The following history only covers the period up to 2000; however, it does give you a general picture.

History of Cinema in ANGOLA

Historical overview

Civil war has been the norm in Angola since independence from Portugal in 1975. A 1994 peace accord between the government and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) provided for the integration of former UNITA insurgents into the government and armed forces. A national unity government was installed in April of 1997, but serious fighting resumed in late 1998, rendering hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Up to 1.5 million lives may have been lost in fighting over the past quarter century. The death of Jonas SAVIMBI and a cease fire with UNITA may bode well for the country.

History of cinema from 1896-2000

Dating back to 1931, Angola’s broadcast media is one of the oldest on the continent. However, it is still very much under the control of the government. Television, radio and print journalists have been subjected to harassment, beatings and imprisonment. Action of this type is inflicted under the guise of ‘national security.’
The Ministry of Information issues broadcasting licences and oversees the allocation of frequencies. Presently only the government is allowed to broadcast using television and medium/short-wave frequencies. This situation is unlikely to change until the civil war is over.
Angola has one television service, operated by the government-run Televisao Popular de Angola (TPA). In 1997 RTP launched RTP Africa in each of Portugal’s former African colonies. Each recipient country’s state broadcaster accesses both programming and equipment from the service. The channel’s studio facilities and infrastructure are funded by the Portuguese Government, but run by local management. In addition, there is a local broadcaster, WT Mundovideo, that is broadcast in Luanda only.

Unlike television Angolan cinema has hardly any history of its own. After the declaration of independence from Portugal in 1975 a civil has devastated the country uo to the present day. Angolan cinema emerged with the participation of now ruling MPLA militants in two films inspired in the works of local writer Luandino Vieira, directed by Sarah Maldoror of Guadalupe in the cities of Algeria and Brazzaville, namely the short feature Monangambee (1970) and the full length feature Sambizanga (1972). She was a founding member of the first African theatre troupe, Les Griots, in the 1950s. She was also awarded a rare scholarship to the Moscow Film Institute, where she became the pupil of the prestigious Mark Donskoi. Several (originally) Portugese directors produced and directed Angolan movies. amongst them ; Ruy Duarte de Carvalho with, O Recado das Ilhas, (1989), Nelisita (1982), Presente Angolano Tempo Mumuila” (1979) and Faz la Coragem, Camarada (1977); Orlando Fortunato de Oliveira with Comboro da Canhoca (1989) and Memoria de um Dia (1982); Francisco Henriques with O Golpe (1977) and Ponto da situacao (1977)

The government has a strong negative influence on the work of newcomers. The constitution of Angola offers no protection against perceived intrusions of free speech by the filmmakers. Next to this the cinema office of the department of culture, established mainly to preserve film and support filmmakers, is under constant financial pressure. Angolan filmmakers mostly rely on international funds rather than national. Filmmakers like Antonio Ole (No caminho das estrelas 1980 and O Ritmo do N’Gola Ritmos, 1978) resorted to making video art rather than movies, due to a lack of funding.

Angola has nowadays several renowned filmmakers. Les Oubliées (1997) by Anne Laure Folly and Zeze Gamboa’s Dissidencia (1998) qualified for the 1998 Milan Festival. Folly’s Le Gardien des Forces won the first prize of the Cultural and Technical Cooperation Agency in Montreal in 1992. The director of “dissidencia”, Zeze Gamboa, 45, was born in Luanda, where he worked from 1974 to 1980 as director in the public television (TPA). In 1984, he got the sound engineering diploma from paris and had later several participations in various film shows. In addition to “dissidencia”, mr. Gamboa directed the production of “Mopiopio, sopro de Angola” (1991, awarded from the Ouagadougou in 1993 and later from the milan festival), “O heroi” (1998), “burn by blue” and “O desassossego de pessoa” (both 1999).

History of Cinema in BOTSWANA

Historical overview

The Batswana, a term inclusively used to denote all citizens of Botswana, also refers to the country’s major ethnic group (the “Tswana” in South Africa), which came into the area from South Africa during the Zulu wars of the early 1880s. Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name upon independence in 1966. The economy, one of the most robust on the continent, is dominated by diamond mining.

History of cinema from 1896-2000

The earliest known film-making in Botswana and the Kalahari was by the Austrian ethnographer Rudolf Pöch (Poech) in 1907-09. He made four films on San people in the Nossop (Kalahari-Gemsbok) area of Botswana-Namibia-South Africa, and recorded synchronous wax disks of the !Komani or /Auni language-producing the first successful ethnographic “talkie”. A further film of San people around the Nossop is said to have been filmed around 1913 by one Fred Cornell. The writer Sol Plaatje stepped in by presenting an entirely new form of media in the 1920s-30s. His travelling ‘bioscope’ (cinema) toured villages, apparently using the techniques of combining silent film and live performance which Plaatje had pioneered in London in the early 1920s. He tried to educate the rural inhabitants with his newsreels. (Unfortunately the records on Plaatje’s bioscope held in the National Archives were ‘automatically’ destroyed in the 1970s-80s.)

The first known filming in eastern Botswana was in 1912, when W. Butcher of London was given permission to film a ceremonial parade of marching Bangwato regiments at Serowe, celebrating the opening of the new national church building. Possibly this is the same film which was being shown twelve years later as The Late Chief Khama and his Bamangwato People at Serowe by Sol Plaatje in his bioscope show which accompanied his speaking tours of South Africa and Botswana. Two types of documentary film-ethnographic study of Khoe and San people in western Botswana and newsreel of an event in eastern Botswana-dominate the filmography of Botswana from the start. Newsreels after 1923 and before the Second World War cover the local receptions of British imperial dignitaries on fleeting railroad trips-the prince of Wales in 1925, the colonial/dominions minister in 1928, prince George of Kent in 1934. The first theatrical feature-film to capture any aspect of Botswana was Rhodes of Africa (British Gaumont, directed by Berthold Viertel), a “talkie” made in 1935 and distributed in 1936, scripted by Sarah Gertrude Millin-with Walter Huston as Rhodes, plus Oscar Homolka, Peggy Ashcroft, Bernard Lee, Lewis Casson and Ndaniso Kumalo. It was filmed partly in Zimbabwe and possibly contains some shots of Botswana.

The first local filmmaker in Botswana is said to have been chief Molefi Pilane of the Bakgatla at Mochudi in the 1930s. He picked up the cinema habit in Johannesburg, as well as a liking for township music, and gave popular slide and film shows for paying audiences (notably The Arabian Nights) in the Mochudi church hall-much to the disgust of his Dutch Reformed missionaries who considered them pornographic. Molefi possessed and used a small movie camera, but his films (reputedly of bathing belles) appear not to have survived. The second known local filmmaker in Botswana was Miss Murchison, matron of the Lobatse government hospital, who leaves behind her an illustrious record in two or more hours of Second World War vintage colour film. Her filming was compiled into two roughly edited, mute colour films as part of the wartime propaganda effort, at the behest of the colonial administration. One, titled African Auxiliary Pioneer Corps, is an almost half-hour record of raw recruits arriving at Lobatse army training camp, being trained and accommodated and fed, their passing-out parade before the Resident Commissioner, and their departure by train for the coast. The other film, Bechuanaland Protectorate, is much longer. Two parts survive, taking us first from Mafikeng via Lobatse and Kanye to Tshane and Ramotswa, and secondly from Gaborone and Tlokweng via Molepolole and Mochudi to Mahalapye and Serowe. A third part, which hopefully will resurface someday, must have gone on to Francistown and Maun and maybe Ghanzi and Kasane. The film was designed to be shown to AAPC troops in North Africa, to assure them that things were okay back home. The plot of the film follows a small group of AAPC soldiers, who have won a trip back to Botswana by lottery in North Africa, peeling off to their home villages. Emphasis is placed throughout on evidence of progressive agriculture, especially that under the supervision of chief Bathoen II of Kanye.

