Murmures
Français
A la fin du festival du Cap, un texte en anglais.
10 years of celebrations are just beginning...........
The curtain may have come down on the Cape Town World Cinema Festival, but
something in the movie landscape of the Mother City has changed dramatically
this year. World Cinema has made a tiny but significant dent in the
Hollywood omnibus.
It may be too early to speak of a local movie culture emerging. And,
certainly, the Hollywood hegemony is kept intact through an almost
indestructible distribution network that ensures 92% of all movies shown in
South Africa emanate from America. But Cape Town audiences proved that they
are more than willing to let World Cinema thrive in a Hollywood
soaked-and-choked movie landscape.
The numbers speak volumes. From audiences of 3000 in 2003, attendance rose
to over 15000 this year at the Cape Town World Cinema Festival from November
10 to 21st. Festival director Jacky Lourens believes that is proof that the
10-day fest is a welcome innovation for movie-goers looking to stimulate
their palettes.
Audiences packed into the 520-seater Main Theatre at Artscape for a string
of new South African movies. Interestingly, a film by Pedro Almodovar was
completely full, but Charlize Theron in the ordinary Hollywood issue, Head
in the Clouds, had audiences leaving their seats and breaking for cover.
During the festival audiences look for movies that are specifically not out
of the usual Hollywood mould. They were attracted by a broad spectrum of
movies both in and out of competition, spiced with a week of red-carpet
premieres for each of the 19 movies in competition, 10 of them alluringly
South African. Capetonians caught a little of the gala night atmosphere with
local stars in glamorous attendance, but mainly they came to see movies made
in South Africa, by South Africans, with South Africans in starring roles.
There was plenty to feel good about. Of the eleven Proudly South African
movies, the Cape had a surfeit of local producers and directors, cast and
crew, as well as the lion share of cine-visual landscape, lavishly captured
in movies like In My Country, Twist, Story of an African Farm, Red Dust,
Forgiveness and Cape of Good Hope.
The director of Twist, 34-year-old Tim Greene, seemed to personify the Cape
effort. A product of Westerford High, Greene shot his feature film debut
entirely on location in the Cape, with an all-local cast drawn from
celebrity actors to street kids. Tickets to Twist were sold out a week
before opening mainly - it has to be said - to people who had a vested
interest in his project. But the fact that a thousand backers had given the
first-time director a thousand rand each to make his dream was testimony of
a popular will to invest in the cinematic potential of the Cape.
Something new happened the night Twist played to Cape Town audiences. People
saw themselves in their own landscape and appreciated "the integrity of the
representation of Cape Town," said Greene.
"Seeing yourself represented on film gives you a sense of yourself and that
is what we are struggling to achieve here - a sense of self," he said.
"People are expressing a sense of satisfaction seeing the Cape for what it
is, in all its glory and all its grittiness."
Story of an African Farm, produced and written by Bonnie Rodini, used the
Karoo as a backdrop for Olive Schreiner's classic. And it also benefited
from the performance of Richard E. Grant brought in from the South African
Diaspora. Thousands of schoolchildren from the Cape Flats had a chance to
see a school set work come to life on the big screen.
An animal rescue center in Hout Bay was one of the locations for another
tale from the city. Cape of Good Hope stood out as a strong human drama
without the political hoopla.
That's not to say audiences don't want to watch stories about politics.
Films like Red Dust, In My Country and Forgiveness, which deal directly with
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), have touched a nerve locally
and abroad.
Even when these films fade to black, the real winner has been the film
industry which is growing from strength to strength each year.
Chief Executive Officer of the Sithengi Film & Television Market, Mike
Auret, said this year's industrial hub had drawn over 2300 delegates, up
from 1400 a year ago. "It's an unprecedented turnout," he said.
The turnaround has been helped by the new clutch of South African films that
have plied the international film festivals in Venice, Berlin, Gotheborg,
Rotterdam and Toronto. These have raised the profile of the South African
film industry.
But more compelling in the long term has been the infrastructure and policy
changes that have taken place at Sithengi 2004, and which prepare the ground
for more business.
In the past year since an Italian co-production treaty was signed numerous
deals were brokered with South African producers. This year the German
government signed up. The Brazilian and Swedish government are close to
sealing protocols. These bilateral arrangements allow producers to go beyond
single country investment, and the alliance with European countries swells
the pot to include funds divested from the EU member states as well.
