The CEO and co-founder of FORT, Shukri Toefy, a creative production company present in five African countries, speaks about a ‘youth board’ and why failure has never been an option for him.

<ol>
<li> What are your plans for promoting youth development in Africa?</li>
</ol>
They are our future target market that will consume our content. [The stance] is so important for us that we started a youth board [with people] in their early 20s and we can ask them what is cool. [We ask them] is Snapchat still cool and are they still on Instagram? Because as we get older [as a way] to future-proof our company, we need to have our ear to the ground to know what young people are talking about. As the CEO of a creative agency, I have quarterly meetings with my youth board in which I speak to them to find out what are they wearing, where are they going and what is cool and not cool anymore, so that I can be better resourced to implement that with my clients and the rest of the people. It is a cool way of future-proofing who we are and what we do.
<ol start="2">
<li>What was your biggest risk?</li>
</ol>
It was starting our network across Africa. I think we put a lot of money in opening our offices in Kenya and Nigeria. If we count the flights, legal structures etc. it would be an estimate of R2 million ($136,000) to R3 million ($204,000).
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<ol start="3">
<li> What has been your greatest challenge in the industry?</li>
</ol>
Our greatest challenge right now is that when we are in recessionary times, [so usually] marketing and communications is the first thing that is to be cut. Secondly, independently, African companies don’t have the financial backing that some of these globally-owned agencies have. So they don’t have the ability to go out and scale up [on production] like they could.
<ol start="4">
<li> Who is the most influential person you have worked with?</li>
</ol>
The Oxford facilitator I met in June…gave me a different perspective on life and I came back with so many tools on how to see the world and view things. He calmed me down.
<ol start="5">
<li>Your views on mentorship&#8230;</li>
</ol>
I have had the benefit of having coffee or breakfast with highly successful people and I think that is one of the most valuable things you could have as an entrepreneur, to actually have people that you could bounce off ideas with. That you could learn from them and their mistakes and they could guide you.
<ol start="6">
<li> Your biggest fear…</li>
</ol>
I am not fearful of failing because I don’t think failure is an option. I just don’t see it. It is not constructed for me…You can’t beat me. Today you might beat me and tomorrow it will be me [on top of things] because I see it as all part of my journey.
<ol start="7">
<li> What would you say to your 16-year-old self?</li>
</ol>
Slow down and enjoy the ride because it goes so quickly. I was in a hurry to try and take advantage of every opportunity that I had. [As a young person] you have that militancy in you to say ‘you need to take every opportunity that comes your way’. I think that is why I am here but you later realize that it is all part of the journey and there is no such thing as failure. It is about failing forward and it is about failing often. And it is about seeing it as a much bigger journey rather than your day-to-day failures.
 
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Why Youth Can Future-Proof A Company