As in other wartime colonies, a mobile film unit “constantly toured the Protectorate showing images of the war and its leading personalities.” As well as matron “Murch”, there was a South African by the name of Graham Young who was paid £50 a month to tour the country making films for the troops. The resulting film was flown to the troops in 1944, and has previously been believed lost. The recent re-discovery of Murchison’s Bechuanaland Protectorate film-made in the same places at the same time for the same purpose-suggests that Young collaborated with her on the film that survives. The cream on the cake for the 1940s is a 20-minute mute but professionally made, good quality colour film made by Lewis of Johannesburg, copyright Bechuanaland Protectorate Government, of the 1947 Royal Visit to the same Lobatse farm location as where the AAPC camp had stood. The accolade of third local filmmaker probably belongs to Louis Knobel, an employee of South African Information Services but presumably the same as the man of that name from a white trading family at Molepolole, who produced Remnants of a Dying Race (Kalahari Films. 17 minutes) about Kalahari San or Khoe people (Bushmen) in 1953.

The most important filming in Botswana has so far been of wildlife documentaries, including those released through the U.S. National Geographic Society. No major feature films have yet actually been shot in Botswana. The Government’s Botswana TV station is scheduled to begin transmission in late 1999. The biggest fiction film ever made supposedly about Botswana – but not actually made here – was The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980), with a sequel (1989) and a further sequel called Fei zhou he shang (1991). All three starred a South African actor called N!xau. The first two were filmed in the Northern Transvaal, and the third in Hong Kong. (“The Gods Must be Crazy” is also the name of the TNT Botswana Travel Page. Also not filmed in Botswana is the fictiona film Sands of the Kalahari starring Stuart Whitman and a troupe of baboons. Only two full-length general documentaries are known to have been made in Botswana for British television. One is Hugh Masekela: the African Ambassador (BBC-TV, 6 May 1985, 84 minutes), filmed while Masekela lived and worked at a mobile studio near Gaborone. The other is a well-known drama-documentary about Seretse and Ruth Khama in 1948-50, titled A Marriage of Inconvenience (Southern Television, Maidstone, 1991, 2 x 55 minutes). It was made by the late Mike Dutfield, former schoolteacher in Zambia, journalist on the Johannesburg Star and an editor on BBC-TV’s Panorama news programme.

Nowadays Botswana has made little or no progress in the film industry. No film has ever entered the film festival circuit be it short or long metrage. No Botswana local has ever won international acclaim. In Gaborone some production have settled, but none have produced an award winning production. Billy Kokorwe and Ken Barlow are the most renowned local documentary producers today. Anno 2000 the TV has found its way in most homes. Wildlife documentaries remain the bulk of the cinematic output, supported by local companies.

History of Cinema in LESOTHO

Historical overview

Basutoland was renamed the Kingdom of Lesotho upon independence from the UK in 1966. King MOSHOESHOE was exiled in 1990. Constitutional government was restored in 1993 after 23 years of military rule. In 1998, violent protests and a military mutiny following a contentious election prompted a brief but bloody South African military intervention. Constitutional reforms have since restored political stability; peaceful parliamentary elections were held in 2002.

History of cinema from 1896-2000

Lesotho has no recorded cinematic history. Allthough some foreign filmmakers have made documentaries subjecting the country, no local film has been produced. There are very few film-producing companies and filmmakers in the country. There is a significant amount of video production with at least two video editing facilities in Maseru. Lesotho TV and the Instructional Materials Resource Centre each have U-matic low band editing suites. The Screenwriters Institute (Pvt) Ltd and the Ministry of Agriculture’s information section each have VHS editing suites. The South African film- and documentary-maker Don Edkins is based in Lesotho. He is from South African descent and won several film festival awards for his video productions like “The Color of Gold” and “Goldwidows: Women in Lesotho”.

History of Cinema in MALAWI

Historical overview

Established in 1891, the British protectorate of Nyasaland became the independent nation of Malawi in 1964. After three decades of one-party rule, the country held multiparty elections in 1994 under a provisional constitution, which took full effect the following year. National multiparty elections were held again in 1999. Malawi is a landlocked country in Southern Africa bordering Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique, and with a population of over 10.4 million of people of which 87% live in rural areas. Lake Malawi, the third largest lake in Africa, and three smaller ones take up 20% of the total area of 94,081 square kilometres.

History of cinema from 1896-2000

Malawi has no recorded cinematic or even video producing history. There are no local film-producing companies or known film makers as yet. In the forties and fifties The British government used films to educate peasants to grow tobacco. UNESCO has contributed to the use of Mobile Video Units (land rovers) mainly for health eductional purposes. 15% of the adult population is HIV infected. Malawi promotes Chishango (a condom) through mass media and nontraditional communication channels to reach those that have limited access to mass media. These channels include mobile video units, drama groups, peer educators and promoters, wall signs and bus advertising. Chishango is the most advertised brand on the radio in Malawi. Cinema is obviously amongst the very least of the Malawi worries today.

History of Cinema in NAMIBIA

Historical overview

South Africa occupied the German colony of South-West Africa during World War I and administered it as a mandate until after World War II, when it annexed the territory. In 1966 the Marxist South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) guerrilla group launched a war of independence for the area that was soon named Namibia, but it was not until 1988 that South Africa agreed to end its administration in accordance with a UN peace plan for the entire region. Independence came in 1990.

History of cinema from 1896-2000

Namibia gained independence only in 1990. Before this period hardly any cinematic data are available. John Marshall, an USA resident worked and lived in Namibia. he released documentaries about the country between 1958 and 1980. To date, Marshall has produced 26 films from the vast amount of footage he has collected over the years. Marshall’s films have been used worldwide for education and research and he has been honoured by film retrospectives in New York, Washington, D.C., Mexico, and Germany.

In 2000 the Namibian government passed the “Namibian Film Commission Act”. The objective of the Commission is to promote Namibia as a film location destination to international players, to promote the local film and video industry, and to encourage the use of Namibian personnel when filming in the country. While the local industry on the upswing, international production in Namibia is reported to have increased to a current annual rate of eighty foreign productions made in the country since 1999, and eighty three in 2000. The favourable exchange rate, and the country’s rare locations, have a direct impact on the growth of international film / video productions seeking cost effective destinations. Foreign filmmakers require approval before filming. Locals only have to negotiate with the owners of locations they wish to use.

Namibia boasts of a developing and promising film industry. Cecil Moller’s video The Naming (1997) was shown at Milan 1998, SAFF 1988 and Cannes 1999. Namibia has long been a favourite location for South African commercial producers and their overseas clients because of the brilliant light, surreal sand dunes and beautiful, deserted beaches. Local directors include Cycil Mollar and Bridget Pickering, who created the Namibian contribution to Africa Dreaming. Pickering was chosen in 1999 as one of six women filmmakers in Africa to direct a short story for the Mama Africa series called Uno’s World. Helena Shiimbi, Gene Carstens, and Ebba Kalondo took their documentaries to Fespaco 2001 receiving critical acclaim.

