who is a hardcore racist), that he is a great leader, that he has pride to defend his country, but it is only when Danie meets Nick, a rebelious Englishman, who doesn’t believe a word the army says, that Danie starts to question which side of the fence he should be on. Dos Santos has been praised for providing a fine historical context and analysis of the dominant culture of the time.

By Kelebogile Vinger

Versatile artist, Urbain Tila, who has been based in Bloemfontein for many years, has released a full-length movie completely orchestrated and produced in the heart of Free State. The movie is titled Destiny.

Urbain Tila said that the project was an arduous one from inception. “I appeared like a mad man to everyone when I started going up and down asking for sponsors for the movie. I am so exhilarated that the movie is now a reality!”

The cast of the movie includes Urbain Tila himself, Christian Omumatu, his partner and actor; Jimmy Mpasi the editor and Aaron Kapeta the make-up artist. Actors Justineus, Moruti, Ephraime Semanego, Jacko, Pastor Mike Favour, Tonton Mbuyi, Whitey James, Raichell Pulane, Thulanganyo, Selloane, etc. Fourteen actors and actresses (All of whom are based locally) were employed.

Tila explained that his love of films and movies started when he was in his childhood. “I was around the age of ten in the DRC. It began with my elder brother who is in the film industry; and incidentally my father is also a musician. So this love of drama is within my family,”

At the age of ten, Tila performed at the Stage Theater in the erstwhile Congo. “We would play around the streets as stand-up comedians,” and something that started as a joke turned into a career. “As a young boy I spent most of my time in the cinemas, and every penny I got would go straight to the cinemas! At the age of seventeen I directed a play called ‘Thunder”. Thereafter he went to work in Zambia as a singer in the night clubs. In 1995 he played the part of a soldier in a South African production called ‘Home land’. He has also released a trio of musical CDs over the years.

The name of the movie is called Destiny. Tila, who scripted the movie and also directed it, explained the basic plot. “It is about two brothers who came from the village and were introduced to the city life. One took the wrong path and the other tried to be good. The message of the movie is that ‘crime does not pay’” The movie was filmed in October 2007, utilizing many popular scenes in Bloemfontein.

Tila stressed that raising the necessary funds for the project was not easy. “I struggled in the beginning, until magnanimous sponsors like Watloo Meat and Chicken, Leshabane Eye World, Kloppers, Hungry Eye etc chipped in with their support. Also my friend, Christian Omumatu who’s in the movie industry became my partner and invested in the movie too.” The movie is on sale at diverse retail outlets in the Free State.

You can also phone 0768359004 for your copy

MALIKA NDLOVU AND PETER VAN HEERDEN 16 April 18H30 SABC 1

DIRECTED BY LLEWELYN RODERICK

Malika Ndlovu, feminist spoken word poet and musician, is rarely ever stumped for words. This is until she first views controversial performance artist Peter van Heerden’s hard-hitting piece about abuse against women and children. Peter on the other hand, is a man of few words. His message is articulated in ways that make you squirm but keep you rooted, and paying attention. With both artists sceptical about the others’ genre – it is amazing to witness a collaboration come together with political and creative depth as they poignantly take on the issue of burying South Africa’s colonial past.

April 3, 2008

By Theresa Smith

The much anticipated local feature, Hansie is currently in post production. Global Creative Studios marketing manager, Peter Morgan, said they’ve had positive feedback from the rough edit screening.

Morgan said Nu Metro will distribute the film throughout Africa and they are negotiating worldwide distribution.

But, you have to wonder just how much purchase they’ll find in places like the US, which doesn’t understand cricket and have probably never even heard of Hansie Cronjé.

The film should be released on Heritage Day, September 24.

Friday, however, sees the release of Confessions Of A Gambler on the local circuit. Rayda Jacobs’s book was certainly one of the most accessible and popular local books in a long time.

She used a non-professional film cast to tell the screen story of a Muslim woman who happens to be a gambling addict.

Jacobs also kept an extra-ordinary amount of control by not signing away the rights to the book and not only working behind the scenes, but also in front of the camera.

Director Henk Pretorius also kept his finger on the pulse by doing just about everything except star in his own movie Bakgat, which opens next week.

The soccer documentary about the game on Robben Island, More Than Just A Game, will release on April 25. Directed by Junaid Ahmed, it is a mix of interviews and dramatised action.

Son Of Man (June 20), on the other hand, is purely dramatic . From the people who brought us uCarmen eKhayelitsha, it tells the story of Jesus, but told as if he was a modern-day freedom fighter born into an unnamed African township.

The familiar Bible tale is told using powerful imagery familiar to South Africans, but very different to the world out there.

Aryan Kaganof’s SMS Sugarman still has no firm release date, but he was helping director Akin Omotoso on Jesus And The Giant, so he’s been busy.

Omotoso was last year’s Standard Bank film artist for the National Arts Festival and he will screen Jesus And The Giant at Grahamstown this year.

Shot entirely as a series of stills, it plays with our stereotypes of gender identity and raises the question of using violence to fight violence.

And, of course, what would the local circuit be without Leon Schuster? Debashine Thangevelo paid a visit to the set of the controversial Mr Bones 2 (November 28).

Apparently, there’s Poena 2 in the offing and World Unseen - a challenging love story between two South African-Indian women during apartheid - is also lined up for November.

The filmmakers of The White Lion had a setback last year when some of their master tapes were stolen, but they’re back on track. They’re currently filming the scenes with the human cast and want to finish by November.

Presentation by the CEO of the NFVF on the occasion of the signing of the MOU between the National Film and Video Foundation and Tshwane University of Technology. Reflections On Film Education.

It is indeed a historic moment that today; two important institutions in the development of our film industry are signing an agreement of cooperation on programmes of common interest. One of the key considerations in formalizing the relationship between the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) and the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) is the prospect of collaborating in the area of film education and training. This collaboration has to be seen against the background of what has become public knowledge in the film and television industry: that our tertiary institutions nationally, while producing graduates in film and television studies with commendable technical skills and some theoretical knowledge, they consistently fail in the most crucial area, that is: story telling.

This is both a disturbing and surprising finding, because we live in a country where almost everyone on our streets and in our villages has an emotionally engaging story to tell. We have storytellers in our midst who pass on the myths and legends, which shape young minds and attempt to capture the essence of who we are by discovering where we come from and how we arrived here. Sometimes these griots, articulate stories which have never been put to paper, but whose influence travel as far as the spoken word can take them. We also have novelists and poets who find expression in the written word in our various African languages as well as English. Many of the latter have received the training required to excel in their chosen field from our own institutions; but none make the same impact on telling stories for the cinematic screen.

There may be a number of reasons for this state of affairs, but none as startling as the recent claim by some film educators that our expectation of graduates in film are too high; that graduates in accounting and law have to serve articles before they qualify in their respective professions; that graduates in medicine have to serve as interns and residents before they qualify as doctors.

So it is, therefore, unrealistic to expect film graduates to be ready to perform at the highest level upon entry to the industry.

We do not expect a student of music to serve such an apprenticeship, nor do we expect this of graduates of the visual arts. These graduates have to fight for opportunities to demonstrate the talent they have developed through a formal tertiary education without the benefit of an internship or apprenticeship in addition to the three or four years of study. The most diligent and the most talented thrive under these conditions. The same can be said for the output of film and television technical skills as evidenced in graduates from many of our institutions. Lighting, production design, cinematography, sound recording, sound design, production and post-production in our screen works, all demonstrate high levels of achievement which can be measured against the best in the world.

The same cannot be said of our ability to engage South African and international audiences in narratives of ourselves in spite of the rare exceptions, which are acknowledged and accorded accolades on the festival circuit, including exceptional recognition at the Oscars. A possible explanation for this may lie in the fact that many of our institutions deliberately shy away from the teaching of classical story-telling in the belief that a narrative with a clear protagonist in conflict with a defined antagonist simply reproduces patterns of the master narrative so beloved of Hollywood.

It is possible that this belief expresses a fear of repeating the dominance of the individual over the collective and the often repeated but very misguided notion peddled by most Hollywood and mainstream films that all that is required to achieve one’s dreams is to pull oneself up by one’s own bootstraps. What if one has no bootstraps or no boots at all?

