An upcoming conference may be the South African feature film industrys last chance to deal with its inner fragmentation, writes William Pretorius
THE South African feature film industry is not quite dead. The corpse still twitches: Willie Estherhuisen of Orkney Snork Nie fame is busy with Lipstick, Dipstick, and Dirk de Villiers with Kalahari Harry — both likely to be lowest common denominator comedies. But theres a bright side: Darrell Roodt is about to start work on his movie version of Alan Patons classic Cry the Beloved Country.
But is there any reason for future optimism? Martin Botha of the Human Sciences Research Council, who has just received a very substantial grant to research local film, suggests a very guarded maybe. He should know. Hes worked on proposals for various film organisations, co-edited a fat tome, Movies, Moguls and Mavericks, and co-authored Alternative Images in South African Film.
Hes also just returned from the 24th Griffoni Film Festival in Italy where he presented a mini- festival of six local films and was awarded a Bronze Gryphon for his research work.
Everyones interested in film these days. Bothas office has charts and graphs and lists of film organisations. But, says Botha, there are too many organisations, not enough co-operation. This diversity could lead to further fragmentation and the history of the local industry is already one of fragmentation, of politicians and bureaucrats deciding whats best for the industry with very little consultation with the industry itself.
Thats why Botha is pinning his hopes on the Wings of Change film conference in Cape Town early next year — the first of its kind in which all the organisations have the chance to come together. The conference is symbolic: film makers, academics, politicans, industry workers should get together and declare the old South African cinema dead and create a new unified one, says Botha.
Miss this deadline, and forever hold your peace. The industry will hobble along on the old system: the government subsidy is now a meagre R3-million per year. There will be no developmental money, no encouragement for new filmmakers. Another wasted year.
But the word unified, and the idea of a national film corporation, rings alarm bells. Doesnt conformity stifle? Botha, however, talks about fluid structures. Without policy documents, without a central statutory film body, an industry is impossible. Sensitivity is the key.
And Hollyveld and its exploitation of the local industry shouldnt happen again. We need co- productions, but the local industry must also be protected. We need interdependence with Africa, but we also need Europe, other influences — Roodts work, for example, is valuable precisely because it is in tension with American films.
But will this be more than a pipe dream, or a research paper? Botha will work in close co- operation with the film industry, keeping an eye open for potential conflict: There are a lot of vested interests in the industry at odds with each other. It will be a major task to get full co- operation.
Then theres the problem of venues. Any advance will be fruitless if there arent cinemas. Establishing cinemas in rural areas is a priority – – mainstream distributors will take years to build these areas. And there have to be audiences aware of local film, as Bothas research shows. Everyone knows who won the Oscars. But can you tell me who won the M-Net film awards, or which films won at the WM&G short film festival?
These are some of the questions that must be faced if the local feature film industry is to pull itself out of the doldrums of the lowest common denominator.