A young filmmaker, Vickson Hangula, recently emerged, writing and directing the award winning Kauna’s Way in 1999. The film, shot on video and produced by Bridget Pickering, went on to screenings and rave reviews at SAFF 2000 in Harare, Vues’ d’ Afrique in Montreal, the African Diaspora Film Festival in New York, the Nairobi Film Festival, and Amiens. The film won in the category of “best film shot on video” in the M-net All Africa Film Awards 2000. Other films by the same director include Okapana (documentary), Picture This (short fiction) and The Worrier, a 75 minute long drama on HIV/AIDS issues, all shot on video. In 2000, a new documentary series Namibia From Inside went on air on NBC. The eight piece series is a locally produced television documentary, made with collaboration between Canal France.

History of Cinema in SWAZILAND

Historical overview

Autonomy for the Swazis of southern Africa was guaranteed by the British in the late 19th century; independence was granted 1968. Student and labor unrest during the 1990s have pressured the monarchy (one of the oldest on the continent) to grudgingly allow political reform and greater democracy.

History of cinema from 1896-2000

There is no film industry and little video activity in Swaziland. While many institutions have VHS video cameras, the equipment tends to be under-utilised for lack of editing facilities. Swazi TV has the only video editing facility in the country, apart from a NTSC Super VHS system with the Ministry of Agriculture. In 1999 Swaziland hosted two Canadian interns who covered several trips of the mobile video unit in the country of Swaziland and Mozambique. A fifteen-minute French version of their work has been sent to SACOD for use in fund raising and awareness for mobile video projects. The producer/director Gcinaphi Dlamini shot two programmes on disability for Save the Children Fund (UK). The filming of Eye to Eye was done in Swaziland. No feature film or documentary has ever been produced for the silver screen.

In the early seventies, one of the first cinema buildings was built in Manzini by a Catholic priest, Brother Guilio. It became one of the first places where Blacks and whites could reside under one roof to be entertained by film screenings and theatre performances.

The main film pioneer in Swaziland is Hanson Ngwenya who activly produces video films and tries to organize the Swaziland filmmakers. He established Africa On Screen T.V productions in 1987. He also manages the DeafPower production House directed at sign films for the deaf. This company produced some sign language films with the support of foreign funding. DeafPower Productions was founded in 2000 to film two Sign Language programs called, “Key for the Future” and “My Best Sport.the Condom”. DeafPower Productions concentrates on filming Sign Language television programs with the sole purpose of keeping Deaf people informed, entertained and educated and hearing people Deaf aware. Ngwenya, a Christian reverent produced several films for TV to enhance awareness on health issues, mainly AIDS. In Swzailand one third of the population is believed to be affected by this disease.

In Lobamba, the King’s residence some effort is being made to bring the production of the fine art (including film) to the young. A local cultural center organized some classes teaching fine art. Next to this the government has initiated a film contest for young people. Several foreign film crews, mostly South African, have produced films about the local nature and anthropological subjects.

The only actor of international recognition is Richard E. Grant, son of a former minister born in Swaziland. He played in several Hollywood blockbusters like Hudson Hawke.
Swaziland’s cinematic landscape is totally empty and film production is dominated by the TV broadcasting company, only some of the major cities own a cinema. No contours of an infant film industry are apparent in this country which is tormented by AIDS, poverty and led by a government still believing in witchcraft and scorcery.

History of Cinema in ZAMBIA

Historical overview

The territory of Northern Rhodesia was administered by the South Africa Company from 1891 until it was taken over by the UK in 1923. During the 1920s and 1930s, advances in mining spurred development and immigration. The name was changed to Zambia upon independence in 1964. In the 1980s and 1990s, declining copper prices and a prolonged drought hurt the economy. Elections in 1991 brought an end to one-party rule, but the subsequent vote in 1996 saw blatant harassment of opposition parties. The election in 2001 was marked by administrative problems with three parties filing a legal petition challenging the election of ruling party candidate Levy MWANAWASA. The new president launched a far-reaching anti-corruption campaign in 2002, which resulted in the prosecution of former President Frederick CHILUBA and many of his supporters in late 2003. Opposition parties currently hold a majority of seats in the National Assembly.

History of cinema from 1896-2000

Cinema was introduced in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) by predominantly the British during their colonial occupation. During the late twenties and early thgirties films were shown all over the country in open air cinema’s. The movies were mainstream Hollywood productions mostly. The illiterare rural population proofed to be very susceptible to the images shown in the movies. In the socalled coppertbelt (mining area’s) young children began wearing cowboy hats and carved wooden pistols to act like their silverscreen heroes. This behavior became more radical when natives began to respond to sex and violence shown on the screen. This triggered a debate about the influence of Hollywood movies to a non western supersticious population. In later years the mobile cinema was introduced in the distant earea’s but solely used for educational purposes.

Film attendance in Northern Rhodesia grew rapidly during the 1940s-the same time that the movies reached their peak as an attraction in North America and Britain. Many thousands of Africans were paying a small admission to see films each week. The program typically began with “The African Mirror,” a magazine series that showed elements of African life such as first-aid teams at a mine, traditional dancing, and commercial agriculture. This was followed by “The Northern Spotlight,” the government-sponsored newsreel, and then British news. Animal cartoons, called kadoli, favored by small children, preceded the main feature, usually a dated or “B” cowboy film or occasionally a Superman film.

A film show in a remote rural area was a special event, since mobile cinemas did not reach a given village or town much more often than once or twice a year in the 1940s or once a month in the 1950s. The entertainment began with the arrival of the van, and crowds began to assemble in the afternoon to watch and assist in setting up the projector and screen, eventually numbering from one hundred to three thousand people. Before the film show itself, members of the mobile cinema staff gave educational talks illustrated with film strips on topics like malaria eradication or household hygiene.

Due to the perceived relation between film images and violent behavior all films were censored and about half of them actually cut short. Some films were totally banned from the African audience.

In 1957 the first multi racial theatre was opened in Lusaka, meaning ordinary people could now enjoy films with wider themes than just Hollywood entertainment. Still censorship rules were applied (at the door!) to African locals, mainly stimulated by the censors of the catholic church.

independence in 1964 meant a free Zambia but the film industry had no government priority whatsoever. Nowadays there is practically no film industry in the country, only a few film-producing companies and no significant filmmakers. ZNBC (Zambian National Broadcasting Company), Zambia Information service (also government owned) and some private firms occasionally produce TV plays and documentaries but no feature films. There are a number of video-production companies and the locals are cinema lovers, with foreign films attracting the majority of the youth parralel to the old traditions described earlier. The interest has shifted to action loaded movies and maretial art films.

In 1999, The Zambian independent film company, Ambush Productions Ltd, was formed. They have recently completed their first feature documentary “Choka!” (Get lost!) nominated twice by the International Documentary Association in Los Angeles for Most Distinguished Feature and the Pare Lorentz Award for social activism and lyricism in film. It is the only feature of some length to come out of Zambia up unitl today.

Films are preserved in the National Archives of Zambia, owning just over two hundred reels it is small but rather lenghty (in hours of play) collection. The audio-visual is sourced from the public media organization; the Southern Africa Broadcasting Services (now non-extistent), the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation ( ZNBC) and the Zambia Information Services (ZIS).

“Imiti Ikula” (2000) is a 26 minutes documentary about the youth on the streets of Lusaka was directed and produced by Sampa Kangwa and Simon Wilkie.

In 2002 the first ever Zambia International Film Festival was held in Lusaka. A movie with some Zambian influence is “Triads, Yardies and Onion Bhajees!”. London based Zambian film producer and actor, Manish Patel is set to shine at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, with his first film, “Triads, Yardies and Onion Bhajees!”. This the only film to get an official selection from Britain for the prestigious Cannes Film Festival 2003. The film, which is based on Manish Patel’s novel ‘The Stolen Shiva’ is a contender for the Palme d’Or Prize in Cannes. The film is directed by Sarjit Bains.

