Andrew Worsdale
The First International Southern African Film Market has drawn to a close in Cape Town. Our reporters were there
THE scale and organisational success of last week’s Film and TV Market in Cape Town was amazing – especially considering the organisers didn’t know if all their finance was in place until four weeks ago and had to maintain a brave front to prospective participants.
Funding was eventually secured from the SABC (R1-million); the Cape Film and Video Foundation through a grant from the Western Cape Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP); Longkloof Studios; The Rockefeller Foundation; M-Net, Nu-Metro and Ster-Kinekor. The Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology provided the final financial fill-up.
Much credit is due to the market’s director, Dezi Rrich, a spunky brunette who is a rare being – kind and gentle in an industry known for its cut-throat bitches and bastards. Rrich has much experience of the world’s movie markets, in Los Angeles, Milan and of course Cannes, as Anant Singh’s publicist.
“Let’s face it,” she told me, “There’s no real movie finance in South Africa, you always have to look for outside money and only the major local industry figures have the capital to fly around the world to network; so the idea was to bring the overseas players here. I’m very happy that this is international, not pan-African or just local.” However, some local delegates felt there were not enough African representatives. “This is like Jo’burg by the sea, I seem to be running into the same faces all the time,” a local producer said.
Arriving at the BarCafeDeli, a restaurant at the market’s Longkloof Studios site, I encountered throngs of familiar local industry figures stuck in earnest conversation, checking whose cellphone was ringing and probably wondering whether other feature or documentary producers had struck a deal with the few foreigners present. But to be fair, the overall attendance was far beyond Rrich’s expectations – there were over 1 000 delegates and she had expected 450. “The first Cannes Film Festival had 700 delegates, so I think the attendance here was amazing,” Rrich said. Even if the hip independents like Miramax, Fine Line or Recorded Releasing failed to arrive, it was constructive for the local players to get together and exchange ideas.
The most universal bitch was about the glittering M-Net awards show. Alvon Collison, who offers to perform at weddings and barmitzvahs in the Cape classifieds, was the “star”. The flabby Alvon was accompanied by equally overweight and klunky dancers in spandex. Their routine started with the lyrics “Cape Town, Cape Town!” and then murdered extracts from Hollywood musicals. It was evidently very embarrassing.
“M-Net probably spent more on the tacky extravaganza than on developing movies this year,” remarked one aghast delegate, “I mean, when will the award show’s producers ever realise we’re in Africa – not some repertory dinner theatre in America’s trashy suburbs?”
As for the awards, the Grand Prize went to Cheick Omar Sissoko’s exquisite historical epic Guimba. Les Blair’s tale of Johannesburg as a new Babylon, Jump the Gun, scooped the most kudos, winning six awards – Best Southern African Film; Best Actor for Lionel Newton; Best Supporting Actress and Actor to Michelle Burgers and Thulani Nyemba; Best Newcomer to Baby Cele; and Best Sound to Simon Rice and Bob Hazel. Ironically enough, the movie was fully financed by Channel Four.
The picture’s local co-producers, Catalyst Films and Xencat Pictures, were the hot local names of the festival. They held a reception aboard a yacht anchored in the Waterfront that was deemed the festival’s most successful party. Over 70 people crammed aboard to imbibe free whisky. With the boat rocking buoyantly in the gale, many already felt intoxicated as they embarked. Catalyst director Jeremy Nathan said of the market: “It’s been very interesting. We haven’t really been doing any new business just firmly developing relationships we already had, but overall it’s been very positive.”
The seminars were very productive – especially a co-production finance workshop- cum-pitching session to the likes of BBC Film’s Mark Shivas and the Discovery Channel’s Nick-Comer Calder, organised by Katrina Wood of MediaXchange and Steven Markovitz of Big World Cinema. Buffeted by the fierce south-easter on the yacht, Shivas told me “some of the pitches I’ve heard have been a trifle nave, but I think it’s valuable for people to have the experience. Unfortunately, most of the projects are not of particular interest to me right now but it gives me an idea of the kinds of stories that are coming to the surface. I believe that in a couple of years or so we will do a number of pictures in South Africa”.
Cape Town-based director Revel Fox said he’d received some positive response for his film The Flier, the tale of a gangster who becomes a trapeze artist and a pilot, but noticed despondent delegates who didn’t get firm financial feedback. “People think pitching sessions are like a coconut shy,” he said.
The most peculiar story emerging from these sessions involved two independent producers with a project entitled African Beauties, about sexy pin-up girls from Fifties magazines. For some inexplicable reason their “potential investors” were a Dutch church group.
The success stories: Terry Star, an employee of Rrich’s, secured a pre-sale for a weekly drama series. Ingrid Penderis found European and American partners for her eight-part documentary series entitled Wisdom Keepers, about the colonisation of Africa’s spirit.
While some delegates might be disappointed they didn’t come back with a cheque in the pocket, they nevertheless met loads of people. Now the real work of follow-ups and continuing dialogue with potential interests starts. No one ever said film-making was an easy hustle.