There is a slight nip in the air as the sun rises on the horizon and workers join the frenzied rush-hour traffic on the Third Mainland Bridge to Victoria Island. Crawling along the Falomo Bridge towards the mainland, I am joined by Kunle (not their real name), a former ringleader in Nigeria’s lucrative piracy industry. We are on our way to Alaba International Market, the largest electronics market in Nigeria and, incidentally, where it all began for Kunle.
“This is big business. At the top of the food chain is the Igbo movie producers and marketers who control the distribution of all the movies,” says Kunle.
Alaba is typical of most Nigerian markets. The place is heaving with sellers vying for every inch of space available on the streets, forcing people to walk in a straight line, like soldiers going to battle. The ‘area boys’, who are the unofficial tour guides of the market, expertly maneuver through teems of people, shouting frantically to get the attention of potential customers. We stop at Alake Enterprises, a rundown shack selling the latest Nollywood movies and gospel CDs.
“Madam, we get brand new movies, I beg [you to] come inside,” says one of the vendors.
As we enter the dilapidated building, a wall appears out of nowhere adorned with the latest cinema releases.
“There are two types of movies here. Those at the front of the shop are the legal ones, which have been released in the cinema and have now made their way to DVD. What you are seeing at the back are the ones that are currently in the cinema and some that are yet to show,” says Kunle.
<div id="attachment_35134" style="width: 511px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35134" class=" wp-image-35134" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Alaba-Market-Nollywood-e1517299294437-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="501" height="332" />Alaba Market (Photo by Andrew Esiebo/Aljazeera America)</div>
Hiring more than a million people, Nollywood is the country’s second largest employer, according to a United Nations report. The ability of film crews, using guerilla filmmaking, to shoot a full-length feature in a week, has made Nollywood a powerhouse in the world of movies.
The National Bureau for Statistics (NBS) estimates that the Nigerian film industry contributed about 1.4% to the GDP in 2013 and 2014, and employed over 250,000 people directly. According to the World Bank, Nollywood produces up to 50 films a week, surpassing Hollywood in volume. Subsequently, the rise in copyright crimes in the country grows alongside the Nollywood industry.
“A couple of years ago Kunle Afolayan’s movie, October 1, was pirated and sold on the streets for less than $3 before the movie’s premiere in the cinema. He spent $2 million producing that movie. Now tell me, how was he going to make his money back? How many cinemas do we have in the country to help him recoup that amount?” says Bose Oshin, Head of Productions at GAME Productions.
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The incident almost led to the writer and director boycotting Nigeria for good. In 2014, a week after the release of Half of a Yellow Sun, a film adaptation of the award-winning novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, film vendors were hawking pirated copies of the film in Lagos. According to Oshin, you can’t fix the problem without understanding why there is a leak in the supply chain cycle.
“Before a movie shows, they need to send a copy to the cinemas where it will make its debut. The pirates pay the workers in the cinema a lump sum of N1 million ($2,790) to steal the copy. For these culprits, this is more money than they would earn in a year, so the temptation is quite high,” says Oshin.
Kofi Ansah, an emerging Ghanaian movie producer looking to have a piece of the lucrative Nollywood pie, experienced this in what he calls his worst day in business.
“I literally used all my savings to shoot this movie and managed to secure some top stars from Nigeria. We were two weeks away from the movie premiere when I got a call from someone saying they had a copy of my movie and I should pay N5 million ($13,950) to prevent its release on the streets for one month. It was as if someone had just shot me in the stomach. We barely had enough to do our promotion and now we were being blackmailed by these thugs,” says Ansah.
He believes the leak was orchestrated by competing producers who do not want any new names to enter the hugely competitive, and often fickle, world of Nigerian cinema.
“We all use the same production crews so it is easy to get your hands on footage. I couldn’t afford to make the payment, so the movie was on the street before we could even do the premier and we lost all our investment. I ended up having to take the movie to other parts of Africa to try to recoup some of the money,” says Ansah.
<div id="attachment_35135" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35135" class=" wp-image-35135" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Nollywood-movies-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" />Nollywood movies for sale in a market (Photo by Andrew Esiebo/Aljazeera America)</div>
In the belly of the beast lies an ongoing war between the ‘New Nollywood’ producers and traditional ‘Asaba’ producers.
“New Nollywood does not make any money. They have the fame, the glitz and the glamour, and they do lavish launches in cinemas, but nobody goes to the cinema to watch a Nollywood production when Captain America is showing. Asaba, or old Nollywood, is where the money is made. Movies are shot on tight production schedules, usually about a week, and then the same movie is broken down into several sequels from part one to sometimes part 16,” says Kunle.
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Asaba movies are for the masses. Storylines are simple, humorous, and movies are mostly shot in the local dialect. The top actors in this sector are in such high demand that they sometimes shoot up to 10 movies a week, jumping from one set to the other.
“As soon as the marketers hear that a New Nollywood movie is about to hit the cinema, the whole gang is on high alert. Once the inside person is paid, and we get a copy of the video, we begin mass-production. Sometimes as many as 20 million copies are created and immediately moved by trucks to Onitsha, Aba, Alaba and Idumota, where agents are there to pick up and distribute to a network of street hawkers and shops in those areas,” says Kunle.
The mass production provides economies of scale, with DVDs as cheap as N100 ($0.30). Contrast this with the N3,000 ($8.30) for a cinema screening and it’s obvious why piracy thrives in Nigeria.
“This is simply a case of supply and demand. The demand is there because people want to watch the same movies that are shown in the cinema for a fraction of the cost, and so long as that demand exists, these pirates will always be in business and that is the unfortunate truth,” says Oshin. 
To combat piracy, the Nigerian government established Project ACT Nollywood, with a N3 billion ($8 million) grant. In a press statement, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, says the proper distribution of movies is important if Nigeria is to win the fight.
But Ansah says it’s not that simple.
“Like any criminal organization, there are those at the top who make the real money and make all the moves. These people have a strong network and they work with the copyright owners or those who have been officially contracted to produce the legitimate DVDs of the new movies, so they have direct access to the source thereby hijacking the market,” he says.
“Piracy works with informal networks and to be honest, there is really no fear of punishment because you hardly hear of anybody who has been arrested on the grounds of video piracy. That is where the law needs to act. Instill a fear of imprisonment and people will behave accordingly.”
But this suggestion may be flawed.
“We have informants in the law enforcement agencies that give us a heads-up so we know all the plans they are making, which means we have enough time to react,” says Kunle.
For now, the clandestine networks continue to grow and as long as they have an insatiable audience looking for the lowest prices for the latest cinematic releases, it is unlikely that piracy in Africa’s largest movie industry will end.