In Cape Town, the Table Mountain Motion Picture Studios in Milnerton added
further fuel to the Cape's growing film engine which is likely to receive a
turbo-charge with the addition of Dreamworld, the dream child of
Durban-based producer, Anant Singh.
Auret also introduced a Talent Campus for the first time this year, a
collaboration with the Berlinale Talent Campus. More than 50 young and
experienced film hands began to tackle the business of shifting product
beyond the imaginary borders of the Cape peninsula to a world market that is
hungry for product.
SABC and Mnet handed out Christmas presents to local producers in the form
of explicit briefs for broadcast requirements.
Martin Cuff of the Cape Film Commission reckoned that "you'd have to live on
Mars not to have seen the amount of film activity" that has been taking
place.
Minister of Arts & Culture, Dr Z. Pallo Jordan has been a regular visitor to
the film fair, not just on official business but because he has taken a
personal interest in seeing the industry thrive. He had festival staff
scurrying for seats when he turned up unofficially to see a movie in the
main theatre. Cape premier Ibrahim Rasool was the festival guest but has
appeared at several screenings to emphasise his drive to make the Cape the
ultimate film province of South Africa.
And the business does not end here. There are at least three new movies from
the Cape slated for 2005. Platon Trakoshis of Big World Cinema in Cape
Town has produced Proteus, a period drama set on Robben Island. Maganthrie
Pillay becomes South Africa's first black woman feature director with a Cape
story, 34 South, breathing new life into this chunk of Africa. And
Videovision has just completed filming a gangland movie, Dollars and White
Pipes, in the realistic urban landscape of Hanover Park.
A sea change has taken place in the Mother City. And audiences are sitting
up in their seats to watch the new wave gather pace. As far as South African
cinema is concerned, the surf's up!
Ends.........................
Written by Andrew Whaley
Issued by:
Sithengi Film & TV Market
SABC Building, 209 Beach Rd, Sea Point
CAPE TOWN, 8001
Tel: +27 21 430 8160
Fax: +27 21 430 8186
mailto:[email protected]:
Please share your thoughts and comments with us by participating in the
online survey www.sithengi.co.za
THANK YOU!
The curtain may have come down on the Cape Town World Cinema Festival, but
something in the movie landscape of the Mother City has changed dramatically
this year. World Cinema has made a tiny but significant dent in the
Hollywood omnibus.
It may be too early to speak of a local movie culture emerging. And,
certainly, the Hollywood hegemony is kept intact through an almost
indestructible distribution network that ensures 92% of all movies shown in
South Africa emanate from America. But Cape Town audiences proved that they
are more than willing to let World Cinema thrive in a Hollywood
soaked-and-choked movie landscape.
The numbers speak volumes. From audiences of 3000 in 2003, attendance rose
to over 15000 this year at the Cape Town World Cinema Festival from November
10 to 21st. Festival director Jacky Lourens believes that is proof that the
10-day fest is a welcome innovation for movie-goers looking to stimulate
their palettes.
Audiences packed into the 520-seater Main Theatre at Artscape for a string
of new South African movies. Interestingly, a film by Pedro Almodovar was
completely full, but Charlize Theron in the ordinary Hollywood issue, Head
in the Clouds, had audiences leaving their seats and breaking for cover.
During the festival audiences look for movies that are specifically not out
of the usual Hollywood mould. They were attracted by a broad spectrum of
movies both in and out of competition, spiced with a week of red-carpet
premieres for each of the 19 movies in competition, 10 of them alluringly
South African. Capetonians caught a little of the gala night atmosphere with
local stars in glamorous attendance, but mainly they came to see movies made
in South Africa, by South Africans, with South Africans in starring roles.
There was plenty to feel good about. Of the eleven Proudly South African
movies, the Cape had a surfeit of local producers and directors, cast and
crew, as well as the lion share of cine-visual landscape, lavishly captured
in movies like In My Country, Twist, Story of an African Farm, Red Dust,
Forgiveness and Cape of Good Hope.
The director of Twist, 34-year-old Tim Greene, seemed to personify the Cape
effort. A product of Westerford High, Greene shot his feature film debut
entirely on location in the Cape, with an all-local cast drawn from
celebrity actors to street kids. Tickets to Twist were sold out a week
before opening mainly - it has to be said - to people who had a vested
interest in his project. But the fact that a thousand backers had given the
first-time director a thousand rand each to make his dream was testimony of
a popular will to invest in the cinematic potential of the Cape.