Tikambe (“Let’s Talk About It”, 2004), a Zambian documentary directed by Carol Duffy Clay, has been awarded the Silver Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival for its portrayal of a Zambian woman struggling to live positively with HIV and AIDS. Tikambe consists of two stories. The first one (the story that won the award) revolves around Harriet, a widow suffering from AIDS who has been rejected by her family. The second story in the documentary is about a couple that are both living positively with HIV. The total length of the film is 42 minutes.

Currently Zambia is a long way from having a film infrastructure. The government stresses a greater influence of the Broadcasting companies on the production of feature films. Filmmakers from Zambia are inclined to go abroad due to the lack of government support. The one issue which is supported is how to prevent AIDS by means of the Seventh Art. The next Zambia International Film Festival (which has yet to be sheduled) could be the platform for the qcuisition of funding and collaboration with Western countries.

History of Cinema in ZIMBABWE

Historical overview

The UK annexed Southern Rhodesia from the South Africa Company in 1923. A 1961 constitution was formulated that favored whites in power. In 1965 the government unilaterally declared its independence, but the UK did not recognize the act and demanded more complete voting rights for the black African majority in the country (then called Rhodesia). UN sanctions and a guerrilla uprising finally led to free elections in 1979 and independence (as Zimbabwe) in 1980. Robert MUGABE, the nation’s first prime minister, has been the country’s only ruler (as president since 1987) and has dominated the country’s political system since independence. His chaotic land redistribution campaign begun in 2000 caused an exodus of white farmers, crippled the economy, and ushered in widespread shortages of basic commodities. Ignoring international condemnation, MUGABE rigged the 2002 presidential election to ensure his reelection. Opposition and labor groups launched general strikes in 2003 to pressure MUGABE to retire early; security forces continued their brutal repression of regime opponents.

History of cinema from 1896-2000

The origins of film making in Zimbabwe can be traced to initiatives in the United Kingdom, which was the colonial power over the period 1890-1979. The British government established the Colonial Film Unit at the beginning of the Second World War, in 1939, as part of a propaganda initiative directed to colonies. The unit was directed by the Ministry of Information. Its purpose was to explain the war to British subjects in the colonies and enlist their support; England’s ruling elite had great faith in the power of cinema as an instrument for persuasion when communicating with the masses, whether the working class of urban industrial England or illiterates in Britain’s African colonies.

At the end of the Second World War, the film initiative shifted from war propaganda to development in the colonies. Prior to the war, Britain had a poor record of promoting development in its colonies, and this record had been criticised by Germany war propaganda as well as by the United States. The US, which emerged as the dominant superpower after the war was keen to promote economic development and political stability in the Third World, so as to avoid losing the new states to the Soviet communist bloc.

The use of film was part of a new developmental initiative in the colonies and was funded by the Colonial Development and Welfare Act (1940) and subsequent acts. The initiative stressed adult education. The experiences gained during the war were to be harnessed to develop and use film as an educational medium in the colonies. The British Colonial Film Unit set up four production units that it directly controlled in East and West Africa. The Central African Film Unit (CAFU) covered Southern and Northern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia respectively) and Nyasaland (now Malawi). Forty percent of its funds came from the British government and the rest from contributions from the territorial governments that made up the federation.

The activities of CAFU spanned the period 1948-63, coming to an end with the dissolution of the federation. Before the formation the federation (which was established in 1953), CAFU was administered by the Central African Council, an interim administrative body that preceded the federation. When the federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formed in 1953, CAFU became a part of the Federal Department of Information. Financial support from the British government was phased out in 1956. The federal government retained an interest in African development that had been a founding principle of CAFU.

However, after the phasing out of the British government subsidy there was a shift in priority to making films that promoted the federation overseas, and encourage white immigration. The federation was a fragile coalition of white interests in the three territories and its legitimacy was undermined by African resistance. These political imperatives compelled the government to spend more on promoting the federation.

The first executive producer of CAFU films was Alan Izod, who was recruited from London. He had previously produced some British propaganda war films during the Second Word War. His team was entirely made up of expatriates. Izod described the challenge as difficult:

“We had of course set ourselves a very difficult task, perhaps more difficult than we realised. I personally was without previous first-hand knowledge of African life and customs and so were two of the leading technicians”

Film making for African audiences was informed by a number of assumptions about the audiences. The primary goal of the colonial government was to maintain white standards and privileges while promoting limited African development. The mission of the ‘white race’ was to civilise the Africans. Some progress had been made, but there was a long way to go. Development was construed in terms of a relationships between two races that were at different historical points of evolution, with no prospect of equality in the near future.

These assumptions informed the creation of film text directed to Africans. In a 1950 radio broadcast Alan Izod outlined the broad perspective on which film-making in CAFU was based as follows: The goal was to make educational films that were presented in an entertaining way, with strong moral messages. Adult Africans were to be protected from unwholesome messages, in other words the production of films “affording healthy entertainment.”

Obviously films could serve as one antidote to the undesirable activities which are such an easy pitfall for people with spare time on their hands. I am not saying anything new or startling when I say that Europeanisation has removed his own culture from the African and given him little in return. This is of course particularly true of the African who is employed in towns. Beyond the problem of creating wholesome messages, films were to inculcate in the audiences the necessity for, and the value of hard work, of self-help, and by that I mean doing things for themselves without payment instead of doing them only if the Government is willing to pay for them. These values were intended to benefit white controlled capitalist enterprise, in an environment were economic relations were unequal and forced labour (chibharo), was a historical reality for Africans. The goal of agricultural films was to promote good farming methods and prosperity but this was problematic in a context where government land tenure policies and agricultural production and marketing policies blatantly discriminated against Africans. Other films promoted initiative and community development using heroic figures from the community. The Wives of Nendi is a film about Mrs. Mangwende, the wife of Chief Mangwende, who was the moving force behind the development of women’s clubs. The film A Day in the Life of Rachel Hlazo is about the life of Mrs Hlazo of Goromonzi, who is a health care worker and has made a difference in her commuity. Both were made by Stephen Peet as director-cameraman.

The civilising mission of CAFU films does not stand the test of time. There is evidence that with time, after the initial novelty had worn off, African audiences were able to critique them against their lived experience and political aspirations. There is also strong evidence that the colonial film-makers under-rated their audience, who developed rapidly with successive shows of films, and began to raise questions about the messages to which they were exposed, and how those messages related to their economic and political aspirations.

The problematic relations between film-makers and audiences turned antagonistic in Zimbabwe after 1965, when the state unleashed a vigorous propaganda campaign against the African majority in an attempt to thwart their aspirations for self-rule. A civil war broke out and escalated rapidly, beginning December 1972 when guerrillas launched an attack on Altena farm in the North East part of the country. From then on, the guerrilla offensive was relentless. The government stepped up the propaganda machine. A new type of war propaganda films were commissioned and shown in the war zones in order to undermine the support for the guerrilla armies in rural communities.

Prior to 1962, it had been possible to conceive of some formula for reconciling the conflicting demands of the minority white government and African political aspirations for self-determination. The elections of 1962 signalled the collapse of that vision when the Rhodesia Front party assumed power with a mandate to safeguard unimpeded white rule. It was to be only a matter of time before a state of war existed between the state and the majority African population.

The government unleashed a major media propaganda war. Control of film production now fell under the Rhodesian Ministry of Information. It is from there that propaganda war films were produced. The films were directed to both African and white audiences. Those film directed to African audiences, and in particular, the so called “war films” sought to undermine the support of rural communities for the guerrilla armies that were challenging white rule.