However, classical stories do not by their very nature require us to offer false hope to our audiences. They can and often do offer us unique insights into our past, our present and our possible futures.

It is also possible that the reason why our cinematic screen stories do not successfully engage South African audiences is that our institutions produce filmmakers who have been schooled in anti-narrative forms of film discourse. These are stories deliberately designed to alienate or challenge audience engagement and enjoyment because this is understood to contribute to the resistance of the master narrative and Hollywood’s dominance of our screens. The truth is that the anti-narrative and the anti-classical narrative so beloved of our institutions engage only small audiences within these institutions and do not attract the vast numbers required to make our films financially viable in addition to their other inherently good qualities.

This is not to say that narratives, which challenge and experiment with and against classical forms in ways that engage only niche audiences, should not be produced. The caveat in this case is that the challenge and experiment must be so bold and original that these stories break out and find audiences beyond their niche market. However, such boldness and originality can only be achieved when the filmmaker understands and has mastered the classical forms. In music and the visual arts such mastery of the classical forms is unquestioned because they are understood to provide graduates with the fundamental tools of practicing their art in whatever manner they would wish to pursue.
We, therefore, have to encourage lecturers in film studies and especially in script writing to create an environment in which the building blocks of story are understood and mastered by their students and demonstrated in their undergraduate work. Such mastery is necessary in an industry where only a handful of scriptwriters work at the highest levels and of these only a sprinkling come from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. If we fail to provide such fundamental education and training in story especially to previously disadvantaged graduates we will in this way help to maintain patterns of white dominance in the SA film and television industry but more worryingly continue to rely on our stories being mediated through Euro-centric eyes.

On another, but not unrelated note, in our search for leadership and inspiration should our institutions of higher learning not start to engage with the rich resources of our country in the form of retired actors, writers, poets, journalists particularly those that are black and others who have deep knowledge, experience and wisdom to share with the nation through its children? Could our institutions not establish institutional frameworks within which such wisdom and knowledge could be tapped? If our institutions have writers-in-residence and poets laureate, why are our best not entrenched in such positions to provide the continuity from our past with the future we are hoping to forge?

I would like to thank the Vice Chancellor and Principal, Prof EM Tyobeka, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Dr Prins Nevhutalu and the Executive Dean in the Faculty of the Arts, Dr Sirayi for making this a historic moment. I would like to thank the staff of the NFVF and Tshwane University of Technology for making this occasion a memorable one.

MY RESPONSE AS A CINEPHILE:

Although the CEO of the NFVF refers in the article to the modes of storytelling within African culture his discussion fails to acknowledge the immense contribution by African filmmakers to alternatives to the classical narrative structure.

For decades now, films have been produced in Africa with a voice, content and aesthetic, which are rich, historical, and creatively responsive to African social reality. The films incorporated oral story telling traditions and indigenous modes of communication and, where the films reached their audiences, they were immensely popular. In many African films melodrama, satire and comedy are primarily used to communicate with African audiences. Popular cultural forms such as singing and dancing, the oral tradition (particularly literary) and popular theatre such as the Yoruba theatre in Nigeria are interlinked with the pictorial communication of these films. Even popular music stars, such as Salif Keita, Papa Wemba and Alpha Blondy, act in these films. Especially Ousmane Sembene’s films, such as Xala, are typical of these African films. The films with their populist themes are very popular among the African working class and unemployed. The liberation of African women is also addressed. Men are being criticised because in certain respects they accepted the progress of modernity, but continued to oppress women. Sometimes, social comedies portray men who are involved with more women than they can satisfy sexually (for example Xala).

No mention is made of various alternative narrative structures within African cinemas by the NFVF CEO. I am thinking of the major work by African academic Manthia Diawara on narratology in African cinema. With regard to the “return-to-the-sources” typology, the best example is Souleymane Cisse’s Yeelen. Three factors contributed to the development of this type of African film art:

1 In some African states, the filmmakers experienced censorship problems when their portrayals of their own contemporary situations were critical of their respective governments (cf. Mampaey 1993). Consequently they decided to concentrate on more covert political messages.

2 Directors explored pre-colonial African traditions in these films visually in order to make a contribution to the solution of current problems.

3 Attempts were made to explore and develop a new film language (cf. Diawara 1992).

An underlying motivation for making this type of film is the affirmation of a dynamic African history and culture prior to the colonial era. The style of all these films is determined by the exploration of antique African traditions, way of life and magic power.

In contrast to the anticolonial films which are conventional in terms of their pictorial communication, these films are characterised by the way the director looks at tradition: “It is a look that is intent on positing religion where anthropologists only see idolatry, history where they see primitivism, and humanism where they see savage acts” (Diawara 1992:160).

The pictorial communication of the films is characterised by long shots with natural sounds. In contrast to conventional design in certain Western films in which close shots are used in order to increase the dramatic and emotional effect of a particular moment in the narrative, close shots are used in these African films in order to visualise the virtue of the characters and their traditions. It is film art with “… perfect images, perfect sound, and perfect editing” (Diawara 1992:160). The films were however criticised in certain quarters as a result of their nostalgic portrayal of bygone Africa. A unique example of this typology is Souleymane Cisse’s Yeelen.

Yeelen portrays the classic conflict between the old and the new order in the struggle between Soma Diarra and his son Ninankoro. Soma Diarra is a member of a dreaded Bambara group, the so-called Komo, which is cloaked in secrecy. Ninankoro has to use the wing of the Kore (a secret bar which represents multiple knowledge levels for the Bambara) in order to destroy the Komo (Diawara 1992).

Structurally the film was evidently influenced by the oral tradition of the Mande people of West Africa who include the Bambara. Just as the classic narratives of the Mande culture, Yeelen portrays the Komo cult as a repressive and rigid system. Because this system is unacceptable, the film advocates a new order. Heroes in these narratives commonly gain the knowledge necessary for social change by embarking on an exploring trip. In the film the son, Ninankoro, learns in a foreign country how to fight and also finds himself a wife who gives him a son, the symbol of the future. However, Ninankoro himself only symbolises the present, because he dies in the final fight with his father.

According to Malkmus and Armes (1992), the film is a reflection of the linear structure of oral narrative. The opening sequence explains some of the elements of the underlying myth, the Komo, which symbolises knowledge, as well as the wing of the Kore, the sacred eagle, war, wisdom and death. The film has many binary oppositions: milk versus water, father versus son, life versus death. These binary oppositions portray the dialectics in the Bambara culture (Diawara 1992).

Diawara (1992:161) summarises the pictorial communication of the film as follows:

Cisse’s camera, used more in an attempt to describe the “right image” than to reveal a psychological point of view, recasts the fundamental narrative issues of show and tell. What brings emotional feeling to the spectator in Yeelen is the way in which the film transforms Western cinema’s stereotypes into human and complex subjects. It valorises and humanises Africans and their past systems. In other words, it elevates the Komo, which is just another barbaric ritual in anthropological films, to the level of science (Diawara 1992:161).

By making use of beautiful images, Cisse creates alternatives to the stereotypical conceptions of Africa that Hollywood, Western history and Western news reports have constructed. The film “… defines its own language by deemphasising the psychological based shot/reverse shot and close-ups of Western cinema, and by valorising long shots and long takes, which through their ‘natural’ feel are destined to describe the characters’ relationships to each other and to time and space” (Diawara 1992:165). African realities are interpreted by African eyes (Malkmus & Armes 1992). In contrast, Western films make scant use of space and time to define their characters. “The long views that the return-to-source films use enable them to reveal the rituals under the Boabab tree, the secret spaces in the rooms, man and woman’s relation to time, land, water, and sky” (Diawara 1992:165). In most Western films these holistic perspectives disappear and are replaced by mere establishing shots and close-ups which follow one another in close order, in order to construct a narrative.

The CEO mentioned that tertiary institutions failed to train graduates in the art of storytelling and thus our local films fail to find an audience. If one studies South African cinema one would note that very few directing students from these institutions managed to get a chance to make full length films.

The majority of films that are failing to find an audience are mostly by established directors (black and white) and are telling their stories according to the classical narrative structure. One could just conduct a comprehensive analysis of recent box office failures.

