This weekend, on the third anniversary of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, South Africans are gathering in small numbers to watch pirated copies of Michael Moore’s award winning documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. Some are also paying to watch the pirated copies.
The announcement this week by distributor UIP that the work will premiere at Montecasino in Johannesburg on September 23 has ended months of waiting and speculation that the film was being delayed because of political motives.
Videovision Entertainment and its distributor, UIP, have announced that the film will be released to about 50 cinemas countrywide.
Videovision is giving no clues about why the local release date of the film, originally set for this year, was delayed until early 2005 and then moved back to September.
Reliable sources, however, indicate that after the film won the Palm d’Or award at Cannes this year the asking price of the United States distributors went up. Simultaneously, Fahrenheit 9/11 was arousing unprecedented interest in the US, which led to an increased demand for prints. To have struck prints specifically for the South African market would have been costly, to say the least.
UIP marketing manager Bridget Nkuna said that the two companies were awaiting the opportunity to acquire second-hand prints from companies abroad.
”We didn’t want to use first-time prints — they are more expensive. The reasons had nothing to do with politics, it was just about logistics and financing the picture,” Nkuna explained.
Fahrenheit 9/11 made more than $100-million in its first six weeks of showing in the US — yet it cost a mere $6-million to make.
The documentary’s release had been delayed by the Walt Disney Company, which declined to allow its Miramax Films unit to distribute the work because of its controversial content.
Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who are Miramax co-chairmen, then established a new company, called the Fellowship Adventure Group, which joined forces with Lions Gate Films and ICF Films in order to distribute Fahrenheit 9/11.
Sanjeev Singh, Videovision director of acquisitions, distribution and exhibition, confirmed that his company acquired the film from French-based company Wild Bunch before it was honoured at Cannes.
Singh said he chose the film ”because of the subject matter and [because of] Nelson Mandela’s stance on the anti-Bush campaign. I thought it’s a powerful enough film for us to have even though I hadn’t seen it.”
Regarding the call by Moore, encouraging individuals to download his movie from the Internet, and to watch pirated copies, Singh notes that most major US releases are pirated before they arrive in cinemas.
But, Singh said, ”this is not condoned by the industry. Although those are Michael Moore’s personal comments on the picture, it’s not an industry stance. It’s a piracy situation, it’s illegal and the South African Federation against Copyright Theft can take action against that.”
The widely anticipated release of Fahrenheit 9/11 will go ahead in South Africa without a visit from the filmmaker.
”The filmmaker was invited to come,” Singh says, ”but in the global scheme of things the South African territory is not a big money earner. If he didn’t go to Australia, there’s certainly less chance of him coming here.”