The Fortune And Fury Behind Nollywood

We are in one of the breakaway rooms of the conference center at the five-star Kampala Serena Hotel in Uganda, but the conversation is about Luweero, located two hours by road from Kampala.
Natasha Karugire, the eldest daughter of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, speaks breathlessly, her thoughts coming thick and fast, as she moves from one staccato sentence to another.
She is talking animatedly about the feature film, 27 Guns, she is currently making on Uganda’s ‘Bush War’, and 1981, when the young Museveni went into hiding as part of the National Resistance Army (NRA).
“He and 42 other men had only 27 guns between them, but what they had was faith and hope and fire,” says the 41-year-old mother of four, who started out as a fashion designer and has now scripted the film and is directing it. It is expected to premiere in February. When we meet her in September, she has been filming for two weeks, with an all-Ugandan crew and cast.
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Karugire’s creative energy is palpable as she speaks passionately about the project that has seen her literally live in the bush in Luweero, re-enacting the guerrilla war in which her father played a lead role. The NRA was based in different parts of Luweero for five years.
“It’s time we tell our own stories, and not wait for someone to come and tell it in a different voice, from a skewed perspective,” she says of the reason she started her film production company Isaiah 60 in March 2017.
“We have epic tales in Africa, and for us starting with Uganda, we have just such big stories… But you know the saddest thing for me is that our own citizens, a lot of the time, are unaware.”
She laments the tendency among the young to endorse the Western narrative.
“Whenever a story is being told by Hollywood about Africa, it’s so generic, there is a way that it’s told, the song that is played… And in your heart, you are feeling this is just not us, we are not only about this, there is so much more to the people of Africa… I think this film is our way of saying, ‘this is how we say it’.”
<div id="attachment_34773" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34773" class="wp-image-34773" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/27-Guns-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" />A scene from Natasha Karugire&#8217;s film, 27 Guns (Photo supplied)</div>
Growing up, Karugire says she was always artistic. “I draw, I sketch, take pictures and write poetry.”
At university, she studied fashion, design and marketing. She was barely 22, when she started her own business in Uganda’s non-existent fashion industry. She struggled.
“I started out in Uganda, when fashion was not understood,” she says simply. She got married at 24, and started a family. Her eldest child is now 16 and youngest five.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/12/12/connected-to-her-land/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Connected To Her Land</a>
Her husband Edwin, a lawyer, supported her “strange artistic journeys”.
But throughout her stint in the fashion business, Karugire kept asking herself if she was doing something she was passionate about and that kept her up at night.
“Almost the day I turned 40, something just happened,” says Karugire of her epiphany, that she should make a film about the struggle. Up until then, she had been putting together video clips, culled from old footage, for friends and family who loved them.
“I started reading my father’s books and I prayed, because we are Christians, my first point of call always is to ask God, that’s when I started writing a script for the first time,” she says.
“I realized I could not go to bed, I could not talk about anything else , and that’s when it hit me that this is my passion.”
Soon, Karugire met a producer in England, but “she was patronizing about the story”, saying it would probably be good for Ugandans and the region but not the international market.
Determined, she pressed on and started filming.
“It has such been a walk, quite a journey on so many levels , but right now, our faith is reaffirmed,” she says.
Funding for the film, she says, has come from people who believe in the story.
“But we are still looking for investors,” she tells us at the interview.
In the film, Karugire’s youngest sister, Diana Kamuntu, plays the role of the First Lady.
Talent, it seems, runs in the family.

‘It’s Time We Tell Our Own Stories’

We recently spoke with film producer Helena Spring on being a woman in a very male-dominated field, her success with the box office hit Keeping Up With The Kandasamys and her opinions of the proverbial glass ceiling in the world of film and how it’s being broken. Spring has been a producer for some 30 years and was also a producing partner with South African filmmaker Anant Singh for many of those years. She’s a force to reckon with in the international and South African film industry.
Do you think the film business is still very male-dominated in South Africa? 
The SA film industry is evolving very dynamically and the number of women making their mark as writers, directors and producers has definitely increased. The ratio of men is still higher than women but there has never been more opportunity for people with talent, vision and ability, irrespective of their gender, than now.
Have you had to face challenges as a woman in this space?
My work is important to me in a very personal way. I have always aspired to excellence without thinking of my gender as an obstacle to that. Luckily, the film industry nurtures that approach. My main obstacles came from financial institutions that seemed to believe that even women with sound track records cannot be considered economically reliable without some guy in the background signing surety for them. And of course, our industry is a high-risk one which further underpins that misconception.
However, the hardest part for me, was making sacrifices on the home front when my children were young. Working 15-hour days, seven days a week when you’re in production is very tough on children and relationships. Without good support, this often becomes an insurmountable challenge for women.
How have you overcome some of these challenges?  
I’m sad to say that I’ve often put work first when I shouldn’t have but I’m fortunate enough to have a wonderful life partner and good family support. These were key factors that enabled me to work long hours for extended periods, under stressful conditions. It also gave me the latitude to be away from home on remote locations when necessary. Knowing that my children and household suffered minimal disruption during these periods gave me the freedom to keep making films.
Is there scope for growth with women in the world of film and TV? 
Of course, now more so than ever before. Young female filmmakers are being singled out for opportunity. That, together with the hunger for content, opens up many possibilities. Today, the main criteria for achievement in the entertainment industry is original thinking, strong creative vision and insight into audience needs. Combine that with discipline and reliability and the sky is the limit.
Do you think women&#8217;s voices are important in the world of South African film?  
Absolutely. We have complex gender issues in South Africa arising from challenging conditions such as lack of opportunity and education, domestic violence, poverty, cultural and traditional limitations around a woman’s role and sexuality and that’s just scratching the surface. There are extremely serious issues, such as the high level of rape of women in this country, a significant symptom of women’s subjugation in our society. So it is critical that female perspectives are communicated, be it through the eyes of a character or the storyteller. Film and television has the ability to embody dreams and aspirations, to create role models and smash stereotypes – music, art, film and television have at times been the catalysts that have brought about bigger societal change than politics or legislation.
Your director on Keeping Up With The Kandasamys was a woman – what prompted this choice?  
There was never any doubt about Jayan Moodley directing the film. Early on, there was some discussion about another possible director, proposed by Jayan herself, who was writing the script at that time. But this is a story about two matriarchs within a culture and lifestyle that she understood really well so she was our clear choice from the get go.
You&#8217;ve broken some local box office records with this film – tell us a little bit about the achievements from a box office perspective?  
The film resonated with audiences as an authentic slice of family life, with a lot of heart and humor. It offered people enough to entice them to leave their homes and go to cinema. Good box office is difficult to predict – the audience either warms to the film or not, however, it is important to give your film visibility with strong marketing and publicity.  You have to give the opening weekend your best shot, after that you’re at the mercy of good (or bad) word of mouth.
<a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/entreprenuers/2012/02/01/film-africa-ready-strive-suffer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">More on film in Africa</a>
Do you believe that film in South Africa is still financially viable – if so how? 
SA has a small diverse market – 11 different languages, numerous cultural and economic divides. Europe, Australia and the USA with their large homogeneous populations are able to recover production costs in their home markets. We rarely do so in SA with the result that we have to keep our budgets small, so it is difficult for us to meaningfully compete with the high production values of international films. At some point, we need to make films that will sell into other markets too if we really want our industry to be economically sound. We also need to cultivate a stronger culture of support for our films in our home market.
What advice do you have for women trying to break into the world of film and television?  
I have the same advice to all filmmakers irrespective of gender: learn your craft well, develop your own authentic voice and vision, work hard, take risks, under-promise and over-deliver.
&#8211; Interviewed by Robert Haynes

