/ 23 June 2006

A screen for help

While politicians were blowing trumpets and having cans thrown at them during Youth Day celebrations, the true spirit of June 16 was being invoked by a group of young black filmmakers who were spearheading a small revolution of their own.

The revolution took the form of the free, four-day, township-based iKapa Youth Film Festival (IYFF), which kicked off at the Zolani Centre in Nyanga last Thursday.

The IYFF came about after black filmmakers Mzolisi Pitolo, Mcedisi Mayembela, Monde Dlutu and Lizo Khalipha determined to create their own niche in the industry. They did this by organising the first township film festival in October last year with a miniscule budget of R11 000.

This led them to the Cape Film Commission, which helped them form the non-profit organisation, iKapa.

Armed with a proper structure, the quartet managed to get funding from the City of Cape Town and provincial government, and help from stakeholders such as The Encounters South African International Film Festival, the South African School of Motion Picture and Live Performance (Afda), Steps for the Future and Pistoleros Films, resulting in the IYFF reaching thousands of schoolchildren over the weekend.

The festival featured screenings of South African feature films, shorts, documentaries and music videos; workshops on how to get involved in various aspects of the industry; question-and-answer sessions with directors and producers; and its own television channel and newsletter.

“We want to bring black filmmakers, young people to this industry; we are creating our own space,” said IYFF creative director Pitolo.

Cape Film Commission marketing manager Bianca Mpahlaza said the festival was a “tremendous” success. “The fact that we had more than 500 learners attending each day, many of whom had no access to television, speaks volumes in itself.” She said out of 300 children surveyed, 17% had never been to a cinema and 35% had only been once in the past year.

Mpahlaza said that in terms of audience development and outreach, iKapa had already achieved much more than heavyweight Sithengi — with about 1% of the Sithengi budget.

But she said the follow-up is just as important. The establishment of an annual youth film festival, as well as the building of permanent film venues in Nyanga, Philippi and Langa are now on the cards.