The Industry Guy
“With the lifting of Apartheid and the arrival of democracy within the last fifteen years,” rumbles Laurence Mitchell from his office in Cape Town, “I can truly say that it has ushered in and has been a driving force for new cinema in South Africa.”
Mitchell is the CEO of the Cape Film Commission (CFC), the official body responsible for the development and promotion of films in the Western Cape. He’s enormously keen to push the projects the CFC is involved in, and seems determined to capitalise on the rising interest in our industry.
“There are a lot of exciting things,” he says. “From a personal perspective it’s the project around training and developing young black animators to work on and train in 3D, 2D and visual effects (the Animation Industry Development Initiative)…the other thing would possibly be our growth in the industry around Bollywood as well. We have quite a big Bollywood production currently in Cape Town (No Problem, starring Anil Kapoor) and we also have a major BBC production in Cape Town – and yet this is meant to be the quiet season!”
The massive influx of funds into the Cape – from both Bollywood and other major production houses – is reason enough to celebrate. Mitchell says that because South Africa now has a vastly grown skills base, foreign companies are finding it extremely attractive to use the country as a base.
The Animator
For most people, the words African animation conjures up The Lion King and nothing else. Anthony Silverston thinks that needs to change.
“We’re on the crest of a wave,” says the creative producer of Triggerfish, a Cape Town animation studio. “It means that there are so many exciting things happening right now, and it’s up to us to – well, how shall I put it? It’s a make or break.”
The animation industry is a perfect example for the sudden explosion of South African talent. It’s developed extremely fast – from hardly any companies a few years ago to major production houses dealing with international clients. Says Silverston, “The world is waking up and saying, oh wait, we can send our work to South Africa and we get it at great value and on time.”
Triggerfish alone is working on two major animated projects for international release: Zambezia, a story about birds set in Victoria Falls, and Khumba, about a zebra in the Karoo. There’s even an industry body now, Animation SA, and Silverston is confident that the medium is viable for telling uniquely African stories.
The Rookie
Of course, animation and international productions are only a part of the picture. There are still the young South Africans on the ground, people like twenty year old Danielle Erasmus, who, as a third year acting student at the AFDA film school in Joburg, is about to enter the industry – or at least, what she maintains passes for an industry.
“Quite honestly, it’s more than just difficult to enter into the South African film industry – it’s incredibly difficult,” says Erasmus. “There’s hardly an industry yet! Ultimately the job for me (and my peers) is to create a South African film industry. Although it’s growing, it’s not anything to enter at this point. It’s something to add to, to continue creating and developing. It is extremely daunting to have that job, but also extremely exciting. It means we have the opportunity to create it however we want.”
And she does sound excited – laughing off the idea of any increased competition for roles. “I want to make films because I love filmmaking in general,” she says. “…I want to make films for an audience that is wider than South Africa, and I want to make films that tell a story which doesn’t necessarily take advantage of our history – especially since I’m in a generation of people that didn’t live during that time. I don’t feel the need to exploit it any longer.”
The Future
It is true that South Africa is, as Silverston says, on the crest of a wave. There is certainly a huge amount of talent in South Africa – and it is up to people like Mitchell, Silverston and Erasmus to capitalise on it and turn the wave into a tsunami. The film industry has always been a cut-throat place full of pitfalls, but one senses that if South Africa fails to make it on the world stage, it will not be from lack of talent or ability.
A (SHORT) HISTORY OF THE SA FILM INDUSTRY
• The first ever film shown in SA was in 1896, at Joburg’s Empire Theatre of Varieties
• According to Laurence Mitchell, the first film ‘industry’ in SA came about to entertain miners in the early 1900s
• 22 films were produced up to 1922, when the scene trailed off due to lack of interest in British and US markets
• Surprisingly, the film industry revived somewhat during Apartheid, though of course the quality and content was less than brilliant
• After the 1994 elections, our industry became a lot more vibrant. District 9 is our highest-grossing film ever.
