Directors Making South Africa Proud
We speak to some of South Africa’s hottest directors to find out more about their latest productions and what they love about their jobs.
Jahmil XT Qubeka
A prolific local director best known for Of Good Report and eTV’s Hustle, Jahmil’s latest film, Sew the Winter to My Skin, is inspired by the pursuit and capture of a notorious livestock thief in the 50s. “In classic Robin Hood fashion, this miscreant shared what he stole, thus endearing himself to the poor and disenfranchised,” he explains. “The project is different to anything I have done before in that it is a period film with a lot of scope and ambition. It is also wholly supported by our government film initiatives via the dti, the IDC, Arts and Culture, the NEF and NFVF.”
The film presented him with many new challenges — most notably the scope and size of it, as well as harsh weather conditions and altitude pressure in rural Eastern Cape. “The size of the crew alone was mammoth. My roots are in a more guerrilla approach to filmmaking. All this legitimacy almost got me flustered but I took it in stride. I love pressure, I thrive off it! We had to battle severe weather conditions that on at least two occasions we had to stop the shoot because it was pouring with rain.”
Although he was mentioned in the Realness Scriptwriters Residency last year, he says he was never part of it, but rather, it was a project he endorsed and was provisionally attached to direct. “I support any initiative that places an emphasis on narrative development,” says Jahmil. “For instance, Sew the Winter to My Skin was part of the prestigious Cinefondation Cannes L’Atelier programme. This gave the project whilst still at script level the opportunity to be exposed to the rigours of the international film market business. It was an invaluable experience in assessing the appetite for films like ours.”
Having worked in both TV and film formats, he says each discipline is equally demanding, with TV being “far more restrictive because of entrenched convention.” The local television environment, he says, is not particularly conducive to doing quality work. “The sausage factory demand often dictates shooting schedules where sometimes one has to shoot a ridiculous average of fifteen pages a day. By definition, such a demand breeds a compromised vision.” He adds that film is a far more personal experience. “The films I make come from the pit of my soul, the depth of my being. I find the experience of making films to be deeply personal, it’s probably why I’m such a lunatic.”
The Last Word
Describe your personal film aesthetic in a sentence.
Full Throttle, baby, all the way and beyond!
What was the biggest lesson you learned in making Of Good Report?
Filmmaking is not going to make me rich.
Any last thoughts on your craft?
Doing what I do is an absolute privilege and an honour for me. I consider my craft a gift bestowed upon me by the Universal Giver. It’s precious, it’s personal; everything is personal.
John Trengove
Director of the controversial Inxeba — which has just recently made its way back into cinemas nationally after a brief rating setback — is both a heroic and notorious figure in SA at the moment. “We were discussing the contentious nature of what we were doing from the very beginning,” he says, “setting a story about same-sex desire inside the context of rites of passage to manhood. We understood that this would provoke strong reactions, but also, that it could be a good film. The question of where we set the boundaries was one we revisited constantly, especially around the time of #FeesMustFall when the social discourse around race and representation became much more heated.”
Although the film has spurred dialogue around culture and sexuality in SA, he says this was not his ultimate aim, but rather to present a problem with both sensitivity and complexity. “The thing that not a lot of people have spoken about is that the story is as much a provocation for a complacent gay middle class audience as it is for the traditionalists. We’re not here trying to force an agenda but to allow the conversation to happen outside of the film.”
That conversation has truly spiralled, resulting in Inxeba’s original rating overturned by the FPB in February, only to being contested in court and then returning to theatres in March. “The tribunal ruling did all of us a disservice, including the film’s opponents. We were hearing some valid criticisms against the film, but these voices were instantly drowned out when the FPB tribunal hijacked the conversation and made it about what constitutes pornography. Hopefully, now we can go back to talking about what Inxeba is actually about.”
He says that one positive outcome is that although the censorship drove the film underground, the “tidal wave of piracy” over those two weeks meant Inxeba reached hundreds of thousands more viewers than it would have otherwise. “In spite of the financial implications, this is meaningful for us particularly because marginalised queer people from the more remote and rural parts of our country have now been able to watch the film. This is a huge victory and a development we could never have anticipated.”
The Last Word
Describe your personal film aesthetic in a sentence.
I like films that ask audiences to think for themselves and fill in the blanks.
What was the biggest lesson you learned in making Inxeba?
Ulwaluko is a profound and transformative experience for many men. When performed correctly, it shows a boy his place in the world of men. In a world that’s under-fathered, this is significant.
Michael Matthews
He’s received critical acclaim for his spaghetti Western, Five Fingers for Marseilles, which is confident in its genre whilst remaining authentically South African. The film opens in local cinemas in April, and according to Michael, this is a huge relief. “It was a real struggle to get the film to the starting block of actual production. Myself and Writer/Producer Sean Drummond spent eight years trying to get it made, and six of those years were focused on trying to finance it. We wanted the audio and visual scope of the film to raise the bar for SA films, so keeping it as a 95% non-English Western with only local cast, there were no comparable models to reference for financing. It was a hard sell, but we didn’t want to compromise.”