Maybe one should look for explanations for these failures beyond film education! The virtual absence of film studies and film appreciation on school level, the sorry state of audience development in this country and to what extent our cinemas are accessible to the majority of the population.

A film industry or in more ambitious terms, a national cinema, is ultimately dependent on the number of people who are willing to pay for it. Without a paying audience, whether it is cinema, television, video or new media exhibition, there can be no industry to speak of. With a total population of approximately 47 million people South Africa has a tiny cinema-going audience measured at approximately 5 million persons with a rapidly growing television consuming public penetrating approximately 49% of the total number of South African households.

In the future audience development will become more and more crucial to build audiences for the post-apartheid cinema. Our film industry has been held to ransom for decades by the developed markets’ funding and exhibition models, content and distribution strengths and worldwide dominance of the Hollywood studios. It has been estimated that Hollywood product dominates 99% of screen time in South African cinemas. Local filmmakers have to compete with films by independent American, British and Australian filmmakers, as well as “art-house” films from Europe, the Middle East and Asia for the remaining 1%.

Other challenges facing our industry are the inaccessible film exhibition sites that are outside the reach of the majority of South Africans, the limited concentration of theatres in metropolitan areas and the general lack of culturally specific, community based film exhibition points and product. According to research by the NFVF, audience attendance at South African cinemas is decreasing at an alarming rate to the extent that exhibitors have had to close down cinemas, especially in townships. Some independent cinemas in townships have been converted to churches. Various factors contributing to this decline, including the increase in the range of entertainment media, especially a wider range of television content, door price increases, unemployment, crime, and a lack of effective marketing strategies.

Some theatrical distributors such as UIP (United International Pictures) owned by international studios merely serve as a “courier service” between the international studios and the local exhibitors. They do not have a quota system for local content distribution and exhibition and the rationale that informs their decision to acquire and to exhibit or NOT to acquire and exhibit product is based on the commercial viability of the product. Criteria used to determine viability is sometimes out of touch with South African and African realities, especially if one studies the cultural role of cinema within African communities. In this regard one could also look at the South Korean cinema regarding its struggle to fight American dominance. The unfair competition and massive marketing budgets of Hollywood studio backed film releases reduce the chances of South African box-office success at the cinema level. The introduction of incentivised screen quotas for domestic and African film theatric releases thus becomes a necessary intervention. France and South Korea are important case studies in this regard.

Through audience development programmes South African distributors and exhibitors can ultimately create a demand for local content on the screen, video hire, video sell thru, pay TV, free TV and public broadcasters, both locally and internationally. There is a definite need for aggressive marketing of South African films in people’s home communities and the generation of local media enthusiasm around promotion of local product. Local film journalists and critics are also to be encouraged to support local product.

It is a fragile industry, especially in the face of globalization.

martin botha

Tue, 11 Mar 2008

The new South African film, Confessions of a Gambler, will release nationwide in South Africa at Nu Metro cinemas from 4 April. Premieres will be held in Johannesburg and Cape Town on 1 and 2 April respectively.

Produced by Rogue Star Films, this is an adaptation of Rayda Jacob’s novel of the same name which won the Sunday Times fiction prize and the Herman Charles Bosman prize.

Says producer Ross Garland: Confessions of a Gambler premiered at the Dubai Film Festival in December where it received a rave review from Los Angeles Variety magazine. It has subsequently screened at the Dublin and Miami film festivals.

Directed by Amanda Lane, the film stars Rayda Jacobs herself, as well as Sean Michael, Steven Pillemer, Reza Kippie, Tauriq Jenkins, Nurie Slamdien and Aqueel Khan. Costa Theo executive produced.

Confessions of a Gambler is the story of a 49-year old devout Muslim woman who becomes addicted to gambling.

Tue, 19 Feb 2008

The largest film project undertaken in Namibia, “Where Others Wavered”, premiered at the 16th annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival (PAFF) in Los Angeles on 7 February under its new name “Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation”. The film has also been screened at other international events but still has to be seen in its home country, Namibia. It also featured at the inaugural Kuala Lumpur Internationa Film Festival in December.

A report in The Namibian News (8 Feb 2008) stated that six people from Namibia attended the premiere in Los Angeles. They included three Namibian actors; Joel Haikali, Obed Emvula and Chrisjan Appollus, as well as executive producer Uazuva Kaumbi, the Namibia Film Commission’s Edwin Kanguatjivi and Commission board member Vickson Hangula.

“Despite repeated promises from executive producer Kaumbi that the now re-named film would be shown in Namibia, Namibians have yet to watch the film which was bankrolled from mostly public funds,” The Namibian News reported.

“The film has been no stranger to controversy. During production it was hit by intermittent crew strikes and cash shortages. Initiated as a project by the Pan African Congress of Namibia (Pacon), it also regularly exceeded its N$90 million budget.

After Government allocated the last of a N$15 million bail-out, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah announced in May 2006 that, once completed, profits from the film would be split - with 30 per cent going to Pacon and 70 per cent to the Film Commission of Namibia. Thereafter the film project fell under the auspices of the Film Commission.”

The Namibian News reported that in 2007 Kaumbi expressed the hope that the international screening would be at the annual Cannes Film Festival in France but producers could not complete the film before the March cut-off date. Then Namibians were informed that the roll-out would happen towards the end of May or June 2007 providing an opportunity for small and medium enterprises to get involved as projectors and screening sites would have to be secured all over Namibia.

Kaumbi also expected the film to be transferred to DVD and video format for worldwide distribution by the middle of last year.”At the beginning of February Edwin Kanguatjivi, Administrative Secretary of the Film Commission could not confirm a date for a local screening of the film. He said no decision had been taken yet, but hoped that it would be this year. He and the other five representatives who flew to Los Angeles will only return to Namibia after the festival ends on February 18.

Patrick Z McGavin in Berlin

15 Feb 2008 11:11

Dir/scr: Ralph Ziman. South Africa . 2008. 118mins.

The third feature of Ralph Ziman, the new South African action movie Jerusalema is reportedly drawn from actual events. More accurately it is inspired from the watching of a lot of movies, combining and cannily poaching parts of the original Scarface, Superfly, GoodFellas, New Jack City and American Gangster. It’s well made and engagingly played, but it is finally much too derivative and cartoonish to gain much individual expression on its own terms.

The movie’s ostensibly a hood movie, chronicling the spectacular rise of a guerrilla entrepreneur who utilises his street smarts, force of personality and a rapidly changing social order to build an empire. The difference is that the movie’s setting is Johannesburg , but the filmmakers’ effort to shape the work politically and acknowledge the historical and cultural repercussions of the country’s tragic racial history is both didactic and crudely applied. It also results in a mirror plot structure of Phillip Noyce’s recent Catch a Fire, framed around the Javert-like racist police detective determined to bring him down.

The movie premiered in the Panorama in Berlin , where it played like gangbusters in its first public screening. Part of the new renaissance of South African filmmaking, the movie is a hybrid and far closer to Hollywood that makes it too exotic for mainstream tastes and too violent and genre-bound to play as an art house title. Even so, the movie features a charismatic lead performance by Rapulana Seiphemo and strong production values that increases its commercial potential. Apart from southern Africa , the movie’s strongest audience is ancillaries in English-speaking territories.

The movie’s told in an elaborate flashback structured in the form of a journalistic interview. The story moves from 1994 to the present. Ziman’s script suggests how the post-apartheid social transition created a “new Jerusalem,” of unrivaled economic opportunities and a black gangster underground. Lucky Kunene (Seiphemo), a dirt poor street kid from Soweto , models himself after Karl Marx and Al Capone. He traces his rambunctious and flamboyant criminal upbringing, beginning by stealing cars at gun point with his best friend Zakes (Nyakale) before moving into more frightening and potentially harmful forms of robbery and graft.

Realizing the short term existence of that kind of lifestyle, Lucky transforms himself into a businessman real estate developer who seizes on a plan to control the lucrative housing projects of the Hillbrow tenements. Lucky proves too good and smart at his new post, setting up a conflict with a Nigerian drug lord and the police detective ( Hobbs ) who’s innately suspicious of his activity.

