Andrew Worsdale
South African film-makers got northern=20 exposure over the past week at the 51st=20 Edinburgh Film Festival, the oldest=20 continuous film-fest in the world.=20 (Remember, movies turned a century-old only=20 last year.)
Top of the line-up was the official United=20 Kingdom premiere of Les Blair’s=20 naturalistic massage of Jo’burg’s=20 underbelly, Jump The Gun. One has to be=20 grateful that the Brits let us see it first=20 -the movie has since played out its time on=20 local screens.=20
Featured in the festival side-bar=20 “Imagining Reality” was Johannesburg=20 Stories, a 75-minute documentary co- directed by Brian Tilley (The Line) and=20 Oliver Schmitz (Mapantsula), that treats=20 the sordid realities of Gauteng city life=20 like a fictional movie featuring two nurses=20 who’ve turned to prostitution, an 80-year- old pensioner, a street kid and a graduate=20 student. SABC1’s documentary commissioning=20 editor, Pat Kelly, has pledged to screen=20 the programme later this year.=20
Also featured at the fest was a round of=20 short films, including The Vow and=20 Watercolours, two 10-minute films that were=20 part of the UK’s Channel Four’s commitment=20 to developing local movie-making with=20 Yeoville-based production company Catalyst=20 Films, who seemed to rule the roost at the=20 festival. They were co-producers of Jump=20 the Gun and of the six-part Africa Dreaming=20 series, which premiered at the fest.=20
The lone independent short was Roger=20 Young’s Coming out of Water, starring Eric=20 Myeni.
Lizzie Francke (former movie writer for the=20 UK’s Sight and Sound and The Guardian)=20 wanted a more comprehensive South African=20 side-bar but is waiting until 1999 when=20 there should be loads more stuff to show.=20
Catalyst producer Jeremy Nathan said of the=20 festival: “It’s not a schmoozy deal-making=20 event; it’s fundamentally a highly regarded=20 and influential place for the UK film and=20 TV industries to connect with each other.”=20
Evidently the South African screenings went=20 well. “Probably every South African in=20 Scotland attended them. Even then, 90=20 percent of the audience were the ordinary=20 Scots public and there were amazing=20 questions and answers after the=20 screenings,” says Nathan.=20
Jump The Gun opened on three screens in=20 London, Bristol and Southampton. Next week=20 it’s set for three more screens further=20 north. The reception has generally been=20 positive. Loaded, a magazine devoted to=20 boozy men who love soccer and stand-up=20 comics said: “It shines like a new penny up=20 a chimney sweep’s arse.” Time Out judged=20 the film “genuinely original and genuinely=20 magnificent”.
However, British cinemagoers didn’t respond=20 to the critics’ generous reviews. The =20 first weekend box-office results are=20 reported to have been luke warm to=20 disinterested.