SABC1 put out a series of documentary briefs last November for its 2004/05 seasons. Family, War Stories, Sex and Secrecy (obviously inspired by a conference hosted at the Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research last year), and Black on White were the titles of the briefs.
While the first three are available online through the SABC website, the Black on White brief was only mentioned in passing; details had to be requested from Encounters, the annual South African international documentary festival. For each brief six filmmakers are to be awarded tenders to produce 48-minute documentaries at R216 000 a piece.
Family “looks at the diverse families that we have created/shaped and begins to capture a photo album of the South African family”; War Stories intends to “document and capture the living memories of those who fought battles to bring South Africa its freedom”; and Sex and Secrecy tries to unravel “the secrecy around sex, … shame, and … joy, what sex means in the time of Aids and the history of sex in our land”.
Black on White presents a different concept altogether. Here the brief calls “for six contemporary, challenging, provocative, humorous and subversive films about what black people actually feel and think about white people, whiteness, white worlds. We want six black writer/ directors [sic] that have the courage to say that race matters in this country, and who can express these ideas using the different traditions and genres of documentary filmmaking”.
The brief’s underlying idea is to subvert (post)-colonial customs of whites portraying blacks, to counterbalance the white man’s often exoticising gaze on subjects that are strange to his world; or to put it in a Saidian way, to counterbalance the old white quest for knowledge of the Other, which often created the Other because this knowledge is/was generated out of a sense of superiority.
Only the Sex and Secrecy brief welcomes new directors explicitly, along with experienced directors and “films made with limited resources”. The Black on White brief does not make this distinction; it invites black directors, period.
So far everything appears quite magnanimous, but then comes the rub. The Black on White brief ends with “all filmmakers selected for the Pitch must make themselves available for the Pitching Workshop. All filmmakers who receive commissions must make themselves available for all scheduled Laboratories” (three in total conducted by Encounters and spanning one year: script and research; directing and shooting; and editing). It is obvious: in the eyes of Encounters and the SABC, black filmmakers need training. To reiterate: the authors of the brief did not write that they invite first-time directors only, they did not state that they encourage submissions of emerging black filmmakers and that they are offering workshops. No, they invited black filmmakers and state patronisingly that they must make themselves available for all scheduled laboratories. The brief is clearly not about empowerment, it is rather a patronising and alienating document. Its authors assume that there are no accomplished black South African filmmakers.
But who should blame them? Some of the most accomplished filmmakers in this country are (of course) black, but they still do not get their due in South Africa.
Have you read about Ramadan Suleman, Ntshaveni Wa Luruli, Dumisani Phakati, Zola Maseko or Teddy Mattera recently in the news? Have you seen them on television? Unlikely. While reaping in award after award at prestigious international film festivals, they are still unsung heroes at home. Few would even be able to name their films.
What is the underlying psyche of the media in a country that celebrates “Onse Charlize” up and down the street and does not write a single word about Ntshaveni wa Luruli’s latest film, Wooden Camera, winning a Crystal Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival?
In South Africa, more than 10 years into its democracy, black filmmakers obviously need training before they are let loose to make documentaries on white subjects. “South African and international tutors” conduct workshops on how to write the script, how to direct (the gaze) and how to edit (that is, select and control the gaze); yet again institutionalising how the knowledge by and of the Other is generated.
‘W e do not wish to prescribe the content of the films, nor do we know what to expect”, the Black on White brief states finally. Well, I do. Having alienated accomplished black filmmakers, the brief necessarily attracts those who either do not mind compromising or do indeed need training. Thus, the language of the brief creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. Blacks need training and Encounters graciously provides them with it. And SABC’s commissioning editors can pat themselves on their backs. What a great job they have done yet again.
PS: I am happy to invite the authors of the brief to a series of obligatory workshops over the next year and a half on how to conceptualise and write briefs (only if they are white).
Dr Florian Schattauer is an adjunct professor at Webster University, Vienna’s visual culture programme and teaches arts and culture management at the Wits school of arts