Jerusalema is fast, taut and has a nervous energy and vitality. The movie is really about other movies, and Ziman rarely finds a fresh or innovative angle to set his action. Also, the effort is so transparent there is rarely a moment in the film that does not feel imported from somewhere else. In the most blatant instance, a criminal steals an idea from Michael Mann’s Heat in staging his own robbery.

The imitation is very sincere, but it also makes the work dramatically unrevealing. Every time the director tries to find something new or different to say, like Lucky’s improbable romance with a beautiful upper class Jewish woman (Meskin) or deal with the complex racial politics of contemporary South Africa, it feels both awkward and naïve. The compelling, good looking Seiphemo is quick and alert in the lead role. He holds the screen, but he is ultimately stranded by the story’s predictability and lack of originality.

Wed, 13 Feb 2008

Described as a film about “finding yourself, despite high school”, the new South African film “Bakgat!” will go on local release from 11 April.

Positioned as ‘the first Afrikaans feature film that was primarily made for a youth market’, “Bakgat! was produced by The Film Factory in association with Bakgat Rolprent. Written and directed by Henk Pretorius and produced by Danie Bester, the film stars Ivan Botha, Cherie van der Merwe and Altus Theart.

“Bakgat!” follows the trials of mega schoolboy geek Wimpie Koekemoer, who is constantly embarrassed by his conservative mother and his strange father, especially in front of girls. Wimpie’s big dream is to be popular.

This dream could become a reality when the most popular girl in school, Katrien Swanepoel, is dumped by first team rugby centre Werner ‘Killer’ Botha. Katrien and her friends Liezl and Christie decide to give Werner a taste of his own medicine by planning to make Wimpie the new first team centre.

Says Pretorius: “With this movie I wanted bring across a universal theme in Afrikaans. This goal was shared by producer Danie Bester from the start. We basically wanted to make a Hollywood-type movie in Afrikaans. Each character in Bakgat! is someone that the audience can relate to. The plot development in Bakgat! is also relevant. The story takes place in high school and the search for individuality and identity becomes a relevant theme.”

By Joburgpete “irridium”

Very loosely based on the life of the famous Glenda Kemp, this special edition of Snake Dancer is packed with extra features, interviews and information on the history of South African film. Some well-known SA actors like Bruce Millar and Christine Basson appear in the movie which takes us from Glenda’s childhood, her early fascination with snakes, adoption by foster parents, school years, ballet training and teacher training, through her stormy career as exotic dancer and stripper to the macabre and unbelievable finale.

Glenda was indeed the sensation of the seventies in South Africa where she and her python Oupa (Grandpa, pronounced Oh Pah) shocked polite society but were press favorites widely admired by the general public. The story line includes police raids, court appearances, tours of small-town South Africa, and many dance scenes, not only with Oupa but also solo and with glove puppets, plus her love relationships. It evokes nostalgia for its vivid portrayal of Johannesburg night life in the period, especially the inner city scenes and those of the then highly cosmopolitan suburb of Hillbrow which was considered the Manhattan of Joburg in those days.

Extras include a short text section about Glenda and the making of the film, the informative featurette Escape From Apartheid: A History of South African Cult Cinema which is an interview with critic Trevor Steele Taylor about SA film - in particular the vibrant underground cinema scene and the tearoom cinema phenomenon - from the late 1940s to 2006 with mention of the work of various pioneers Jamie Uys, Ian Kerkhof/Aryan Kaganof, Ken Gampu and others, and 3 interviews with Dirk de Villiers, director of Snake Dancer.

Some of the dance scenes are a bit wild but I wouldn’t say crass, although that’s a matter of opinion. I’m sure by today’s standards they’d be considered soft “pawn.” I had a terrible flu when I watched the DVD and seeing the adorable Oupa definitely made me feel better, just like Moses’ brass serpent in the desert helped heal people when they watched it after they got sick from over-indulging in quail. People who are into TT’s and stuff will enjoy it, but I also recommend Snake Dancer to students of the history of SA film and for those who hanker after a bit of 1970s SA nostalgia.

this review originally appeared on amazon.co.uk

The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) has announce the long awaited amendments to the film and television production incentive.

According to the media report on the website www.thedti.gov/za the revised film production incentive is specifically intended to increase local content production and improve location competitiveness for foreign film productions in South Africa. The new incentives come into effect on 1 February 2008.

For the convenience of Screen Africa readers, we run the details of the dti media release below:

“The new film and television production incentive comprises of the Location Film and Television Production Incentive, and the South African Film and Television Production and Co-Production Incentive. The incentive is intended to increase local content generation and improve location competitiveness for filming in South Africa.

Location Film and Television Production Incentive

The Location Film and Television Production Incentive will replace the Large Budget Film and Television Production Rebate, which the dti implemented in 2004.

This component is only available to foreign-owned productions with Qualifying South African Production Expenditure (QSAPE) of R12 million and above. It provides a rebate of 15 per cent of the QSAPE to qualifying productions in the following formats: feature films, telemovies, television drama series, documentaries, animation and short form animations. Its aim is to attract large-budget overseas film and television productions to South Africa.

South African Film and Television Production and Co-Production Incentive

The South African Film and Television Production Incentive is being introduced in order to provide more financial support for locally-owned productions and co-productions.

This component is available to both South African productions and official treaty co-productions with a total production budget of R2,5 million and above. It provides a rebate of 35 per cent for the first R6 million, and 25% for the remainder of the qualifying production expenditure. The following formats are eligible: feature films, telemovies, television drama series, documentaries, animation and short form animations.

The value of the rebate for any qualifying production is capped at a maximum of R10 million.

Effectively, the following key changes are being introduced:

* The reduction of the threshold from R25 million QSAPE for foreign-owned productions to R12 million;
* A differential requirement that local-owned productions and co-productions must have at least R2,5 million of total production budget;
* An increase of the rebate from 25% up to 35% for local productions in order to ensure higher financial support for local productions;
* The reduction of the threshold will make the bundling of productions unnecessary for producers
* The provisions of the incentive will encourage production companies to advance industry transformation through adherence to the requirements of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment.

Moreover, the incentive is structured in such a way that it will provide necessary impetus to the growth of the South African film and television production industry thus creating an environment conducive for South African producers to attract investment and develop stable output and sustainable production companies.

All productions approved in terms of the Large Budget Film and Television Production Rebate would still be treated under the rules of that scheme, and will not be able to convert to the new incentive.

In addition to the financial support provided through the new rebate incentives, a number of other measures are being implemented as part of the broader sector development strategy. These include capacity development for emerging production companies, the development of writers and editors through the enterprise development programme and the establishment of five pilot programmes in different locations to address distribution infrastructure, local content and audience expansion.

Wed, 06 Feb 2008

The Gauteng Film Commission (GFC) has announced the second season of Gauteng Bioscope. There are more than 30 confirmed free screenings scheduled across various townships of Gauteng commencing Friday, 1 February.

The free screenings, consisting of a selection of contemporary African cinema, will be taking place during February and March in eight townships. The first four screenings will take place in Kliptown, Dobsonville, Swaneville and Muldersdrift. The confirmed titles include Vincent Moloi’s “A Pair of Boots and a Bi-Cycle”, Teboho Pietersen’s “Zizipho”, Maishi Teffo’s “Tonship-The Stories Untold” and Ntokozo Mahlalela’s “Tribes and Clans”.

Gauteng Bioscope, a GFC initiative, is aimed at re-establishing a vibrant township circuit. The first season implemented in 2007 in partnership with the Film Resource Unit (FRU) was hugely successful with both younger and older audiences. The audiences, which the GFC believes do not have regular access to cinemas, experienced 96 screenings in 18 townships across Gauteng.

In a press release issued by the GFC, CE Terry Tselane says that the films selected this year will cater for all age groups and will promote independently produced local content that tells stories which capture the South African experience and landscape.

In the apartheid era, cinemas throughout South African townships, including the historic Sans Souci in Soweto were lively social gathering places that pioneered a love of film. The events of the late 1980s eroded much of the communal film culture. The GFC would like to see the collective culture restored.

