The determined filmmaker is aiming for R1-million to film the story of a Cape Town street kid, adapted from Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist. In June 2002, he devoted his attention to directing the television series Tsha Tsha, but now it’s all about Twist. So far, he’s raised more than R900 000 in pledges.
What’s the concept behind Twist and the pledges?
It’s a way of financing the film. I heard afterwards that Crocodile Dundee had been financed like that, but with fewer people and more money. I guess that it is a novel idea in terms of South African filmmaking, but it’s a sound business principal to spread the risk as widely as possible. I had the idea to do it with two other features I had written, but I decided to do it with Twist. The story is one people know and can imagine immediately.
Why did you decide to adapt Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist?
I came across a poster that said: “If Cape Town is the Mother City, then why has she deserted her children?” It’s outrageous that we have children living on the streets when there is so much money going around. I thought about how I could contribute. I read the book and felt it was crying out to be adapted and made contemporary. It’s a solid fairytale. The magic of Oliver Twist is that it’s a particular story about a particular orphan. It’s not a treatise on street kids. It’s not about solving the issue. It’s about telling this little story. Local filmmakers often get bogged down in the notion that we have to be useful. Our liberal urge gets in the way of storytelling. We don’t produce many films of real note because there is such an imperative to make the Great South African Film.
How are you localising the story?
The themes adapted themselves. Translating it has been an incredible exercise. Though the rights of children are enshrined in the Constitution, terrible things still happen to kids. The question is: what has changed that nothing has changed? There are amazing scenes in 1830s London where the Artful Dodger is making Twist bunny chow! Fagin the Jew was marginalised at that time and in my version he changes into an amakwerekwere West African guy. Twist is a Muslim boy and comes from that quintessentially tight-knit community.
What are the major challenges of making a film in South Africa?
The challenges are not unique to South Africa. Independent filmmakers anywhere in the world face the same challenges. The main difficulty is telling stories — things that are gripping and a pleasure to watch. I’m lucky; I’ve never been terribly precious about my work and like to please the audience. We’re very critical of our own films. The music industry got over that. There’s no reason why it can’t happen to film. It’s the right time to be doing something like this.
You directed Tsha Tsha. Tell us about that.
I directed the first 13 episodes and turned the next 13 down to concentrate on Twist. Tsha Tsha was a blast. We had a very low budget and shot 10 minutes every day. The little town of Peddie where we shot it was an old frontier town abandoned by whites, almost like a little time bubble. It wasn’t so much about dictating the look as much as capturing it. It was a very good training ground as we turned out the equivalent of a feature every 10 days. Up until then I had made music videos, commercials and small films. It was like shooting a very long film and I’m not daunted to make Twist. It liberated me.
How do you feel about the local film industry at the moment?
What we’ve got to do is produce quality products. It’s my job to make the best film that I can and help the industry grow in that way. I am baffled by the utter disinterest the distributors have in South Africa — it’s almost pathological! The statistics of making your money back are really bad and that’s why it’s not supported. It’s like turning an oil tanker around. I do believe that world cinema is coming of age, as is second-world cinema. In Jozi, more so than in Cape Town, we can fit comfortably into that second-world environment.
What’s next?
I’ll make Twist, or die trying.