Not much is known about the production of the war films. The evidence for their use comes from oral interviews from the war zones, the most notable source for which is Julie Frederiske’s (1990) None but Ourselves. The films were produced at a time when Anker Atkinson was head of the Ministry of Information’s film production unit. Louis Nell who was a scriptwriter for the unit has described the production of these films as a “hush, hush” affair. The propaganda offensive involved some collaboration with white Portuguese who had some experience with guerrilla offensive and tactics in Mozambique. According to a Ministry of Information internal memorandum, the goal was to use the excellent medium of film to broadcast propaganda in order to win the hearts and minds of the people.

Mobile film units were deployed to show films in the war zones. In one film War on Terror a Rhodesian Army soldier is shown tracking ‘terrorist spoor’ after a ‘contact’. A camera shot shows a close-up shot of a dead guerrilla. Two Rhodesian soldiers are then shown approaching a village and setting the homestead on fire. The aim of such films was to undermine the rural support for guerrilla armies through terror tactics. But ironically such depictions left the African population much more resolved to support the guerrillas against a Rhodesian army perceived to be killing their “sons and daughters.”

In another untitled production that was widely used, the film opened with shots of three insurgent entering a village where they were fed and given shelter. As the story unfolded, the guerrillas were tracked and shot dead. The villagers who assisted them were arrested. In the most horrific scene the camera shows a hyena on leash rolling itself upon three real human bodies which are badly mutilated, licking up the brains of one body, ripping open another to pull out and eat entrails. The camera lingers on this scene for a considerable while.The film closes with a pitch black screen and the sound of hyenas laughing. This widely used and came to be known as the ‘hyena film’ by locals. It had neither title nor credits. It left audiences stunned, and some of them sick. In 1980, just before independence, the Rhodesia government destroyed some of the film stock used during the propaganda offensive. There is no evidence that the war films programme succeeded in undermining support for the liberation war. As the war escalated, support for the guerrillas intensified, and by 1979, the government was forced to concede that it was losing both the military conflict and the struggle for hearts and minds.

In many ways, the war films were the low point of film-making in Zimbabwe. There is clear evidence of audience resistance to propaganda messages. The experience clearly demonstrates the limits of propaganda, when there is a strong contradiction between the lived reality and aspirations of the audience and those of institutional film-maker. This is a salutary lesson for political elites who have historically tended to over-rate the power of media over the masses. The war ended in 1980, when Zimbabwe attained independence. Independence promised an new and exciting chapter in the development of local film.

During the first decade of independence, the state, through the Ministry of Information, launched an aggressive initiative to promote Zimbabwe as a film-making centre for Hollywood studios. The country was described as a “perfect film-making venue” with an excellent climate, a good and varied terrain, excellent infrastructure, and adequate technical support base. The reasons for promoting the country were both cultural and economic. It was expected that Hollywood studios would inject money into the economy and provide training for local film-makers, who would, in turn form a local film industry.

In pursuing the objective of a local film industry, the state was keen to invest directly in film industry. A partnership was struck with Universal Pictures that led to the production of the anti-apartheid film, Cry Freedom. The film was not as successful as anticipated, and the government did not realise a return on its US$5.5 million investment in the film. Stung by this loss, the government has stayed away from the production of feature film. It continues to sponsor a limited programme of film through the Ministry of Information’s Production Services. These are mostly short documentaries of a cultural and educational nature. The production unit has faced severe budgetary constraints and has not made a significant impact locally.

The fledging film industry was largely destroyed during the guerrilla war of the 1970’s, but the arrival of peace and independence in 1980 opened the door to a revival led by the need for television advertisements. The commercial production sector continues to expand. Three years after Independence, Cannon Films approached the authorities over the possibility of shooting King Solomon’s Mines, starring Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone, in Zimbabwe. This was a major boost to the rapid expansion of the pool of skills and the provision of services. Other filmmakers seeking suitable African locations came to Zimbabwe, and in 1986 Richard Attenborough shot Cry Freedom in the country, as South Africa then was a politically impossible location for such a film.

Producers of other anti-apartheid films – such as Mandela; A Dry White Season; A World Apart; Dark City and The Power of One – also used Zimbabwean locations. Suitable locations and facilities brought out other foreign productions, including White Hunter, Black Heart, Disney’s co-production with Hintza films of A Far Off Place, and Bopha and The Housekeeper, a Roger Corman B Movie. International productions continue to flock to Zimbabwe, with several European series, including Italian, Belgian and Czech, being made. In 1999, a French feature charting the life and assassination of the legendary Patrice Lumumba was filmed on location in Zimbabwe, with two weeks shot in Beira, Mozambique.

With the skills base growing, local filmmakers were able to get into the act with Jit, a light-hearted look at life, breaking the ice in 1990 and Neria, Zimbabwe’s top-grossing film being released a year later. 1996 productions Everyone’s Child, directed by Tsitsi Dangaremba, and Flame, directed by Ingrid Sinclair, have consistently won awards at international festivals where they have been well received by audiences. The Zimbabwean-British-French-Burkina Faso co-production Kini & Adams, shot in Zimbabwe in the last quarter of 1996, was the first Southern African film to be selected for the Official Competition at Cannes 1997. It went on to win a first prize in feature films at the 8th Festival of African Cinema in Milan, March 1998, in which Albert Chimedza’s Jazz Tales (1997) was also entered. Since then a multitude of short productions including Céline Gilbert’s In the Upper Room and Soul in Torment (part of SACOD’s Landscape of Memory series) have rekindled the industry. In early 2000, Media For Development Trust’s latest feature, Yellow Card was released, as was the super budget comedy Dr Juju. The Swahili dub of Yellow Card won the People’s Choice Award during the festival of Zanzibar 2000. In addition, Zimmedia has produced the first part of the documentary, Tides of Gold and co-produced the Mama Africa series with M-Net. Mama Africa, struck gold at the January 2001 Rotterdam Film Festival. The six part series was also bought by Canal+ Horizons, who signed a two-year deal for six screenings into Francophone Africa. The first four episodes of Mama Africa received their European premiere at Rotterdam, where the series was ranked 21 out of 250 entries. The production of the Zimbabwean short film of the series Mama Africa, Riches was completed in October 2000. Riches is written and directed by Ingrid Sinclair and won the City of Venice Prize at Milan 2001.

During the Festival of Milan 2000, two prizes went to films co-produced with Zimbabwe. The video Arcadia by Mufadzi Nkomo (UK/Zimbabwe), a wonderful humorous anti-racist political satire won the second prize in its category. Michael Raeburn and Heidi Drapper’s Home Sweet Home won the third prize for feature-length films. In October 2000, a coproduction between the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and Rooftop Promotions, Waiters, a six-episode sitcom, began production and was screened in December 2000. Production costs were reduced to US$25, 000 because the state broadcaster already had the necessary equipment at hand. Zimmedia is currently working on its new long feature film The Captain. A new production company Sunrise Productions was created in 2001 with a vision to produce quality films and to distribute them and other multi-media materials throughout Africa/Asia and internationally. Sunrise Productions is currently producing a 90 minute stop-frame animation film The Legend of the Sky Kingdom.