Tselane says that it is equally important to find alternatives to the established distribution networks to make a wider choice of content available to the broader community. Screenings will also be taking place at community centres in Attredgville, Mamelodi, Tembisa and Thokoza, and there are plans to roll out screenings to other townships and regions.

Fri, 01 Feb 2008

The South African movie Hitchher opens in movie theatres around the country on Friday 1 February.

Young heartthrob Paul Gardyne in his first film role, plays the role of a love-sick young bushveld boy, Regardt, who hitch hikes across the breath of the country in pursuit of his true love.

Following in the celebrity footsteps of their father, theatre impresario Richard Loring, are the Natasha and Samantha Loring. Cape Town based Natasha plays the lead role of Julie (Regardt’s love interest). London based Samantha plays the role of a fun, if slutty friend.

English hunk, Lee Savage, adds an international flavour to the cast, in the role of the young English gentleman who drives his Rolls Royce across South Africa as part of a bet.

He picks up the hapless young Regardt, and a comfortable friendship ensues, despite their complete economic and social opposing statuses.

Hitchhiker is the first feature film from SA Wild Productions and the Witch & Wizard Productions. Writer, director and producer, Chris du Toit, is well known in film, theatre and literary circles in South Africa, but this is his most ambitious effort in film making. Supported by acclaimed talent from the advertising and production world such as Jurie van Leeuwen, Cobus Zwennis and Theo Pretorius, the film is a technical masterpiece. This enterprising team of young film makers dug into their own pockets to make this feel good story.

Producer and director, Jurie van Leeuwen is well known for the success of SA Tourism’s award-winning “I am an African” international ad campaign.

The film also features industry stalwarts including Rika Sennett, Erica Wessels, Lynne Maree, Julie Hartley, Martin le Maitre, the late Roger Dwyer and the hilariously funny Trudie Taljaard, all who have featured popularly in films and on television in South Africa.

Thu, 24 Jan 2008

The Glow of White Women, Yunus Vally’s provocative film about a nice Muslim boy, miscegeny and sexual mores in modern South Africa has been selected for the Berlin Film Festival Panorama section premiering on 14 February at 17.00pm followed by Friday, 15 February at 13.00am, which will include a Q&A.

The Glow Of White Women is a frank, funny and slyly subversive account of Vally’s life from a child in a sleepy Afrikaans town who spent every afternoon in the madressah, to a young man in post-apartheid South Africa where all the rules have been rewritten.

The film is inventively put together using images from vintage magazines, the covers of pulp fiction novels, anatomical drawings and family photographs as well as archive news footage, South African tourism promotional films and commercials for skin whitening creams. This fast-paced succession of images is matched by an equally imaginative sound track incorporating everything from Cole Porter to a reinterpreted version of the Marie Osmond hit ‘Paper Roses’.

Interviewees include Evita Bezuidenhout, the radical drag queen who will be running for president of South Africa in 2009; Charlene Smith, the South African journalist who entered into a public debate with President Mbeki over black male sexuality after she was raped at knifepoint in her own home and Vally’s former white lovers.

He traces a path through his life which leads from his early fantasies about the lure of white women pictured in magazines to his obsession with Anneline Kriel, Miss South Africa and Miss World in 1974. A decade later, in 1984, the year South Africa repealed the Immorality Act (which forbade sexual relations between the races) Yunus Vally got himself to Yeoville, Johannesberg – a place of sexual and political freethinkers and declared himself a Trotskyite. ‘You had to be clever, radical, brilliant and the white girls would come running’, he says.

Although it’s a highly personal take Yunus Vally’s story provides a snapshot of how a whole generation of South Africans – both black and white - have been shaped by the past and the pull it still has on their present.

Fri, 18 Jan 2008

South African feature film Jerusalema has been selected for the prestigious Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival. The festival, which runs from 7 to 17 February, will be the setting for the world premiere of Jerusalema.

“We are thrilled at the privilege of being selected for Panorama. The Berlin Film Festival is the perfect launch platform for the film” says director, Ralph Ziman, whose first film Hearts & Minds premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 1996. Other films invited include Madonna’s directorial debut, Filth & Wisdom with Richard E Grant and Stuart Graham; and Transsiberian by Brad Anderson with Woody Harrelson, Ben Kingsley and Emily Mortimer.

Inspired by true events, Jerusalema takes a realistic and unwavering look into the gritty underbelly of crime, corruption and transgression in the new South Africa. The film chronicles the rise and fall of Luck Kunene (Rapulana Seiphemo) who from a young age always wanted a BMW and a sea view, but coming from a poor family in Soweto the odds were stacked against him. Carjacking or “affirmative repossession” as it’s called, gave him a glimpse of a brighter world.

When a heist goes wrong, Kunene and his childhood friend, Zakes (Ronnie Nykale), move to Hillbrow, the inner-city Johannesburg slum.

Years later Kunene’s home is a decaying tenement, strewn with prostitutes and junkies. The landlords are collecting rent whilst the tenants live twenty to an apartment, in decay and squalor.

Fed up, Kunene “persuades” the tenants into a better deal for their rent. Holding back the money, Kunene ruthlessly negotiates with the landlords, effectively stealing the buildings from under their noses. Taking over one building at a time Kunene quickly establishes his foothold in Hillbrow. When all else fails, force is used to secure his inner city property empire.

But with local drug lord, Tony Ngu (Malusi Skenjana) on the warpath, and an embittered cop, Detective Swart (Robert Hobbs) after him, Kunene must use all his street-smart to survive.

The film, directed by Ralph Ziman (Hearts & Minds, The Zookeeper) and produced by Tendeka Matatu (Max & Mona, Straight Outta Benoni, Footsktaing 101) through Muti Films, was shot in Johannesburg in late 2006 and should be released locally towards the middle of the year. It stars Rapulana Seiphemo (Tsosti, Muvangho, Isidingo), Jeffrey Sekele, Ronnie Nyakale, Shelly Meskin, Malusi Skenjana, Robert Hobbs, Kenneth Nkosi and newcomers Jafta Mamabolo and Motlatsi Mahloko.

The Panorama section of the Berlin film festival was established in 1986, it presents new works by well-known directors, as well as showcasing debut films and exciting new discoveries. The selection of films gives an overview of trends in world cinema and attempts to bridge the divide between artistic vision and commercial interests.

Thu, 17 Jan 2008

A new South African film, to be directed by Ian Gabriel, is an official selection for the 2008 Berlinale Co-Production Market. This is the only South African selection.

“Four Corners” is based on an original idea by Ian Gabriel (“Forgiveness”) and Hofmeyr Scholtz and is written by Scholtz. The entry is one of 35 films selected by the Berlinale out of a record 378 submissions from around the world. The Berlinale Co Production Market will form a significant element of the 58th annual Berlin Film Festival, which takes place from 7 to 17 February.

The 35 films selected for the Co-production Market are drawn from 25 countries and include both new talent and the work of renowned directors such as Agnieszka Holland (“To Kill a Priest”) and Deepa Mehta (“Water”). Selected by an international panel, the projects will be presented by their producers to invited international sales agents, distributors, co production partners and funding representatives active in the field of co-production. The Berlinale Co-Production Market boasts a consistently high success rate: 59 projects presented at the Berlinale in the last four years have since then gone into production or been released on screen.

“Four Corners” South African producers Cindy Gabriel of Giant Films and Genevieve Hofmeyr of Moonlighting Films will represent the project in Berlin in February.

The film is a redemptive coming of age story set in South Africa’s urban gang lands. It has been co-developed by Giant Films with Moonlighting Films since December 2005. Giant Films is also involved in a co-development deal with Moonlighting Films and Louverture Films New York, on the historic television series “Bush Babylon”, based on an original concept by Ian Gabriel. Danny Glover will executive produce the project, with Joslyn Barnes of Louverture Films New York.

Traditional African musicians were the original cultural activists, as shown in the new TV series Rhythms from Africa. Andrew Worsdale reports

“i get nervous when I hear filmmakers saying they’re “making doccies”,” says Cape Town-based producer/director Bridget Thompson. “The word “doccie” always reminds me of pet dogs, lap dogs perhaps with a carefully coiffed presentation — rather like a film that is formulaic, neat, contained and doesn’t probe beyond the superficial and obvious.”