Helena Spring

What Drives Sacrifice And Success At The Box-Office

In Ajegunle, a neighborhood located in the heart of Lagos, Nigeria, Tunde Amaechi is readying for an audition. This will be his 20th in a month and today’s audition is on the other side of town in Victoria Island. The trip will cost him two weeks’ wages but the potential gain is worth it.
“I am auditioning for a role in Desperate Housewives Africa. I get to say three lines, which is very good for me. When you get a speaking part, it means you are moving up and I think I will get this one by God’s grace,” says Amaechi.
Nigeria’s growing movie industry, known as Nollywood, is the third largest in the world following Hollywood and Bollywood.
Its growth has spawned a generation of young people desperate for the limelight and a chance to make it big in the movie business. For Amaechi, it is the only way he can help his mother and two sisters escape poverty.
<div id="attachment_32086" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32086" class="wp-image-32086 size-large" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/93Days-credit-Toronto-Film-Festival-1024x512.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="512" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/93Days-credit-Toronto-Film-Festival.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/93Days-credit-Toronto-Film-Festival-300x150.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/93Days-credit-Toronto-Film-Festival-600x300.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/93Days-credit-Toronto-Film-Festival-768x384.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Cast from 93 Days</div>
“I lost my father at an early age and since then I have been the main breadwinner of the house. Making it in Nollywood means my family will be taken care of and my little sisters will have a chance at a better life. It is also my dream to make it and be as big as Ramsey Nouah [popular Nigerian actor],” he says.
With no acting background, Amaechi, like millions of young struggling actors, is looking for that life-changing role and no distance is too far to travel for that break.
Chuks Amaka is an actor and entrepreneur living in Lekki, Victoria Island. He has featured in a number of roles including M-Net’s flagship daily soap Tinsel as well as some local productions and also played the role of executive producer in his own movie. For him, the movie industry, like any other, is a business and the end game is money.
“The goal is to cross over from Nollywood into Hollywood. That is where most actors want to go and that is where the money is. They believe if you build a strong enough brand in Africa’s largest economy, then America will come knocking,” says Amaka.
That belief is not far-fetched. In 2015, American actor Danny Glover starred in 93 Days, a film on the deadly Ebola virus in Nigeria. Acting with the veteran Hollywood star were some of Nollywood’s finest, all vying for international recognition. Beasts of No Nation, the Netflix-distributed civil war movie starring another Hollywood bigwig, Idris Elba, was also shot in Nigeria and Ghana with actors queuing up for hours for a part in a big Hollywood production.
“The natural evolution for any Nollywood actor is to make a name in Africa and then hit the big leagues in Hollywood. These type of blockbusters are hotly-contested and every actor knows this is a potential golden ticket,” says Amaka.
For Amaechi, however, that dream is too big to comprehend. Making a name in Nollywood is already a tall order. He has been auditioning for roles for the past year and is yet to secure any paid work. He supplements his income by working as a waiter at the local Bheerhugz Cafe in Ikeja, Lagos. The Desperate Housewives Africa role will be the first time he may be paid for his work. He is optimistic his fate will change.
“This means everything. I love acting and all I need is the opportunity for the world to see my talent. I know I can be one of the biggest in Nollywood then the rest of the world,” says Amaechi.
Austin Abolaji is a Nollywood actor from Imo State, Nigeria. In 2012, he starred in the action drama film, Black November, with an ensemble cast of international stars including Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, Vivica Fox and Wyclef Jean. The movie premiered at the Kennedy Center in the United States.
<div id="attachment_32088" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32088" class="wp-image-32088 size-large" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Omoni-Oboli-1024x615.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="615" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Omoni-Oboli.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Omoni-Oboli-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Omoni-Oboli-600x360.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Omoni-Oboli-768x461.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Omoni Oboli</div>
“Nollywood is still growing and there are massive opportunities in this sector, however it will take a long time before actors are paid properly for their craft. When you look at the average Hollywood actor, they get paid a lot better for the same roles we are doing here. This is one of the reasons why people want to make it in Hollywood,” says Abolaji.
Another reason is the acclaim.
“After Lupita Nyong’o won the Oscar, we all now believe it is possible. We saw her acting in MTV Shuga and to see one of us from Africa succeed in Hollywood is motivation for all of us. She is probably the biggest African actress in the world right now,” says Abolaji.
Nyong’o’s Oscar win has been the catalyst for a new lucrative career ranging from roles in Star Wars to brand endorsements with Lancome to being on the cover of Vogue magazine. Her success has opened up the once forbidden Hollywood dream to the rest of Africa and Nollywood’s elite is looking to follow suit one role at a time.