Shanda, a 70 minute feature documentary, exploring Oliver Mtukudzi’s career, is a pioneering project of Cross Culture, a company recently registered in Zimbabwe by husband and wife filmmakers, John and Louise Riber, known across the continent for their Zimbabwean features Neria and Yellow Card. The seventy-minute video will be transformed to 35mm format at Sasani’s Video Lab in Johannesburg, complimented with a stereo Dolby soundtrack from Chris Fellows Studios. Cross Culture anticipates significant cinema audiences in Zimbabwe and South Africa and selection to international film festivals where it will secure international broadcast opportunities, followed by DVD and video distribution. The simultaneous release of the film and the live album will serve to cross-promote international distribution for the film and the album. Shanda, an optimistic story from Zimbabwe, celebrates African social and cultural values. The project is a model for collaborative production, which will demonstrate that a well-conceived, low cost production can find worldwide audiences and make financial sense.

The pool of skills has been considerably strengthened through the UNESCO Film and Video Training project, implemented by UNESCO in collaboration with Cilect (the international liaison centre for film and television schools). Short courses on a variety of film areas (primarily using video) are available. Although courses are available to Southern Africans, Zimbabweans have made up at least half the classes.

Zimbabwe has people and facilities for most films, with a pool of expertise and more than a decade of experience in providing what filmmakers need. The Government has encouraged incoming film companies to use and train local staff where possible, although the target of 70% local staff is not rigidly enforced or monitored.

Stocks of equipment have been built up, and Zimbabwe now has a wide selection of audio-visual items, a full compliment of lighting equipment, generators, cameras (including Arriflex), Zeiss and Canon lenses, dolleys, cranes and grip accessories and equipment. There are experienced companies able to lie on catering for film companies and provide air-conditioned caravans, honey wagons, and services such as make-up, hairdressing, wardrobe, set makers and props. Local contractors can assemble the full range of locations, props and equipment desired.

With the present economic instability, the Zimbabwe dollar continues to fall in value, and this has made it cheaper than ever for overseas companies to film in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe has three main cinema chains, Ster-Kinekor, Monte Carlo Theatres and Rainbow Theatres. All are represented in the major cities of Harare and Bulawayo. Monte Carlo has six cinemas in the capital and one in Bulawayo. Rainbow has nine cinemas in Harare, plus two in Bulawayo, two in Mutare, and one each in Gweru and Marondera. Almost all films shown in Zimbabwe are Hollywood productions, with a few British films.

However, 1992 saw the start of a greater effort to show African films. The biggest box-office draw was the local production Neria, which beat Terminator II into second place. Sarafina was among the leaders in box office and a few other South African films did well. Exhibitors, while surprised at the success, were pleased and are now more open to African films. They claim they need to sell at least 5,000 tickets to make money off a film shown in Zimbabwe. By July 2000, at Ster Kinekor’s Harare Eastgate complex, Yellow Card entered its 14th week breaking box office records. Besides the 35mm circuit, there is a flourishing 16mm circuit, centred on the mines, and screenings are usually re-runs of the more successful 35mm films already shown in main centres.

Film-making over the last 50 years has been dominated by an evolving post-Second World War agenda for development in the former colonies. Local racial politics that precipitated the war of liberation produced a particularly reprehensible brand of war propaganda films. The agenda has been primarily controlled by outsiders, and in particular the West, initially by Britain as the colonial powers, and as we come to the close of the 20th Century, by multilateral and bilateral donor agencies. The rights-based agenda is political and ideological. Its educational goal is to raise consciousness, and mobilise people for action. There are tensions inherent in such an agenda. The controversy surrounding Flame is one example of this. The film was vigorously opposed by some males as a distortion of the war history of the Zimbabwe. The controversial aspect of the film was that it gave voice to the experiences of female ex-combatants, some of whom had been sexually abused during the war. The film survived the harsh criticism from some sections of the War Veterans association, the Sunday Mail, and the then Director of Information.

To its credit, the Zimbabwe government, as a whole, supported the film and provided logistical support through the airforce. The story of Flame suggests that there is no one monolithic Government of Zimbabwe view. There are ongoing debates, and at various points, some points of view gain ascendancy over others. This is a hopeful sign for the future of democratic participation in the construction of film narrative.

The promotion of a rights-based developmental framework in Zimbabwe is in many ways welcome. However the debate has yet to be completely flung open. There are taboo areas for both donors, local audiences, and the state. For donors, the challenge is to go beyond a framework that blames under-development on the deficiencies of the citizens or the state.

It is necessary to also critically examine the assumptions in the global system of economic and political relations and how these can be regulated in such a way as to foster development in poor countries. As of now, the unit of analysis remains the isolated state. If the rights-based agenda is taken to its logical conclusion, we should also see film narratives that seek to raise consciousness about the problem of development from a global perspective, directed to local as well as foreign audiences that have a stake in the development of Zimbabwe and other poor countries.

In conclusion, in the fifty years under review, an international developmental agenda that has largely motivated the development of film in Zimbabwe. The politics of that agenda have evolved over that time. Changes in narrative have therefore occurred over time, reflecting changing interests and relations, and shifting geopolitical interests.

History of Cinema in SOUTH AFRICA

Historical overview

After the British seized the Cape of Good Hope area in 1806, many of the Dutch settlers (the Boers) trekked north to found their own republics. The discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886) spurred wealth and immigration and intensified the subjugation of the native inhabitants. The Boers resisted British encroachments, but were defeated in the Boer War (1899-1902). The resulting Union of South Africa operated under a policy of apartheid – the separate development of the races. The 1990s brought an end to apartheid politically and ushered in black majority rule.

History of cinema from 1896-2000

Since 1910 over 1350 feature films have been made in South Africa. The first newsreels were filmed at the front during the Anglo-Boer War (1889 – 1902), and early projection devices were used around the gold fields in Johannesburg. The story of the South African film industry begins with the establishment of African Film Productions (AFP) and the production of the first fiction film called, “The Great Kimberley Diamond Robbery” in 1910.

Between 1916 and 1922 forty-three films were made by the AFP owned by Isadore William Schlesinger. The multi-national Schlesinger entertainment giant, AFP, dominated the local film scene until 20th Century Fox bought out Schlesinger’s interests in 1956. After 1948 and the introduction of apartheid policy strategies, the film industry became fractured and fragmented along racial and linguistic lines

During the 1950s Jamie Uys attracted Afrikaner-dominated capital for independent production and persuaded the government to provide a subsidy for the making of local films. The political climate in South Africans well as ineffective state-subsidised film structures resulted in severe fragmentations of the industry. Since 1956 and the introduction of a regulated subsidy system, government and big business have collaborated to manipulate cinema in South Africa. It was initially a cinema for whites only; of the 60 films made between 1956 and 1962 were in Afrikaans – four were bilingual and the remaining 13 were English.

Since 1962 Afrikaner capital became a significant factor in the industry: the insurance company SANLAM acquired a major interest in Ster-Films and by 1969, Satbel (Suid Afrikaanse Teaterbelange Beperk) was formed, and the financing and distribution for films in South Africa were in the hands of one large company – except for a few cinemas owned by CIC-Warner. The films made in the 60s did not explore a national cultural psyche, ignoring the socio-political turmoil and the realities experienced by black South Africans, focusing on the ideals of the Afrikaners.

During the 70s a further fragmentation in the industry occurred when the so-called Bantu film industry was created: the black films were of poor quality and made in ethnic languages, and were screened in churches, schools and beer halls. During the 70s black and white audiences were treated differently; the audiences were separated with its own set of rules and operations, films and cinemas. The industry was further fragmented in the 80s: substantial tax concessions made investing in film an attractive option and a boom occurred in the commercial industry. Several hundreds of films were made, mostly inferior imitations of American films. The tax scheme collapse by the end of the 80s and the subsidy system only subsidised box-office returns.