Thompson’s four-part series, Rhythms from Africa, an imaginative collaboration with exiled Somalian filmmaker Abdulkadir Ahmed Said, steers clear of many of the strict humdrum codes of what she labels the “doccie” format.

Each of the films explores the way in which the people who shaped Zanzibar, Cape Town and Johannesburg also created uniquely vibrant musical cultures. The fourth film examines how young people develop and sometimes ignore these cherished traditions.

Says Said: “In the films we see music, the musicians and the different musical forms they created as the collective expression of a society’s soul.”

The series has been screened around the world already — in New York, France, England, Venezuela, Poland, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of Africa, as well as some hugely successful one-off festival and township screenings locally — but this is the first time it will be seen on South African television.

The first three episodes start with a brief introduction to the history of the specific society — tales of pain and blood under colonial slavery or apartheid. Each finishes with a note of hope. Taarab — an Ocean of Melodies, a stirring performance by Zanzibar’s Culture Music Club, established in 1958, pays tribute to the role of artists in society and reflects on their duty to use the gift given them for the collective good.

The traditional closing song of Taarab plays over the end credit roll, which starts with the lyrics translated from Swahili: “Ladies and gentlemen, goodbye to all of you. May every offence be forgiven. Be neither annoyed nor sad. We wish you an agreeable night. Praying for you that you may be blessed.”

In Gold, Tears and Music, about the development of marabi, kwela and mbaqanga in Johannesburg, musician Pops Mohammed plays the kora, symbolising all the African nations in the city’s mix, while calling for world peace.

In Our Language, Our Music, Our City?, although Cape Town is portrayed as unable to overcome centuries of colonial and racial division, the “kaleidoscopic” potential of the city is revealed in a multicultural musical celebration orchestrated by saxophone maestro Robbie Jansen.

The unusually titled episode, Scratch, Mix and … ?, featuring rap, kwaito and hip-hop, is more discursive but, interestingly, it was chosen to open a film festival in the million-strong barrio of Petare in Caracas. Argentinean poet Jorge Falcone said of the screening: “It was extraordinary to see Venezuelan people with African faces watching a screen, where African people with Venezuelan faces appeared, and to realise there was no difference between them.”

“Our thesis in the series was to explore the ways in which unique musical cultures had been created in a number of African cities while these cities were in formation through trade, slavery, migrant work and immigration. We wanted to see how the dhow trade affected Zanzibari musical culture, how the nature of the port influenced the shape of Cape Town sounds and how the train to Johannesburg brought people and their sounds from the whole Southern African region together to create a new musical energy — the idea being that the people who built a city shaped the musical culture as well.”

The directors say they were motivated by loss. The loss of any African musician who held the musical memory of a community is the loss of an entire orchestra. “It is shocking to realise how rapidly this heritage is being lost through globalisation. The profound culture and heritage they represent is often distorted and belittled. We hope this series reminds young people of the treasure chest of their elders� musical legacy.”

The urgency of passing on this musical inheritance is borne out by jazz bassist Spencer Mbadu: “The children who were born, as in 1979, they don’t know their history and they don�t know their music. Who’s John Coltrane? Who’s Mahlatini? It’s Tupac they’re crazy about.”

When the two filmmakers started in 1999 they had a proposal (and still do) to cover Africa and the diaspora, but didn’t have the capacity to continue. But there has been major interest from other countries. “In Latin America they’ve asked for more episodes and Abdulkadir was asked to do a film on the black roots of tango,” Thompson says.

“I was at a film festival in Iran as a juror and was asked by an Iranian producer to work with him on a film on Kurdish folk musicians — but there are no deals yet.”

Said says that, to take the series forward, “what we really need is a serious producer or partner with an African vision and sense of historical understanding so we can continue with it and do the whole continent justice.”

The one thing that perhaps makes them most proud is how the films place South Africa firmly on the continent. In a joint email, from the producer and the director, they state: “South Africans suffer from a lack of historical consciousness of how this nation came into being and who comprises its people. Even more so of the continent. Africa is still a place one goes to from South Africa, not a place that one is in already.”

Rhythms from Africa begins with Taarab — an Ocean of Melodies on Tuesday January 15 on SABC 1 at 9pm

this article originally appeared on mail & guardian online

Abdulkadir Ahmed Said, Director Acacia Entertainment (Mauritius/Somalia) and Bridget Thompson, Director Tomas Films (South Africa) are pleased to announce that this acclaimed series is finally being shown on SA television

Rhythms from Africa, a four-part documentary series on African music, will be shown at 21:00 on SABC1 on 15 January and 5, 12, 19 February 2008. It recognises that the loss of any one of Africa’s musicians who hold the musical memory of a community in their hands, voices and ears is the loss of an entire orchestra, and delves into the beauty of the music, the humility of the musicians and the profound message they have for society.

‘Taarab, an Ocean of Melodies’ is about the music of Zanzibar and the East African Coast. The next two episodes in the series, ‘Our Language, Our Music, Our City?’ and ‘Gold, Tears and Music’ look at the music of Cape Town and Johannesburg respectively. The final episode, ‘Scratch, Mix and ?’ looks at youth music in those three centers and poses the question of which way ahead for the musical traditions created in the three cities over many years.

The series has been warmly received in town and township around South Africa and in S and N America in Australia, New Zealand, Mlaysia, England, Poland, France and on the rest of the African continent at film festivals, in art exhibitions and to open concerts. It has won many accolades and prizes in particular a DAC heritage grant to enable screenings in a tour of Eastern and Western Cape townships in 2005,

The series was supported by AFRICALIA, AIR TANZANIA, BASA, Caltex Pty LTD, Cape Town City Council Cultural fund and SMME Fund, CWCI of the EU, Ford Foundation, NFVF, NLDTF, Public Eye for the Royal Netherlands Embassy, Southern African Initiatives Office & OVPR of the University of Michigan, Public Eye of the Royal Netherlands Embassy and many wonderful musicians and friends.

Tomas Films cc
PO Box 101
Woodstock 7915

Phone +27 +21 7881008
Fax +27 +21 7882442

Tomas Films cc
PO Box 101
Woodstock 7915

Phone +27 +21 7881008
Fax +27 +21 7882442

New local film for release
Mon, 07 Jan 2008

SA Wild Productions and the Witch & Wizard Productions in association with South African Tourism, are set to release “Hitchhiker”, a contemporary South African love story. Directed by Chris du Toit, the film is scheduled to release locally in February 2008.

“Hitchhiker” is set against the backdrop of South Africa’s acclaimed scenic settings from Mphumlanga to the Northern Cape to Cape Town. It features a soundtrack by Mel Botes, including a track by Watershed.

Industry stalwarts such as Rika Sennet, Erica Wessels, Lynne Maree, Martin le Maitre, the late Roger Dwyer and the eternally funny Trudie Taljaard feature in the film, as well as exciting new talent such as Paul Gardyne, Justine Gundelfinger, Samantha Loring, Natasha Loring, Warren Adler and the English actor, Lee Savage to mention a few.

“Hitchhiker” is a light-hearted, romantic movie that takes a look at the lifestyles of the rich and famous in South Africa. A young man leaves his game farm to go and convince the girl of his dreams that he loves her. She is a student at the University of Cape Town. He is offered a lift by a rich Englishman who is driving his vintage Rolls Royce from Johannesburg via Kimberley to the Cape. The two men strike up a comfortable friendship during the trip. They are both going to meet the women they adore on their arrival in Cape Town.

Filled with romance, jealousy, passion, old money and a bit of international crime to boot, “Hitchhiker” follows two parallel love stories from the Highveld bush to the winelands of Stellenbosch.

The film also showcases the scenic beauty of South Africa: Cape Town in all its splendour, including Clifton Beach and the West Coast, as never seen before. Breathtaking landscapes of Mphumalanga and historic Kimberley are active characters in the movie.

For more info visit www.hitchhikermovie.co.za.

this article first appeared on screenafrica.com

Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood. With Presley Chweneyagae, Terry Pheto, Mothusi Magano, Kenneth Nkosi, Zola, Ian Roberts and others.