Described as part of Africa’s ‘new wave of cinema’, Michael hopes that Five Fingers “continues to open doors to other filmmakers trying to take SA cinema into new directions. To try push different genres and types of films that are strongly South African.” He believes there will be some great local films produced in the next few years, as well as an increase in both the quality of storytelling and filmmaking.
A few months ago he and Sean signed with WME for international representation, which has opened many new opportunities in the wider industry. “The plan is to keep growing and to use new contacts to create bigger opportunities, but there is definitely a lack of good films and scripts within Hollywood, so it always comes back to that — even if the opportunity seems very attractive. Great scripts and ideas are in real demand. Sean and I have some exciting projects in the pipeline, both feature and TV. With the US projects that have been offered, the hope is to try bringing the production and filmmaking process to SA, while using LA as the business hub.”
He’s currently working on Apocalypse Now Now, a completely South African dark fantasy film. “It’s very ambitious and has huge worldwide potential. Terri Tatchell (District 9) is writing the script at the moment and there has been a lot of excitement around the proof of concept we released last year online. So we will be taking that out for financing very soon.”
The Last Word
Describe your personal film aesthetic in a sentence.
Considered, controlled, and emotive. I love thinking about creating a unique world and tone.
What was the biggest lesson you learned in making Five Fingers for Marseilles?
It’s good to be prepared and at the same time, open to change anything to make the film better.
Any last thoughts on your craft?
We really want to grow the industry and create exciting new directions for it. There is no reason we can’t creating world-class content that local and international audiences want to see. There truly is an appetite for it. From the experience in the US industry, there is a hunger for great talent and films. We are not isolated here.
Sibs Shongwe-La Mer
Making waves internationally with his upcoming feature The Sound of Animals Fighting, Sibs is best known for Necktie Youth, which captivated audiences with his honest yet dark portrayal of today’s youth. His new film is set to shoot in both Johannesburg and Brazil this year, and stars Emile Hirsch and Alice Braga.
He says it came about after meeting with Neil Brandt of Fireworx Media. “When he mentioned the locations and a dark realism he wanted for the piece, I was immediately drawn. The complete lawlessness of these spaces and how they kinda occupy a cinematic black hole in my imagination was enough to start me wanting to take this journey.” After deciding how the two creatives could make their concepts work in collaboration, Sibs says he “wanted to express the feeling of falling off the earth into a strange nowhere as well as photograph a telling that explicitly conveyed the duality and the spiritual and psychological ramifications of hedonist life. The story of Icarus in modern times,” he adds. “There’s also like the Western perception of Latin America as samba, Ipanema beach, big-booty-bronze-skinned women that has been propagated by the cinema and I think there was this natural desire to see what lurked beyond, making a film in the alleys of paradise.”
Sibs has a unique sense of self that spills into his film. “I’m really fortunate to have a job that allows me that opportunity of blatant self-analysis. Personally, I believe this combative attitude the industry has with the audience creates really sterile work.” He says he was on the brink of death when he first started working on Animals. “Animals was like me sitting naked with myself and taking inventory… ‘Okay so you’re really terrible here, this is what you love, this is what you will die for’. Necktie took a lot more than I could have imagined it would at 23. So this was like seeing what’s left in the rubble and slowly building again. It’s a considered, intimate and ultimately selfish exploit but I feel it’s the most honest and generous thing I can do with my time right now.”
Aside from this production, he’s been working on quite a few other projects including The Colour of the Skull, a majority French co-production launched at Berlinale and recently selected for Cannes L’Atelier. He’s also been working on Meridian, which has by iconic Hollywood indie producer Cassian Elwes attached. “We are casting in Hollywood and have some really exciting A-list talent in conversation and a really beautiful tale of love in the face for peril reminiscent of a classic film noir. I’m terribly excitable about the prospect of making a tribute to classic American cinema.”
The Last Word
Describe your personal film aesthetic in a sentence.
I wouldn’t. I hope to continuously grow artistically and really crave new spaces for myself to explore… It’s still really, really, early days so maybe I actually have a kak boring aesthetic. Let’s see.
What was the biggest lesson you learned in making Necktie Youth?
It’s really tough to say. Life is beautiful, have hope.
Any last thoughts on your craft?
I hope that if anything, people see that the best way to make a contribution to the cinema and do good business is to give 100 percent of you. People waste so much energy and money on trying to hit a make or make a buck. Like, I get that really, money is great and we all need to make it, but good responsible art and commerce are not mutually exclusive.
This showcase first appeared in The Callsheet Issue 4, 2018.