The independent cinema of the 80s was mainly distributed through independent venues: the filmmakers of films critical of apartheid seldom saw their work distributed by the main distribution companies. Films such as “Jobman”, Mapantsula”, “Windprints” and “On The Wire” were seldom seen by the majority of South Africans. Ster-Kinekor, Nu Metro as well as United International Pictures controlled the distribution of films in South Africa since the 80s. Approximately 944 features were made in South Africa from 1971 to 1991, as well as nearly 998 documentaries and several hundred short films and videos.

Films of note were “Mapantsula” (1988) by Oliver Schmitz (which participated in Cannes), “Marigolds in August” (1980) by Ross Devenish (a winner of two Silver Bears at Berlin), “The Road To Mecca” (1992) by Peter Goldsmid and Athol Fugard, “Saturday Night At The Palace” (1987) by Robert Davies, “Fiela se Kind” (1987) by Katinka Heyns, “Die Storie van Klara Viljee” (1991) by Katinka Heyns, and the Darrell Roodt trilogy: “Place Of Weeping” (1986), “The Stick” (1987) and “Jobman” (1990). At the beginning of the 90s there were several co-productions: Darell Roodt’s “Sarafina” (1992), “Cry, the Beloved Country” (1995) , Elaine Proctor’s “Friends” (1993), Les Blair’s “Jump The Gun” (1996), Shyam Benegal’s “The Making of Makatma” (1995), and Katinka Heyns’ “Paljas” (1997).

In 1991 the Film and Broadcasting Forum was established to address the problems of the industry: it represented the widest possible cross section of industry interests, from producers through to directors, writers, actors, musicians, technicians, agents, managements and studios. The prime objective was the creation of an environment in which its members could address strategic issues of common interest and to discuss such strategies with the state, political parties, cultural groups, broadcasters, distributors, exhibitors and others. In 1993 the Film and Broadcasting Steering Committee was created, representing the eight major film organisations in local cinema. By mid-1994 the Film and Television Federation emerged.

A major development was the historic democratic elections of 1994. In March 1995 the old South African film subsidy system, which was based on box office returns, finally ceased to exist, and an interim film fund became in operation. Ten million rands were annually distributed among various projects, which included funding for short filmmaking.

During the mid 90s there was a significant development of short films within the local film industry. The pay-television station M-Net initiated the “New Directions” project, giving talented first-time South African and other African filmmakers and scriptwriters a break into the film industry. By 1998 18 short films and two features were completed by M-Net. It showcased new talent and led to some outstanding short films such as “Come See the Bioscope”, “Angel”, “Salvation”, “An Old Wife’s Tale”, “Cry Me A Baby”, “Stimulation” and “The Apology”.

The development of short films were further boosted by the support of the Cape Film and Video Foundation and the South African Scriptwriters Association (SASWA), in collaboration with the Department of arts, Culture, Science and Technology. At the 3rd Southern African International Film and Television Market, as well as the 22nd Cape Town International Film Festival the real strength of post-apartheid cinema was clearly visible; short films and documentaries – which won numerous international awards during 1998 and 1999 – overshadowed feature filmmaking.

Some of these remarkable documentaries were Greta Schiller and Mark Gevisser’s historical overview of gay lives under apartheid in “The Man Who Drove with Mandela”, 1998 (which won the Documentary Teddy Prize at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival) and Zola Maseko’s “The Life and Times of Sara Baartman”.

Among the short films, there was Gavin Hood’s “The Storekeeper” (1998), which was awarded best short film at the Nashville Independent Film Festival and the bronze for best dramatic short at the Houston International Film Festival. Hoods feature debut was the absolutely brilliant “A Reasonable Man” (1999), which won several international awards. It won the M-Net All African M-Net Awards 2000 and was voted the best film during the Southern Africa Film Festival held in Zimbabwe in September 2000. This film was released with 12 prints and depended on word of mouth to generate sales. It earned US$45,204 between October and November 1999. Boesman and Lena made its premier at Sithengi 2000. Co-produced by Primedia Pictures, this film was adapted from Athol Fugard’s classic drama and stars Danny Glover and Angela Bassett.

Post-apartheid filmmaking does not equal the small renaissance in independent filmmaking of the late 80s and early 90s: films such as “Letting It Go”, “The Sexy Girls”, “Pride of Africa” and “The Ghost” were disappointing. Some of the films of note were Neil Sundstrom’s “Inside Out”, 2000 and “Chikin Biznis”, 1998 by Ntshaveni Wa Luruli.

The prospects for feature filmmaking in South Africa look great: The National Film and Video Foundation, which supports the local film industry, was established during April 1999. On a regional level, the Cape Film Commission is in development to promote and market the film industry within the Western Cape. During the first season in 2001, more than 250 major international film shoots, involving over R1 billion, took place in the Western Cape alone. These included four feature films, six television features and more than 250 commercials for the international market, as well as 30 South African commercials and several local TV series and documentaries.

South African scriptwriters are also being recognised on the international market: “The Long Run” (2000) by Jean Stewart, the latest South African film tells the story of a 60-year-old German long distance running coach, whose life changes drastically when he prepares a young and beautiful Namibian woman, to try and win the Comrades marathon. Preview audiences described the film as “one of the best South African films in years”, “beautifully filmed”, “exciting” and “with a nail biting finish”.

The screenplay of “Gaudi Afternoon” (2001), directed by Susan Seidelman, of Desperately Seeking Susan fame, was based on the popular lesbian detective novel by Barbara Wilson, which won both the Lambda Book Award and the British Crimewriter’s Association Prize for the Best Novel Set in Europe. The scriptwriter, James Mayhre, lives in Johannesburg. Previous to writing the screenplay for “Gaudí Afternoon”, Mayhre was a development executive and personal manager at the Warner Bros.-based production company, Somers-Teitelbaum-David, where he developed such projects as “The Rookie” (1990) starring Clint Eastwood and Charlie Sheen.

Louis de Bernières’ novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin was adapted for the big screen by South African-born Shawn Slovo, who was commissioned to write the screenplay. Slovo moved to England in 1964 with her politically exiled parent. Her professional association with Working Title films began in 1987 when they produced her first screenplay, A World Apart – which won her the 1988 BAFTA Best Original Screenplay.

Three local South African features went into production in 2000. Oliver Schmitz’s US$3million gangster comedy thriller “Hijack Stories”, despite its local content and cast there was no South African finance involved in the picture; instead it was fully financed by Germany, France and Britain. The film received a special mention at Milan 2002. Then there was Anant Singh’s production “The Long Run”, an inter-racial love story set against the backdrop of the Comrade’s Marathon, starring Armin Mueller-Stahl with a budget of US$2million. The third was “Soldiers of the Rock”, a mining drama that was a co-production of the School of Film, Television and Dramatic Art and The Film Lab. Budgeted at R3million (US$42,000) it was largely crewed by students of the school with a script by Bata Paschier, one of the school’s lecturers.

In 1995 a new film function is created to encourage and promote the local industry . Film funding policy was thus given a new lease on life – in the form of the Interim Film Fund – rather recently. Film funding policy in South Africa is still in its nascent form. It is important that the much anticipated National Film and Video Foundation learn and grow from the formative experiences of the IFF. In November 1996 the Film Development Strategy – the White Paper on Film – is announced, and the Interim Film Fund (IFF) is established to assist with the allocation of 10 million Rand made available for film funding for that financial year (96 out of more than 300 projects receive funding). The most significant need identified by the Film Development Strategy paper is that of a film Foundation: in October 1997 the National Film and Video Foundation Bill is adopted by the portfolio committee of Arts and Culture, the Bill is passed by the National Assembly and becomes Act No. 73 two months later (ibid.). The Interim Film Fund continues to function as government funding body until the Foundation and its administrative Council is finally in place. IFF members are all film industry people. Objectives behind the IFF are: to develop new scriptwriters, filmmakers and local film audience, to facilitate training schemes, to develop and build the film industry in general.