Idris-Elba-in-Beast-Of-No-Nation-credit-Netflix

Non-Stop  From Lagos To LA

John Fredericks had a tougher childhood than most. While food in his house was scarce and gang members terrorized him, it was a traumatic rape that convinced him to form a gang. It led to him spending time in the notorious Pollsmoor Prison and his friends later being sentenced to death.
Fredericks, along with his childhood friend, spent three years in prison for trying to steal a radio from a shop. While behind bars, Frederick’s friend was inducted to one of the infamous number gangs and forced to be a concubine. Fredericks, whose storytelling ability was loved by those close to him, managed to stay out of a gang by telling the prisoners captivating tales.
<div id="attachment_5239" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5239" class="wp-image-5239 size-medium" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/noem_my_skollie_PR_stories-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />A shot from the film, Noem My Skollie. (Photo supplied)</div>
Today, his story is being told to the rest of the world. Fredericks used one finger to write the script for Noem My Skollie, based on his life in the 1960s in apartheid South Africa.
Based in the gang-riddled Cape Flats, in the Western Cape province, the movie stays true to its roots. Along with Fredericks, the director, Daryne Joshua, and many of the crew are from this area. It’s a film that resonates with many South Africans and summons a tide of emotions.
“I ran out because I was crying, it brought back so many memories, it was hectic,” says Fredericks at the film screening in Sandton, Johannesburg.
The three childhood friends that Fredericks formed a gang with were hanged for killing a taxi driver. In 1968, all four stood trial together; Fredericks escaped the death sentence when his friends told the judge he was not involved. Fredericks is fortunate to be able to tell his tale; he was supposed to be with his friends on the fateful night they committed murder. He missed their rendezvous after deciding to spend time with his girlfriend instead.
His friends were initially persuaded to pin the murder on Fredericks but their brotherly bond proved stronger than their will to live.
Fredericks forgives them for trying to frame him. Before their lives ended, they wrote a letter to Fredericks asking for his forgiveness. They were dead by the time he read it and he still weeps every time he reads the letter.
“On each corner of the page, there are two bunches of flowers with tags which read goodbye with the date of birth and date of death; they knew which date they were to be hanged,” says Fredericks.
While in prison, storytelling was Fredericks’ escape. Reading and writing letters killed time. Years later, as he approaches the age of 70, Fredericks educates youth on the dangers of gangsterism in the Cape Flats, where he still lives. He also teaches reading and writing at Pollsmoor.
The producers of Noem My Skollie, David Max Brown and Moshidi Motshegwa, say they used as few actors and locations as possible as money was tight. Despite the travails that the producers never gave up because the story and script was too strong.
“We made a really big film with 50 cast and 47 locations, everything was bigger than the money and we still found a way to make it work,” says Brown.
The whole film is in Afrikaans to better represent the people of the Cape Flats. Brown also says they tried to make the movie as South African as possible. He hopes the film’s uniqueness will help it win international awards. More than anything though, he hopes it will win the hearts of South Africans.

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From Prison Cell To Red Carpet

