South African film and film-makers are finally getting the recognition – and the budget allocation – they deserve. ANDREWWORSDALE details the good news
IN the mid-1980s, South Africa produced up to 80 films a year, mostly financed through devious tax evasion schemes. Most of them were tacky American Ninja dramas or Platoon ripoffs with KwaZulu-Natal doubling as Vietnam. Last year, the local film industry produced only three feature films, two of which were financed by the United States or the United Kingdom. This year everything seems set to change – with the cinematic benevolence of Pretoria.
Local film-makers are either gleeful about the prospect of receiving money from the Department of Arts, Science, Culture and Technology or deeply regret not having applied for a slice of the R10-million that was on offer. The department advertised only in the middle of January, asking film- makers to submit proposals by February, and it seemed from the advertising that most of the funds would go to affirmative action- type proposals.
In the end the whole process was incredibly rushed and panel members acknowledge that this, the state’s first venture into film funding, didn’t go as smoothly as possible.
Some insiders believe that the panel consisted of their peers in the industry, some of whom had vested interests in projects. How to set up an accountable selection committee was always going to be a problem. Look at the recent ravages of the IBA.
Themba Wakashe, the Chief Director of Culture, responsible for museums, film and international cultural relations, is candid about the administrative shortcomings: “It was mainly due to under-staffing. We knew we’d be inundated with requests but we had only one person driving the engine.”
That person, Neville Singh, deputy director of film at the department, was also frank about the standard of proposals submitted, saying that the interim panel, consisting of leading film-makers like Anant Singh, Jeremy Nathan, Lionel Ngkane and Melanie Chait, recognised there were too few good scripts and claimed that proposals were sub-standard. And that producers were inexperienced and budgets were woefully ill-prepared.
The result is that the panel set aside R1,951-million to address the weaknesses identified, with special emphasis on script-writing and producer workshops over the next year.
As for the other dosh, several film-makers came out smiling. The bulk of the money, R2,115-million, went towards helping finance the development and production of documentaries, and it seems the panel chose to reward the producers who’ve delivered competent movies in the past.
Hence M>V head Harriet Gavshon, who applied for R29 000 for development money for a doccie about Saartjie Baartman, was given R150 000. Similarly, independent film director Nic Hofmeyer, who has helmed some of the country’s finest music videos and documentary inserts, applied for R50 000 for a film about Main Reef Road and was awarded R150 000.
In contrast, Mweli Mzizi of Streetwise Filmworks applied for nearly R3-million to develop a feature film entitled Witbank Scam and was told that it would work better as a short so was given R120 000 to develop the script. In one instance a cineaste applied for R12-million to produce a feature film, with part of the budget allocated to buying a brand-new 35mm camera.
Despite some of the far-fetched applications, from all the figures it appears the panel was pragmatic and realistic in its decisions to help fund local film-makers who come up with the goods. Gavshon says: “The funding has helped me a hell of a lot. Now I can come to the table with overseas producers with some financial credibility. I mean even a phone call to a French producer can cost a fortune … I’m so happy. After all, this has never happened in this country before.”
Thirty-three grants were given to developing feature films (with amounts ranging from R5 000 to R75 000); nine grants were given to the development of short films; two for R100 000 each were given to the production of shorts.
Three grants of R400 000 each were given for production money on features, namely Fools (shot here last year and recently completed); Pure Blood , a feature about a security guard at the Police Museum, which has been in development by Bioskope Pictures for nearly a decade, and Street Bash, a Soweto-set gangster story produced by Laduma Film Factory’s Angus Gibson.
TV drama series proposals also benefited with seven projects receiving funding ranging from R20 000 to 10 times that amount. Five companies got funding for video projects and over R1,5-million was disbursed to training projects and training institutions.
But by far the most money – over 29 proposals were rewarded with funds – went to the development and production of documentaries, with stories ranging from Sol Plaatje and Steve Biko, to a tale of The Moffie Who Drove Mandela, submitted by ex-Mail & Guardian writer Mark Gevisser.
With the government recently returned from a successful sojourn at the Cannes Film Festival, where Deputy Minister Brigitte Mabandla (according to one participant) did “a magnificent job”.
The department is buoyant about the future prospects of the film industry. Connections were made with the British, Canadian and Australian film commissions and foreigners and locals, by all accounts, were liverish with Cannes-itis but revved up about the possibilities for the industry. Wakashe said earlier this week: “My only hope is that people, industry players and audiences, will have more confidence in a local film industry.”
But as panel member Jeremy Nathan noted, of the more than 800 proposals submitted, M- Net was involved in only one project , while the SABC was attached to only three or four.
Nathan says: “It’s critical that the films that get made get a broadcaster and a distributor. It seems it’s the government that is leading the way and it’s high time that others like Ster-Kinekor and the SABC came to the party.”
But the new-found cinematic optimism borne by many of the film-makers who’ve received a boost from the state is reflected by much-banned author, actor and gay activist Matthew Krouse, who received money to develop his screenplay The Bartering of Souls, the saga of an ageing drag queen, a gay writer and his Zimbabwean lover. “I think it’s a mark of the bravery of the panel to support an openly gay work. In the past a story like this would never have got funding. It would have been banned.”
With the institution of the Film and Video Foundation, to be confirmed by Parliament in early July, there’s the chance that a special allocation of more finance will be available to aspirant and working film- makers later this year. So hang in, and practice at those proposals.