Andrew Worsdale Sithengi, the fifth Southern African Film and Television Market, was held at the Spier Wine Estate near Stellenbosch, 45 minutes from Cape Town, from November 13 to 16. Although the organisers boasted an increase in attendance with 1?420 delegates, in comparison to previous years, the atmosphere felt less charged and more cautious. Added to this was the daily schlep every day to get to Spier. Luckily the Market laid on free buses every morning and at night to return to the Cape Town CBD. At the opening ceremony Sithengi chair Angela van Schalkwyk said the film and broadcasting industries were poised to become the fastest job creators in the country. “Figures in the recent Broadcasting Green Paper estimate that the industry (particularly pay-TV) is growing at a rate of 6,1% three times that of the national economy. Film and television content alone is estimated to be worth about R1,4-billion. We believe that Sithengi has greatly facilitated this growth. For example, we are aware of at least R100-million worth of production briefs that will be issued here.” Sithengi is first and foremost a developmental event, encouraging local and overseas professionals to share knowledge and understanding of both the local and foreign markets. Conferences promoting knowledge-sharing this year included the Co-Production Forum, where participants pitched 10 documentaries, eight feature films and nine short films. The panel included broadcasting commissioning editors from Finland, Denmark, the Soros Documentary Fund, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Holland, the Czech Republic and the Mannheim Film Festival’s co-production initiative.
The Mannheim outfit was so impressed by Bart Fouche’s pitch for his short situation comedy, The Basket, that Fouche was awarded a sponsorship to attend next year’s Mannheim Film Festival. This year Sweden’s SVT and SABC3 collaborated to find new short film projects and allocated budgets of R500 000. Dorothy Brislin Ntone, Co-Production Forum coordinator, said: “Over and above the potential for investment in and fast-tracking of new projects, the forum presents an opportunity for information and knowledge to be exchanged. The learning curve on all sides is immense. The issue here is that what is gained from ‘eyeball to eyeball’ contact cannot be replaced by any other process.”
Among other events M-Net held a brunch where it announced plans to commission a new local sitcom. Elsewhere a ground-breaking project, spearheaded by the Finnish national broadcaster YLE, was put forward. This will be a series on Aids-related issues in Southern Africa called Steps for the Future at a budget of R12-million. It will consist of 10 28-minute documentaries, 20 five-minute documentaries, several music videos, experimental films and personal diaries from directors in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. A workshop was held by the group Women of the Sun an international coalition of African women and women of African descent in the film industry. Susheila Moodley who facilitated the workshop said the event would examine “whether women have achieved their potential in terms of the goals they set out within their work in the film and TV industry”.
Another important event that occurred was the launch of Filminafrica.com an independent industry Web portal that is the first initiative of its kind to promote the Southern African region as a prime film and video destination for overseas film-makers. Despite a lot of industry machinations and deal-making that happened behind the scenes, one of the most disappointing elements of this year’s Sithengi was the lack of screenings of new South African product. A lot of the films that showed at the market screenings were also on show last year. The opening film was the premiere of John Berry’s adaptation of Boesman and Lena with Danny Glover and Angela Bassett trying their best to fake South African bergie accents. Oliver Schmitz’s Hijack Stories was pulled by the French and German producers at the last minute, which was a major blow; in fact the only “new” film that was shown was Ken Kaplan’s ghoulish black comedy thriller Pure Blood, which is experiencing trouble trying to get a theatrical distribution deal.
The market ended with the M-Net All Africa Film Awards, dominated by Gavin Hood’s A Reasonable Man.