In South Africa film equipment is no problem in South Africa, with the most modern range readily available, including Arriflex and Panavision cameras and digital editing suites. There is a fully equipped film laboratory, The Film Lab (part of the Sasani Group) that can process stock up to 35mm, including super 16. The Sasani Group offers the most complete video facilities in the Southern Hemisphere.

South Africa has a big pool of technical skills. It is estimated that there are around 2,000 people servicing the film, TV and commercial production industry. It is suspected that around 400 of these are not with any formal agency. In 1999 the local industry was knocked by the government relaxing the requirement of work permits for foreign crews. This has enabled visiting crews to bring in nearly all their principle and secondary crew members with them. The South African industrial bodies have mobilised to lobby parliament against this.

It is possible to hire any crew member locally. Caterers, transport operators and other service staff are readily available along with accountants, lawyers, doctors and the like. There are several excellent local directories, which provide up-to-date information on local crews: Screen Africa Directory lists those specifically involved in film and TV in South Africa. The Whole Lot promotes crews and facilities mainly in the Cape. Contacts is a large directory dealing with the many sides of the entertainment industry. Crews cost rose dramatically over the last 1998/9 season. These rates have since been regulated nation-wide.

South Africa has a well-developed film and video production infrastructure which has made the country home to numerous big budget feature and commercial productions. In 1997/98, the industry polarised into several conglomerates. Film, TV, and commercial production are now worth an estimated US$218m to the economy. Feature film productions worth to the economy is estimated at US$17m and employs around 20,525 people (including broadcasting). South Africa offers large production and post-production facilities of the highest standards. Advertisements, programmes, doccies, and local and foreign feature films are all shot in South Africa, creating a vibrant local industry. The publicly quoted South African satellite broadcaster, MultiChoice, and associated pay TV channel M-Net, have over one million subscribers from South Africa alone. M-Net invests heavily in the film and entertainment industry across Africa, with such initiatives as All Africa Film Awards, Face of Africa, New Directions Africa, Mama Africa, Rock Down Africa and Channel O.

Not surprisingly, M-Net chose South Africa to participate in M-Net’s New Directions Africa initiative. South Africans offer Africa unrivalled experience in making the moving image pay. The industry has the unique African position of being taken seriously by its government. At the same time the industry supports, looks after itself through various industry bodies set-up to develop an international profile, and protects their interests at home. At Sithengi ’99 saw the launching of the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), formed by the country’s Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. The foundation began by allocating over US$1.4m to 152 projects.

In early 2000, the South African industry saw the collapse of major local production houses. The film division of Primedia closed down and African Media Entertainment (AME) went through some major re-structuring. Since, investors and distributors are extremely cautious about investing in film production

In September 2000 the Gauteng Film Office was launched. Based in Johannesburg and funded by the Gauteng Economic Development Agency in association with the Department of Arts and Culture, it hopes to boost the economy of the region by stimulating international film, TV and commercials production in the region. This followed a few months after the Cape Town Film Office was set up at the beginning of 2000.

In 2001, the NFVF approved grants of over R6-million (US$521 739) as part of the 2001/2 funding cycle. The grants are part of the annual funding of projects that form the largest pool of development money available for this purpose in South Africa. Film and video projects require time and money to develop before they can become viable. Changes in South Africa, as well as globally, have necessitated government funding the industry, so that it can play a greater part in the cultural experience of the country as well as the economy. The fund was taken over from the department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology by the NFVF when it was formed in 2000. The latest grants are in line with changes that the NFVF have identified in the industry. These grants, are also part of a broader innovative strategy towards development.

The lack of government support for the South African film industry was the subject of continued criticism at Sithengi 2001. In order to stimulate the South African film Industry, producer Jonathan Wacks, guest speaker at the KPMG/Sithengi Chairman’s Breakfast on Monday the 12th of November, called for increased state subsidies from the South African government. During the breakfast, Wacks mentioned that the R10 million (US$ 870,000) initially allocated by the government to the National Film & Video Foundation (NFVF) had been helpful for Sithengi, the Avanti Awards and some smaller projects, but if the government wanted to see its industry take off, the amount allocated should ideally be increased to between R250 million and R500million (US$22 million -44 million).

Several foreign movies were facilitated in South Africa in 2000 including Peakviewing’s productions of Pets! Africa with Elizabeth Berkley, the US$12 million civil-war drama Glory Glory with Gary Busey and Lesley Anne Down, Dazzle with Jeff Fahey and Maxwell Caulfield at a cost of $6million, The Meeksville Ghost with Judge Reinhold, and the US$10million The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with Kelly Le Brock. The Film Lab and the Video Lab were awarded the contract in December 2000 to work on the production of a Polish film In Desert and Wilderness.

In 2001 several local and international productions were in production at Sasani’s Video Lab, including Mr.Bones a Leon Schuster movie produced by Video Vision. Raya by Zulfa Otto Sallies, the South African short film of the series Mama Africa. Others included Southwest (Philo Films), Africano (Urban Legend), Park Life (Route66), African Wild Dog (Afriscreen), Elephants (Abdi Jama), Soul City TV (Clinic TV), Ollie (Peakviewing), Merlin (Peakviewing), and Berseker (Peakviewing). Mr.Bones grossed a record breaking R12 546 375 (US$1,090.989) in the first three weeks of being released in the country.

The end of 2001 saw The Video Lab Johannesburg’s completion of the visual effects on their thirteenth feature film.The Video Lab Cape Town has been contracted to produce another episode of Sara An African Girl for Unicef. The Film Lab and The Video Lab Cape Town have recently completed seven weeks of negative processing and telecine transfers for The Piano Player. The Video Lab is proud to be providing post-production services for the local groundbreaking feature, Promised Land, the first feature length film shot entirely on HDCAM in South Africa. Recently, MCC Logical Designs supplied equipment for the Wild Coast Productions (feature film Slash and Peakviewing’s’s feature Hoodun and Sons.

South Africa’s New African Investments Ltd. (NAIL) the most powerful black Empowerment Corporation in the country, has media assets worth more than R1 billion (mainly newspapers and radio stations), which have been diversified into two separately listed units – a financial services provider, New African Capital, and a media company known as New African Media which formed a new arm last year dubbed New African Media Films, and shot their first feature Slash in 2001 at a budget of US$2.2million. The next project they have under development is an adaptation of Alexander Mc Call Smith’s award-winning novel The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency which the company optioned along with its sequel Tears of the Giraffe.

In 2002, the pay-TV channel M-Net, as part of New directions Free Form (NDFF) will produce four (3 X drama and 1 X documentary) short films in South Africa: Living in Limbo by Carmen Sangion (My name is Jacob), A Drink in the Passage by Zola Maseko (The Foreigner & Sophia Town), Waiting for Valdez by Dumisani Phakathi (Xmas with Granny and Old Wives Tale) and My Son the Bride, directed by Mpumi Njinge (Documentary). This documentary is already in postproduction. NDFF is an exciting pilot phase of the widely acclaimed M-Net New Directions (ND). South Africa’s prestigious AVANTI Awards 2001, went to Malunde directed by Stephanie Sycholt. The film won six awards in the Feature Film Category. Charlize Theron South Africa’s most famous Hollywopod star was nominated for an Oscar in 2003 for her performance in “Monster” by Patty Jenkins.

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