Something new happened the night Twist played to Cape Town audiences. People
saw themselves in their own landscape and appreciated "the integrity of the
representation of Cape Town," said Greene.
"Seeing yourself represented on film gives you a sense of yourself and that
is what we are struggling to achieve here - a sense of self," he said.
"People are expressing a sense of satisfaction seeing the Cape for what it
is, in all its glory and all its grittiness."
Story of an African Farm, produced and written by Bonnie Rodini, used the
Karoo as a backdrop for Olive Schreiner's classic. And it also benefited
from the performance of Richard E. Grant brought in from the South African
Diaspora. Thousands of schoolchildren from the Cape Flats had a chance to
see a school set work come to life on the big screen.
An animal rescue center in Hout Bay was one of the locations for another
tale from the city. Cape of Good Hope stood out as a strong human drama
without the political hoopla.
That's not to say audiences don't want to watch stories about politics.
Films like Red Dust, In My Country and Forgiveness, which deal directly with
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), have touched a nerve locally
and abroad.
Even when these films fade to black, the real winner has been the film
industry which is growing from strength to strength each year.
Chief Executive Officer of the Sithengi Film & Television Market, Mike
Auret, said this year's industrial hub had drawn over 2300 delegates, up
from 1400 a year ago. "It's an unprecedented turnout," he said.
The turnaround has been helped by the new clutch of South African films that
have plied the international film festivals in Venice, Berlin, Gotheborg,
Rotterdam and Toronto. These have raised the profile of the South African
film industry.
But more compelling in the long term has been the infrastructure and policy
changes that have taken place at Sithengi 2004, and which prepare the ground
for more business.
In the past year since an Italian co-production treaty was signed numerous
deals were brokered with South African producers. This year the German
government signed up. The Brazilian and Swedish government are close to
sealing protocols. These bilateral arrangements allow producers to go beyond
single country investment, and the alliance with European countries swells
the pot to include funds divested from the EU member states as well.
In Cape Town, the Table Mountain Motion Picture Studios in Milnerton added
further fuel to the Cape's growing film engine which is likely to receive a
turbo-charge with the addition of Dreamworld, the dream child of
Durban-based producer, Anant Singh.
Auret also introduced a Talent Campus for the first time this year, a
collaboration with the Berlinale Talent Campus. More than 50 young and
experienced film hands began to tackle the business of shifting product
beyond the imaginary borders of the Cape peninsula to a world market that is
hungry for product.
SABC and Mnet handed out Christmas presents to local producers in the form
of explicit briefs for broadcast requirements.
Martin Cuff of the Cape Film Commission reckoned that "you'd have to live on
Mars not to have seen the amount of film activity" that has been taking
place.
Minister of Arts & Culture, Dr Z. Pallo Jordan has been a regular visitor to
the film fair, not just on official business but because he has taken a
personal interest in seeing the industry thrive. He had festival staff
scurrying for seats when he turned up unofficially to see a movie in the
main theatre. Cape premier Ibrahim Rasool was the festival guest but has
appeared at several screenings to emphasise his drive to make the Cape the
ultimate film province of South Africa.
And the business does not end here. There are at least three new movies from
the Cape slated for 2005. Platon Trakoshis of Big World Cinema in Cape
Town has produced Proteus, a period drama set on Robben Island. Maganthrie
Pillay becomes South Africa's first black woman feature director with a Cape
story, 34 South, breathing new life into this chunk of Africa. And
Videovision has just completed filming a gangland movie, Dollars and White
Pipes, in the realistic urban landscape of Hanover Park.
A sea change has taken place in the Mother City. And audiences are sitting
up in their seats to watch the new wave gather pace. As far as South African
cinema is concerned, the surf's up!
Ends.........................
Written by Andrew Whaley
Issued by:
Sithengi Film & TV Market
SABC Building, 209 Beach Rd, Sea Point
CAPE TOWN, 8001
Tel: +27 21 430 8160
Fax: +27 21 430 8186
Please share your thoughts and comments with us by participating in the
online survey www.sithengi.co.za
THANK YOU!
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