You could argue Davison Mudzingwa and Francis Hweshe picked the right business at the wrong time.
“Poor funding, falling numbers in theaters and improving technologies are some of the reasons affecting the film industry in Africa,” says Hweshe.
We share a pizza after the premiere of Lost Tongue, their documentary on a disappearing language of the Kalahari Desert, on a winter evening at The Bioscope, in the Maboneng Precinct, in Johannesburg.
Hweshe and Mudzingwa are all smiles as it sold out and attracted positive comments from the tough film crowd. But the joy of the night fades like the closing credits with thoughts of the rough, hard and unpredictable road ahead.
Their life story is woven into their Lost Tongue film. They too, as second-language English speakers from Zimbabwe, suffer lost language, lost identity, and lost money.
“Funding is difficult to come by and if you wait to get money, you will not make a film. Every filmmaker should be prepared to empty their own pocket,” adds Hweshe.
Mudzingwa, the director, says filmmaking is even riskier than fashion.
“You have to bet on your instincts that people will like it. Most African filmmakers put so much on the art of producing and forget the business element,” he says.
What makes the documentary industry even tougher is that in Africa, where often the best films are made, fewer and fewer are going to the cinema.
“We are making films with universal themes that someone in Afghanistan, Spain and United States can watch,” laments Hweshe.
On this night the documentary was about a subject closer to home.
Lost Tongue was one of the 10 documentaries from around the world screened at the Socially Relevant Film Festival in New York in March. It cost the filmmakers more than $250,000 over three years. They will never get their money back.
The film, a debut feature presented by South African-based Mvura Ya Afrika Productions, explores a story of hope and revival of the ancient and endangered N|uu language of the marginalized Khomani San people of the Kalahari.
“A cultural and spiritual journey reveals the battle through time in the language going extinct. Today, the fight continues with new conflicts against time, with the number of surviving people who can speak the language diminishing,” says Mudzingwa.
Steven Markovitz, film producer and distributer, agrees. He says money is as important as a camera in this business.
“Documentary film is a tough business. There is need to marry sustainability and passion, which is the great approach to this and every other sector.”
Markovitz, who has directed over 100 films in 14 years, says no matter what happens, he will never leave the trade and has handed it down to his 17-year-old son.
“Most people do film for money and not passion, each time you embark on a project you should finance it from scratch.”
He puts the case for more investment.
“The strength of the film industry covers a lot of disciplines and these may include carpentry, accounting, artistry and creative jobs. Film that travels and has impact in the world has a profound effect on the public,” says Markovitz.
Nigeria is an African country seeing a boom in the film industry. It is the third largest national film industry in the world, with estimated annual revenue of $590 million. According to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, the film industry’s share of Nigeria’s GDP is at 1.4%.
The problem is, just like Mudzingwa and Hweshe, Nigerian filmmakers are failing to sell beyond Africa. With piracy also taking its toll, fewer and fewer filmmakers are making money.
As long as there are stories to tell, Mudzingwa and Hweshe will keep telling them until their pockets are empty. While many keep complaining that African stories are the domain of outsiders, here are two young African filmmakers telling African stories.
By the end of this year, this African story of the Lost Tongue would have travelled to the United States, South Africa, Tanzania, Canada and Spain.  Lets’ hope it finds its tongue on the international stage.

Get Rich Or Try Dying – Sounds Like A Documentary?

Last year, cinema attendance reportedly dipped to 20-year lows in Western markets. Piracy and home-viewing are profoundly changing the way people consume visual media. But not so it seems in India, home to Bollywood, the world’s largest film industry by output, where the near-invincible sector is clocking in double the number of theatre-goers in North America.
Whether a function of India’s perennial love affair with the silver screen or a result of the ultra-modern digital multiplex theatres mushrooming in metros all over the country, Bollywood is thriving and is estimated to have been worth $2.28 billion last year.
For South Africa, this means more opportunities to service Indian film production houses increasingly searching for cost-effective locations offering all the comforts of home such as skilled support staff and quality equipment.
FORBES WOMAN AFRICA had the opportunity to meet up with the production crew of Ishq Forever, a Bollywood romantic comedy filmed in Cape Town in April-May this year.
Ishq Forever, or ‘love forever’ in English, stars Bollywood veteran Javed Jeffrey and Indian-Canadian actress Lisa Ray, as well as newcomers Krishna Chaturvedi and Ruhi Singh. The film is a production of Friday Cine Entertainment, a three-way partnership between Ajay Shah, Harry Gandhi and Shabbir Boxwala.
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It isn’t Boxwala’s first production in South Africa. In 2003, he co-produced the romantic drama Dil Ka Rishta, starring Bollywood royalty Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Cape Town. Like Boxwala, Shah has been producing Bollywood films for over 20 years. The final member of the trio, Gandhi – the CEO of Unique Maritime Group headquartered in the Middle East – is a film industry newcomer but has been a film enthusiast for a long time.
“I have seen first-hand how much the local industry has changed over the past 10 to 15 years,” says Boxwala.
What was once a small scale and inwardly-focused sector is now world-class and attracting sizeable foreign investment. The growth comes from two directions.
The first is locally-produced and directed films telling South African stories – during the five years leading up to 2003, local releases averaged just three a year; 10 years later, the number is closer to 15.
The second, and significantly more powerful growth lever, is the increase in international productions, such as Ishq Forever filming on location in South Africa.
As a whole, the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) in South Africa estimates the industry contributes close to R3.5 billion ($282 million) to South African GDP each year and that number is growing at a rate of 14% per annum.
The location of choice is Cape Town and it’s safe to say that pretty much anyone who has visited South Africa’s Mother City can vouch for its natural charms.
Mountains, farms, beaches, oceans and semi-arid moonscapes are all within an hour’s drive from the city center, which comes with its own unique attractions in the form of the diverse architectural structures. During the summer months, Cape Town averages close to 15 hours of daylight and very limited rain – a further pull factor for overseas film productions.
Cape Town hasn’t ridden on its looks alone though. The Western Cape Provincial Government has invested close to R20 million ($1.6 million) into the sector and justifies the expenditure by means of a conservative projection of 30,000 skilled and unskilled jobs that have been created as a result of its efforts.
The majority of Bollywood films shot in South Africa use locations in Durban, the country’s third largest city, home to the largest concentration of people of Indian descent in the country and characterized by sub-tropical vegetation allowing for an easier set replication of Indian backdrops.
Ishq Forever is different – the film was shot in Cape Town and surrounding areas – such as sleepy coastal town Hermanus.
“Ishq Forever really celebrates South African culture. The action takes place in Cape Town where the young heroine (played by Singh), the daughter of the prime minister of India, is attending university. It’s a coming of age romantic comedy with lots of plot twists and chases,” informs Boxwala.
“We caused quite a lot of excitement when we filmed in Hermanus. I don’t think the locals had experienced a Bollywood film before. When we were leaving, the mayor thanked us and we have promised to come back and arrange a public screening of the film at an open air cinema.”
At present, the majority of the international films being filmed in Cape Town are American productions – most recently The Giver and TV series Homeland Season 2 – which benefit further from exchange rate gains as a result of the woeful decline in the value of the local currency against the US dollar.
The NFVF approximates that it is on average 40% cheaper to make a film in South Africa than in the United States or in Europe.
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Not Wooing Bollywood Enough
But where does that leave Bollywood? Not in an entirely favorable position, says Boxwala.
“As Bollywood film productions, we simply can’t afford to pay the rental fees which are charged to the big US productions. We just don’t work with those kind of budgets because our revenue streams are limited,” he says.
According to statistics portal Statista, Bollywood films grossed a modest $1.2 billion in 2012 against a $10.8 billion gross revenue from US productions. The numbers may not seem surprising at first glance – Hollywood is wholly more pervasive in the global popular culture – however, consider them against the fact that during that same year, Bollywood churned out a prolific 1,602 features versus Hollywood’s 476.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30746 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/IMG_6136-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_6136-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_6136-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_6136-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_6136.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
“A Bollywood production – even a mega blockbuster – will have significantly fewer distribution opportunities than its Hollywood equivalent, which rides on the virtue that Western productions are enjoyed by a wider audience,” says Gandhi. Ishq Forever, for example, was filmed on the relatively modest, all-inclusive budget of $2.5 million.
Gandhi says that the opportunity to attract more Bollywood productions to South Africa simply through widening the accessibility of local services is glaring. Boxwala recounts that the stock of basic equipment available for rent in South Africa during the filming of Ishq Forever was fairly limited and the resultant demand determined prices prohibitive to non-dollar earning filmmakers.
More than two thirds of Bollywood features are shot outside of India. The most popular locations are Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Malaysia and Eastern Europe. South Africa could be losing out on Bollywood opportunities, say Boxwala and Gandhi, due to the high local prices, the red tape related to the obtaining Department of Trade and Industry rebates and the fact that there are no direct flights between Johannesburg and Mumbai – the heart and soul of Bollywood. Having no direct flights complicates the transportation of filming equipment, which forces crews like Boxwala’s to rent locally and brings the problem back to the high rental rates set for US customers.
“We want to work here though,” says Gandhi. “It took us 40 days to film Ishq Forever. During that time, we hired 20 local technicians and created close to 900 short-term, low skilled jobs. We invested roughly $1 million into the local economy over the production time.”
“The locations here are fantastic and the level of skill is world class. We believe that South Africa could become an even more popular film destination for Bollywood films if it works on the negatives and builds on the positives.”