There is one scene in Tsotsi that sums the central logic of the film. It sets up the binary between individuals and the masses, state and citizens, and order and chaos. When the police find a car that the central character, Tsotsi (Chweneyagae) had hijacked, the camera first dwells on the how the car has been stripped of all removable parts that can be sold for scrap, then pans to show a wide expanse of shacks on the other side of an open field. The camera favours the vantage point of the police, standing helplessly outside the massive township.

This perspective of individuals up against an undifferentiated mass gets affirmed soon after by dialogue in which the police officers tell the car’s owner (whose child was inside the car when it was hijacked), that they cannot even find a stolen car in the township, never mind a baby.

In essence South Africa ten years into democracy is one in which the Freedom Charter’s ‘security for all’ has largely been narrowed down to those that can afford to pay for it, one in which ‘private-public partnerships’ are the order of the day, and as such it is no coincidence that it is a private security firm that is later called upon to save the good middle-class citizen from the claws of Tsotsi and his gang.

The film tells the story of a character known as Tsotsi (roughly translated, ‘thug’), leader of a criminal gang in Johannesburg. After a violent altercation with one of his comrades, Tsotsi (movingly played by Chweneyagae) is confronted by his inner demons. He runs off into the night, traversing the empty space between the township and the suburbs, the no man’s land that signifies what still seems like an insurmountable (and growing) divide between rich and poor in post-apartheid South Africa.

In a series of flashbacks, hints are given to Tsotsi’s childhood experiences of hardship. In a suburban street Tsotsi, still in emotional turmoil, sees a women get out of her car to buzz open the gate to her house. As she turns her back, Tsotsi - in what seems like an involuntary, mechanic action – shoots the woman, hijacks the car and speeds off. A few blocks away he hears crying from the back seat – a baby had been left in the car. For a moment Tsotsi hesitates, then stuffs the baby in a carrier bag and takes him along.

The rest of the narrative centers around the consequences of this decision, both on a mundane level (some comic effect is gained from the impracticalities of Tsotsi plying his trade as a gangster while having to care for the infant), but more significantly, on a psychological level.

keep reading this important analysis on chimurenga.co.za

by martin p. botha

The South African film industry is one of the oldest in the world. A long history of documentary filmmaking dates back to 1896. Edgar Hyman filmed scenes of Johannesburg and President Paul Kruger. The first ever newsreels were filmed at the front during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) and at the same time fake newsreel footage of battles were shot to create propaganda for Britain’s war effort.

New York-born Isodore W. Schlesinger’s African Films started a tradition of newsreel production in the form of The African Mirror, the world’s longest-running newsreel (1913-1984). During the next six decades The African Mirror captured current affairs in South Africa, but in a rather superficial manner and since 1948 it was used as a propaganda tool to support the dominant culture of apartheid. In 1937 and 1938 a “documentary” was made with a deliberately propagandistic agenda, namely Die Bou van ‘n Nasie (They Built A Nation).

It attempted to depict the history of the white Afrikaner people and was made to be used as part of the celebration of the centenary of the Great Trek (Afrikaners leaving the Cape Province to settle elsewhere in South Africa) and the Battle of Blood River, a clash between Afrikaners and Zulus in the nineteenth century. The centenary included a re-enactment of the Great Trek, with ox-wagons starting from Cape Town on the 800 mile journey to Pretoria. As was intended the event was a great outpouring of patriotic sentiment, with the political goal to celebrate white Afrikaner nationalism. Another notable documentary of the 1930s was The Golden Harvest of the Witwatersrand (1939), which celebrated the mining industry in South Africa. It won a Special Mention Award at the 1939 Venice Film Festival.

Although a state subsidy for fiction feature films has been available between 1956 and 1995 no money was granted to documentary films other than propaganda films made by the National Film Board. Although the South African government of the 1950s consulted John Grierson of Canada’s National Film Board regarding the establishment of a national film board for South Africa, his recommendations for experimentation within film to stimulate a truly national cinema and the democratic process, were basically ignored. Ten years after he submitted his report in 1954, the National Film Board (NFB) was established and functioned primarily as a production and distribution facility for the apartheid government’s National Party (NP) propaganda. The structure was finally dismantled in 1979. Documentaries such as Anatomy of Apartheid (1964) attempted to defend apartheid policy.

It was left to independent filmmakers after 1948 to look at the socio-political realities of South Africa under apartheid in a critical manner. The reality of South African filmmaking was that in many ways black South Africans were excluded. Black South Africans had no money to make films. They had no access to equipment. Opportunities were almost non-existent for black scriptwriters or directors to create their own images on the screen.

By the end of the 1950s and the first decade of the National Party Government, most of the worst laws of mandatory separation had been passed - regulating education, sexual relationships, work, living space, in fact, virtually every area of human activity, on the base of race. New York independent filmmaker, Lionel Rogosin’s Come Back, Africa (1959),

the first local film to be made covertly, tells the story of a black man, Zacharia, who becomes trapped in the classic South African situation: A migrant worker without skills looking for a job where he has no right to work. The film is a seminal work on the conditions of blacks under apartheid, depicted in a semi-documentary style.

One of the seminal documentaries on the horrors of apartheid is Nana Mahomo’s Last Grave at Dimbaza (1974).

It is an insight into the lives of people living under apartheid during the 1970s. So powerful was the indictment provided by Last Grave at Dimbaza that the South African government produced a film during the 1970s to counter its effects, entitled To Act A Lie (1978). The South African Embassy in London tried to stop the film being broadcast on the BBC and in the controversy that followed, the BBC allowed the South African government to screen their own film alongside Last Grave at Dimbaza. This film led to an international media war over South Africa’s image. Last Grave at Dimbaza won the Grand Prix at the Melbourne Film Festival. When Mahomo made Last Grave at Dimbaza in 1974 he was a member of the Pan African Congress and wanted to use the film medium to educate people about the horrors of apartheid and the conditions in South Africa. His films are characterised by a direct and simple approach to shooting (much of the camera is hand-held and shots are repeated) and are edited with the intention of maximising understanding. Unfortunately Mahomo was forced to live a large part of his life outside South Africa, for example in Botswana. He was one of the few black film directors in South Africa during the 1970s.

Ironically in the same year as Mahomo’s anti-apartheid documentary another South African documentary received international praise: The Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary went to Jamie Uys’s Beautiful People,

a celebration of wildlife in the Namib and Kalahari deserts of Southern Africa. Since Uys’s international success several South African filmmakers won international acclaim for their work on wildlife, the environment and nature conservation including Neill Curry (A Stitch in Time, African Ark, A Fragile Harmony, Bring Back the Red-Billed Oxpecker, Touchstones, Eagles and Farmers) and Trevor de Kock (Springbok of the Kalahari, City Slickers).

Since the late 1970s and the early 1980s a group of film and video producers and directors who were not affiliated to the established film companies in the mainstream film industry, made documentaries about the socio-political realities of the majority of South Africans. Some of these films were shown at local film festivals such as the Durban and Cape Town International Film Festivals, and from 1987 until 1994, the Weekly Mail Film Festival. Other venues included universities, church halls, trade union offices and the private homes of interested parties. Most of the films experienced censorship problems during the State of Emergency during the 1980s, and many were banned.

The films had small budgets and were either financed by the directors/producers themselves, by progressive organisations such as the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa (IDAF), which was striving for an united, democratic, non-racial South Africa, and overseas television stations. The documentaries were nearly all made with an international audience in mind in order to get support for the anti-apartheid movement and to educate an international audience on the horrors of apartheid. Notable earlier work included Anthony Thomas’s The South African Experience (1977), Peter Davis’s White Laager (1977) and Chris Austin’s Rhythms of Resistance (1979). In 1980 two major productions on the history of the South African liberation struggle against apartheid were released internationally: Peter Davis’s Generations of Resistance (1979) and Barry Feinberg’s Isitwalandwe for IDAF. The latter was the first in a long line of films and videos in the 1980s to keep the conscience of the world alive to the issues at stake in South Africa under apartheid. IDAF was instrumental in establishing an alternative news distribution office in London by providing financial and logistical assistance to anti-apartheid documentary filmmakers.

