Barry Ronge
14 November 2004
Johannesburg — The annual Cape Town World Cinema Festival has turned its spotlight on local film.
'South Africans do not flock to see local films - other than those by Leon Schuster'
'Somehow we have to build a culture of celebrating South African film'
ROMANCING SOPHIATOWN: South African actress Bonnie Mbuli and American heart-throb Taye Diggs in a scene from the movie Drum, which premiered at the Cape Town World Cinema Festival. It is one of 11 main feature films with South African themes and funding that will be showcased at the festival Picture: 2004 Drum Film
OF THE many shop windows a nation can offer to the world, few are as enticing and media-friendly as a film festival. Those at Cannes, Berlin, Venice and Sundance in the US have achieved a status that transcends just the screening of films.
They are seen as a declaration of national and regional culture.
Cannes was designed as an affirmation of the revival of European film culture in post-World War 2 Europe. When Nikita Khrushchev revived the Moscow festival in 1959, with a range of films from Europe, England and even Hollywood, it was hailed as a significant parting in the "Iron Curtain" of repressive ideology that Stalin had erected.
Which is why the organisers of the Cape Town World Cinema Festival, currently under way at this year's Sithengi Film and TV Market, want to turn it into the Cannes festival of Africa.
Sithengi is now in its ninth year and, under the leadership of Michael Auret, has been reinvented and expanded.
"The primary aim", says Auret, "is to create a platform that generates a higher level of exposure for SA film talents. Over the past two years we have seen a huge leap in film production in South Africa and it needs a showcase. We want to convey a sense of a coherent and diverse industry on the move."
As opposed to previous year, when only one or two local films were screened, this year there are 11 feature films with specifically South African themes and wholly or broadly financed in South Africa.
The films range from A Boy Named Twist by Tim Greene - who raised the funding on the Internet by challenging South Africans to invest in it - to In My Country by Oscar-winning director John Boorman, based on Antjie Krog's award-winning book Country of My Skull. It has major South African funding but is a co-production with Ireland.
Sithengi was originally planned as a trade event, where filmmakers could meet distributors, buyers and broadcasters to sell products and broker deals. But Auret felt it was necessary to include the public, who are, after all, the primary consumers of the films traded at Sithengi.
"We need to build a greater public awareness and interest in South African films," says Auret and he is right. South Africans do not flock to see locally produced films - other than those created by Leon Schuster.
Auret hopes the Cape Town festival will break down negative preconceptions.
"We deliberately avoided the Hollywood blockbusters," he says. "Around our core of 11 South African films we have 19 others that either have a strong South African connection or reflect developing film cultures in Africa and around the world."
So audiences will be able to see the new Charlize Theron movie, Head in the Clouds, a big glossy Hollywood romance, as well as The Motorcycle Diaries, the stunning film about the young Che Guevara by Walter Salles; new films by Spain's Pedro Almodovar and American independent Todd Solondz, but also by local veterans like Darrell Roodt and local newcomers like Teddy Mattera, Zola Maseko and Craig Freimond.
The opening-night film was Drum, a vibrant portrait of life in Sophiatown before forced removals. It has two major stars - American Taye Diggs and South African kwaito idol Zola.
Its huge, red-carpet premiere a first for Sithengi, was somewhat risky because it had two quite different goals in mind.
"Firstly, we are celebrating 10 years of freedom" says Auret "and we needed to make a splash. Currently the primary funding for the festival comes from the public sector and we wanted to use that funding to affirm the cultural and financial value of this film market, especially in Africa.
"Last year there were 1400 delegates from 67 countries at Sithengi and 26 of those countries were African," he says. "The whole of the Southern African Development Community was represented and we are expecting delegations of over 100 people each from Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Kenya.
"They need to buy product and do production deals," says Auret. "Most African countries have a high local-content requirement on their TV channels and they need programming to fill up their schedules. In Zimbabwe they
have a 100% African content requirement so there are good opportunities for South African coproduction and sales.
"Nigeria is the most prolific film nation on the continent, producing between 500 and 600 films a year. But they are made very cheaply and are mostly distributed on VHS and not in theatres. Nonetheless, Nigerian product is flooding into other markets in Southern Africa and they are beginning to make an impact on the South African industry because Nigerian producers are looking for co-productions," Auret says.
So the business side is well in hand, but Auret also wants to build an image for Sithengi that goes beyond the deals made there.
"I think South Africa needs an event that we can identify as our national film institution. That's what I want this festival to become. Cape Town is the most instantly recognisable brand on the African continent and a great film festival can only add to its international cachet," he says.
"I have taken the North Sea Jazz Festival as my model. It has become an international event ... It has built a diverse, interesting audience and with that audience comes advertising and sponsorship ... I am trying to put film on a similar platform."
The elusive ingredient, however, remains private-sector sponsorship for the festival.
"Investors are still reluctant and tell us we don't have a big enough media footprint and we have nothing that can be shown on TV. If you haven't got an event that can be televised, the corporate sponsors hold back.
"So this year we decided to give them that kind of event - a gala premiere of a big new South African movie, with local stars on the red carpet. It's a genuine international film festival with an international judging panel and a closing awards event at which the winning films will be honoured."
Auret refuses to be disheartened by the history of South Africans' apathy about home-grown films - or by festival guests' reputation for simply not turning up.
"Somehow we have to build a culture of celebrating South African film. We must make the public and the artists feel that if they are not making that walk on the red carpet, they are missing out," he says.
Any movie buff will tell you that the festival's line-up is strong and the films are great. As a showcase it's a dazzling success, but whether the public will arrive to admire it remains to be seen.
If, however, the World Cinema Festival gains real momentum, Cape Town will have gained another tourist attraction; our filmmakers will play to a larger public than they have ever had before, and South Africans in general will have another proudly South African venture to celebrate.
The World Cinema Festival started on Friday and runs until November 20 at Artscape in the Cape Town City Bowl
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