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When Bollywood Comes Calling

The sky is the limit for Anne Kansiime. The Ugandan comedienne, known as ‘Africa’s Queen of Comedy’, has seen her star rise rapidly.
She has performed throughout Africa and staged sold-out shows in England and Australia. The stages in London and Sydney are a long way away from the first play she took part in while in university in Kampala.
She owes her professional success to Fun Factory, which she says gave her both the time and space to improve.
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“I had always known I had a relatively good sense of humor but didn&#8217;t think at all that it was something I would do professionally. But, in 2009, I was spotted by Fun Factory Uganda, a sketch comedy group, and I was given an opportunity to feature in their play, The Nasty Good Story. After that play, I stayed on for their weekly shows at the National Theater (Uganda) and I have been a member since.”
It was not a seamless start in the entertainment industry.
“Being a part of a comedy group, comprised of drama graduates and very experienced actors, really steered me in the right direction. There was too much to learn from them and a lot of mistakes to be forgiven,” says Kansiime.
Apart from the stand-up shows, Kansiime also hosts the television show, Don’t Mess With Kansiime. She is, however, best known for her YouTube channel. The global video-sharing website recently awarded her a Silver Play Button for gathering more than 100,000 channel subscribers.
But this is only one of the many accolades that the graduate of Social Sciences has bagged in the past few years. Last year, Kansiime pocketed the Airtel Women of Substance Award and, in 2013, was named the Best Comedian at the Black Entertainment Film Fashion Television and Arts (BEFFTA), the Best Actress at the Lagos International Festival, and Favorite Celebrity at the Social Media Awards.
The 28-year-old praises her husband, Gerald Ojok, for giving her all the support she needs.
“It’s not easy to balance marriage and a career but with a good partner, things can get a little easier. [He] has been the best support I could ever ask for. He doesn&#8217;t put me in a position where I have to explain myself and my actions.”
One of Kansiime’s most watched clips on YouTube are those where she argues with her husband. She is quick to add that these don’t reflect her life.
“Contrary to what people might think, I am not as quarrelsome as the Kansiime in the skits. I’m very quiet around strangers and, actually, my husband makes me laugh way more than I could ever make him. I’m normal, I assure you.”
Unlike many up-and-coming celebrities who look up to other people for inspiration, Kansiime says: “I don’t really look up to a particular individual in life but rather to everyone that does everything in their power to make the world a better place for everyone.”
That doesn’t stop Kansiime from wanting to inspire others. She is currently working on songs to inspire children.
“I’m currently working on a music album and videos for children dubbed My Name is Kansiime. I’m trying to create entertainment that is actually suitable for children.”
There are many established and up-and-coming comedians in Africa, but Kansiime doesn’t see them as competition.
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“I try not to compete with anyone but rather with myself because I know my humor has a unique touch. So, I only strive to be a better person every day.”
Among Kansiime’s many fans, one stands out. Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o, who was in Uganda working on the movie Queen of Katwe, was full of praise for the comedienne after the two met.
After posting pictures of the two, Nyong’o called Kansiime the “funniest Ugandan. Period.”
It won’t be long before she’s considered the funniest African. Period.