Some of the most seminal political documentaries of the 1980s came from Video News Services (VNS), which included filmmakers such as Brian Tilley, Laurence Dworkin, Nyana Molete and Tony Bensusan. With the assistance of IDAF one of the first productions by Tilley, Dworkin and Molete was Forward to a People’s Republic (1982), which depicted the dynamics of the political conflict in South Africa at the time, juxtaposing the black majority’s militancy with white militarization. From this group of young filmmakers VNS was formed in April 1985. The unit was founded at a stage when foreign television crews were being established in South Africa and local filmmakers found themselves with no control over what was being filmed and what political analysis was made. These filmmakers saw themselves as political activists engaging with the Apartheid State from the side of the liberation struggle. For VNS to achieve this and avoid being shut down, Afravision was established in London to interface with the international arena and solidarity movements, and in South Africa, VNS crews made themselves indistinguishable from the foreign media operating here. They were thus able to work in the terrain without detection. VNS, through its relationships with the unions, churches, civic and youth structures began distributing “video pamphlets,” which serve as a type of news network. They were aimed at South Africans and covered a wide range of current affairs such as vigilante killings, strikes and the white election process.

Apart from VNS other documentary filmmakers have also made important work on political issues during the apartheid regime, including the following themes:

* The forced removal of people from urban and rural communities under the Group Areas Acts and the Homelands policy: Crossroads (1976), Mayfair (1984), Last Supper at Horstley Street (1985) and Katriver: End of Hope (1984)
* Labour problems and organisation: Passing the Message (1981) and Freedom Square and Back of the Moon (1987)
* Different forms of community struggle such as the development of literacy and health projects in rural and urban communities: Ithuseng (1987) and Robben Island: Our university (1988)

* The role of women in the anti-apartheid struggle: You Have Struck a Rock (1981) and The Ribbon (1986)
* General political situation: No Middle Road to Freedom (1984), The Struggle from Within (1983), Witness to Apartheid (1986) and The Two Rivers (1985)
* The role of the church in the anti-apartheid struggle: A Cry of Reason (1987)
* The destruction of indigenous cultures: The People of the Great Sandface (1985) and Have You Seen Drum Recently? (1986).

Kevin Harris is one of the most significant, as well as prolific documentary and community filmmakers in South Africa. His work has already received much international praise, as well as several Oscar nominations. Kevin Harris was born in Pietermaritzburg in 1950 and qualified as an electrical engineer in 1973. From 1974 till 1979 he worked at the South African Broadcasting Corporation. Since 1979, because of his political convictions, he practised as an independent documentary filmmaker. Best known internationally for Witness to Apartheid (1987) this documentary was shot clandestinely during the State of the Emergency of the 1980s and subsequently banned. It is a dramatic exposure of the extent of apartheid’s violence and brutality. The narrative consists of testimonies of victims, as well as eyewitnesses to police repression and torture including children as young as fourteen, who were beaten in detention.

kevin harris

With the unbanning of political organisation such as the African National Congress (ANC) and release of political prisoners in 1990, the immediate direct goal of anti-apartheid films had begun to be achieved. Political filmmakers, however, continued to focus on the process of transition itself, to which a large number of films on CODESA (the negotiation process leading up to the 1994 democratic elections) and on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) attest. One significant film from the time is Liz Fish’s The Long Journey of Clement Zulu,

which follows three political activists after their release from imprisonment on Robben Island. Unprecedented freedom of access also allowed new forms of purely observational filmmaking: Harriet Gavshon and Cliff Bestall’s series Ordinary People (1993), a groundbreaking product in terms of South African television at the time, followed ordinary South Africans as they dealt with newfound freedom and in the process, documents the transitions in South African society.

Filmmakers were also now finally allowed to probe and reveal what actually happened under apartheid, with the result that many films were now concerned with the past. Various films about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) process were made, including Lindi Wilson’s The Guguletu Seven,

which depicts the uncovering by TRC investigators of security police duplicity in the murder of seven Cape Town activists. Many of the older generation of political filmmakers have felt the weight of responsibility for making sense of a hitherto-concealed and painful past. Documentary filmmaking during the 1980s was based on audio-visual material that reflected the realities of the black majority of South Africa in their aspirations and struggle for a democratic society, but since the beginning of the 1990s other marginalised voices were added to these documentaries and short films, for example those of women, gays and lesbians, and even the homeless. Most of these documentaries can be described as progressive film texts in the sense that the majority of them are consciously critical of racism, sexism or oppression. They dealt with the lives and struggle of the people in a developing country and were mostly allied with the liberation movements for a non-racial, non-sexist South Africa.

Some of these documentaries also dealt with events which were conveniently left out in official South African history books or in a contemporary context in actuality programmes on national television under control of the Nationalist regime. Therefore, they became guardians of popular memory within the socio-political process in South Africa. Examples are Between Joyce and Remembrance (2003), The Guguletu Seven (2000), The Life and Times of Sara Baartman (1998), Ernest Cole (1999), Ulibambe Lingashoni: A comprehensive history of the ANC (1993), and What Happened to Mbuyisa? (1998).

For the first time South African audiences are exposed to certain marginalised communities, such as the homeless in Francois Verster’s remarkable documentary

Pavement Aristocrats: The Bergies of Cape Town (1998), the Himbas of Kaokoland in Craig Matthew’s Ochre and Water (2001), AIDS victims in Shouting Silent (2001), the gay subcultures of the fifties and sixties in The Man Who Drove With Mandela (1998), street children in Hillbrow Kids (1999), prison inmates in Cliff Bestall’s Cage of Dreams (2000) and the San in the Foster Brothers’ visual poem The Great Dance (1999). The latter has already won more than 35 international and national awards, the most for a single film in the history of South African cinema.

Ten years after South Africa has become a democracy the documentary film industry is blossoming. At various international film festivals during 2003 and 2004, including FESPACO, Rotterdam, Berlin, Cannes, Genova, Zanzibar and the Commonwealth Film Festival, retrospectives of South African cinema, including documentaries, were held.

The present is indeed an exciting time for South African features, documentaries and shorts. The South African Government and local government in regions such as Gauteng, KwaZulu Natal and the Western Cape have been quick to realise that the film industry offers this country huge earning potential and the creation of jobs. The government’s national funding institution, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has a fund of R250 million per annum earmarked for the film industry within South Africa. The IDC provides financial assistance by means of loans. Parallel with this, the South African Department of Arts and Culture and the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) have made grants to a total of 60 million rands available to filmmakers during the past few years, including documentaries. The IDC, for example, contributed to the budget of Craig and Damon Foster’s documentary feature Cosmic Africa (2002).

Shot on High Definition this visual masterpiece explores and sheds light on traditional African astronomy. Using oral storytelling aesthetics the film vividly captures the remarkable personal journey of African astronomer, Thebe Medupe, through the ancestral land of Namibia’s hunter-gatherers, the Dogon country of Mali and the landscapes of the Egyptian Sahara Desert. This seminal work swept eight awards at the 2003 National Television and Video Association’s Stone Awards ceremony and received ecstatic acclaim at the Ten Years of Freedom festival in New York in 2004.

Apart from Cosmic Africa several outstanding documentaries were made and screened during the 2003/2004. One was impressed by the poetic beauty of A Fisherman’s Tale, a 26-minute personal narrative documentary film set in Kalkbay, Cape Town. Initially it starts as the story of a young man who takes his father’s fishing lines and goes out to sea with the hope of finding what the ocean means to the fishermen. The young man’s story is addressed to his mother. But then the film takes another direction and becomes a moving reflection on the despair and hopelessness of these people’s lives as globalization takes its effect, leaving entire South African subsistence fishing communities on dry land.

Structurally it is amazing to note how the personal narrative about the author’s inability to communicate with his Dad, and the emotions that he could never articulate to his mother, is seamlessly integrated with the harsh conditions of the fishing community. With funding from the NFVF director Riaan Hendricks has realised this project after three hard years. Like in the case of the Foster Brothers (Cosmic Africa, The Great Dance) Hendricks’s documentary is enough proof that documentary work could be personal and poetic, and still succeed as non-fiction.

And documentaries in the post-apartheid South Africa has indeed moved away from the stark political texts of the 1980s to become more personal. Screened all over the world, Project 10, a series of documentaries which examine th