Africa First Competition Winners
12 October, 2009 | By Jeremy Kay
For the second consecutive year five film-makers have been awarded $10,000 apiece in Focus Features’ Africa First Program for short films.
The winning film-makers for 2009 are: Stephen Abbott for the dark comedy Dirty Laundry (South Africa), Matt Bishanga for the drama A Good Catholic Girl(Uganda), Daouda Coulibaly for the drama As Long As Bozos Sing(Mali), Matthew Jankes for the sci-fi story Umkhungo (South Africa), and Rungano Nyoni for the fantasy The Adventures Of Mwansa The Great (Zambia).
The award was set up to nurture emerging film-makers of African nationality and residence and the money will be used for financing projects in pre-production, production, and/or post.
In addition to on-site work in Africa, the winning film-makers of Africa First will visit New York later this autumn for a weekend of one-on-one workshops with members of the programme’s international advisory board of experts in African cinema Focus CEO James Schamus and production president John Lyons.
Africa First is supervised by producer Kisha Imani Cameron, whose Completion Films has a first-look and consulting deal with Focus.
Thanks Dad
Another film by local CPT talent Hein de Vos.
THANKS DAD, set in urban Cape Town, South Africa, is a satirical and darkly comical look at the bizarre and often volatile consequences of everyday life within a uniquely diverse and displaced society. It follows a group of quirky characters, each steering the course of their own journey, yet undeniably connected by the impact of their choices.
Synopsis:
Thomas Starke is a renowned architect, married to the success of his career and the indulgence of extra-marital affairs. After his wife left him and their two daughters, and moved to Malawi to become a missionary, Thomas reverted to solving all his children’s problems with the only thing he really understands – money.
But, the recent economic recession has taken its toll on Thomas and when his youngest daughter Ruby asks for the exact same model car as her older sister Dee for her 21st birthday, Thomas realises that he cannot afford the expense. During a squash game, Thomas confesses this to his shady business partner Dimitri, who offers to provide Thomas with an “alternative method” of acquiring the car.
Ruby invites Dee, who suspects she is pregnant with her boyfriend Joe’s child, to an exhibition, she gladly accepts in order to avoid Joe. At the exhibition, Dee meets Ruby’s lecturer, Lebo and her boyfriend Tebogo, who we find at a critical point in their relationship, as well as an old friend, an artist named Melville Du Bois. Dee and Melville spend the rest of the evening on a drug binge, leaving Ruby with her car.
When Ruby catches her musician boyfriend, Puddy with another girl after his gig, she drives off with Dee’s car. Dee, by this time, has passed out at Melville’s apartment.
Thomas’ conscience gets the better of him after an emotional phone call with his separated wife, he calls off the deal. But Dimitri doesn’t get the message.
Meanwhile, Tebogo leaves the exhibition after an argument with Lebo and walks home through the streets of Cape Town. He accidentally bumps into Ruby, who is driving Dee’s car, at a traffic light, with interesting consequences.
Brought to you by the same team that recently completed “Dinner for Three”.
Story by Vicky Davis
Directed by Hein DeVos
Executive-Producer: Mike Joubert
Executive-Producer: Phil Contomichalos
Producer: Sascha Müller
Production Manager: Leighla McGregor
Director of Photography: Manoel Ferreira
Editor: Jolene Cartmill
Featuring music by Taxi Violence.
Join the group - let us know about YOUR film!
NFVF Indaba
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) will host the 3rd Film Indaba on 26 and 27 November 2009.
Indaba 2009 presents an opportunity for the NFVF to present to the industry, the NFVF Vision 2022, which was developed by the NFVF Council and Executive Management.
According to the institutional organic lifecycle of the NFVF, as stipulated in the Value Charter, the year 2007 marked the commencement of the Maturity Stage which will run until the year 2022. The focus during this stage is Sectoral Rationalisation. The NFVF 2022 Strategy, informed by Council Strategic thrust of “Taking NFVF to the Citizens” seeks to mobilise support for critical initiatives, and the commensurate resources required during this period for the sector.
The first edition of the NFVF Value Charter was an outcome of the Strategy that was adopted by the then Council in 2003. The Second Edition of the Value Charter is the outcome of the 2022 Vision. The document will provide the basis for discussion where the industry stakeholders will contribute to the 2nd Edition of the Value Charter to be adopted by the NFVF Council, the Department of Arts and Culture and Cabinet.
The theme for Indaba 2009 is “Mapping the Way Towards 2025”. The NFVF 2022 Strategy has been aligned with the South Africa Vision, a long term plan which spells out where South African society will be in 2025 as outlined in the Green Paper: National Strategic Planning published by the Presidency in September 2009.
The Film Indaba 2009 will run for two days. The first day will comprise of a plenary session where key note addresses will be delivered to inform deliberations. The second will comprise of breakaway sessions for discussions on the topics that will be highlighted out of the Draft Second Edition of the Value Charter.
The details on the venue programme and the discussion document (the Second Edition of the Value Charter) will be circulated within the next two weeks.
The NFVF intends to arrange meetings with stakeholders to engage on the contents of the discussion document as well as input that will inform the Film Indaba 2009.
Your input and participation is valued.
5 Fingers - Be Phat Motel
Just a follow up on Be Phat Motels new feature film “Five Fingers for Marseilles” The guys are scouting locations and developing their script in the Free State.
The Eve of Departure
Intrepid movie explorers Sean Drums and Mike T Matthews head off early tomorrow into the wild and desperate Free State. We’ve got our story clenched tightly on one hand and our map book in the other. What is it all about? Where and why are we going into the wilderness? Well, it’s all for Five Fingers for Marseilles…
In Five Fingers for Marseilles, we’re aiming to bring the classic western into a South African context, set in the remote Free State, along the Lesotho border. It’s a story of liberation and redemption, friendship and corruption between 5 friends and allies, that spans two generations of one small community. We’re really excited to get on location and into the meat of storytelling. We have the skeleton of the story and great characters almost all figured out; now we tailor the film around a real small town location, for a few reasons:
1) More than anything, it’s to make the film and story authentic, looking at how life really is out there and what issues affect the communities.
2) For costs reasons, so we won’t need to build a town, or too many sets that don’t already exist. That leaves lots of money for all the CG horses and maybe a couple of winged beasts. Should we be inspired to take the story into winged beast territory.
3) To integrate with the community and bring them on board the film: as crew – training local guys and gals up with production skills, as the people facilitating the production – catering, accommodation and security over our projected shoot, and even as potential film stars – casting locally as much as possible.
4) Discover a part of the country pretty much as familiar to a lot of Capetonians as the surface of the moon.
And so we’re heading towards Marseilles, the small, dusty Marseilles of the Free State. Lots to do before we leave… car fix ups, internet fix ups (please please let this little net devicethang work out there, or this blog series will be the shortest in history) hair cuts, Afrikaans and Sesotho lessons… Matrix-style………….. Send us your well wishes and keep in touch so we don’t get cabin fever or desert fever or yellow fever. “Two went out, one came back” sort of shiznizz.
Wooooooo
Keep checking in on our Free State blog here in the Motel Diaries… And if you want a present from the Free State you better leave some real nice comments…