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‘I’m Not As Quarrelsome As People Think’

Being a stand-up comedian in Africa is not an everyday job. There are odd hours, infrequent deadlines and no defined career path. One day a rookie; the next a comedic sensation. For Riaad Moosa it took five years.
“The big moment that I felt I had arrived was when I finished my first one-man show Strictly Halal. I had finished the show and we had captured it on film. It was like waiting to exhale. Then we found out there was some issue with the recording, it was a problem with the live feed. That DVD ended up being a complete flop.”
For any comic, the first five minutes on stage tells them whether they have what it takes. Nerves can easily get the best of you but a tough crowd could render you hopeless.
“When we started comedy we never knew that you could have a career in it, we just loved it. I was part of the first group of comics who are now generally better known: Kagiso Lediga, David Kau, Loyiso Gola,
John Vlismas and Joey Rasdien. We all started out together,” says Moosa.
Although he is well-known on the comedy circuit, his most embarrassing moment onstage came in high school. Moosa was performing a magic trick that he had practiced and planned to perfection. The idea was to make a ball float across the stage.
“They didn’t tell me the night of the show that there would be a guy doing flash photography. So I was there in my dramatic David Copperfield hairstyle and my dramatic music while I made this ball float across the stage. Whenever the guy would take a picture you would see this washing line with a ball hanging onto it. And the kids in the audience would yell, ‘Mom, dad look it’s a wire’. It was so embarrassing. Even when I tried to be dramatic I ended up being a comedian,” he says.
Moosa was never a struggling artist. For him it was a smooth transition from doctor to comic.
“I started out in medical school then I took a year off and went to upper campus [at the University of Cape Town] to study other things that I was interested in. I did economics, I did Xhosa and then during that year I found stand-up comedy and I loved it.”
After the year off, Moosa went back to medical school and continued doing stand-up comedy on an amateur basis. He then graduated, completed his internship and community service, and when the opportunity came to appear on The Pure Monate Show he traded in the operating room for the stage.
“I never did anything dramatic in terms of the suffering and the starving for a while before I could pay the bills. I basically worked hard at both things and more opportunities opened with the comedy,” says Moosa.
In 2012, he made a breakthrough in film with Material, which received international acclaim. This led to Moosa’s latest role as South African political prisoner and freedom fighter, Ahmed Kathrada, in the Golden Globe nominated film, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
Moosa is currently in the final stage of his stand-up tour, Doctors Orders, with Simmi Areff.
“He [Areff] opens for me and he does a good job, he does a few minutes before I go on stage. He warms up the audience for me.”
The famous comic with a booming acting career has always kept medicine close. He assists at his family’s medical clinic as well as hosts a medical show on TV.
At the end of the day, when the lights have dimmed and the last person has laughed, Moosa says there is only one place for a comic to go.
“Everybody goes back to the comedy club. It’s one of those things in your industry where no matter how big you are, you’ll always go back. You’ll find Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld going back to the little dingy comedy clubs to perform… It’s the true nature of stand-up comedy,” says Moosa.
After all, he’s just a guy, standing on a stage, hoping the crowd will laugh.   FL

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Just A Guy With A Mic

The art of portraying real life through a camera lens is common practice but, in the past year, great stories with roots to Africa can be seen on global movie screens.
12 Years A Slave, based on a true story, is currently being rated as one of the greatest films ever made about American slavery. Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Solomon Northup, a freeborn African-American kidnapped into slavery for a dozen years. Kenyan actress, Lupita Nyong’o, in an excellent performance, portrays Patsy, a plantation slave caught up in a tangle of abuse and liaisons between her master, mistress and Northrup. Hollywood was abuzz when she recently bagged the ‘Best Supporting Actress’ award at the Oscars.
Two other recent releases are Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom which premiered in the 2013 Toronto Film Festival in September and is based on Nelson Mandela’s autobiography; and Half of a Yellow Sun which is adapted from the novel about the Nigerian civil war in the late 1960s, written by Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  With this in mind, it is no surprise that the movie Nairobi Half Life has brought Kenya’s film industry to the world’s attention. It is loosely based on a real-life story and features Joseph Wairimu as Mwas, a young man who leaves his rural home to pursue his acting dream in Nairobi and ends up joining the criminal world in a bid to survive.
What stands out is that the film is a debut for 32-year-old director Tosh Gitonga whose inspiration came from hearing and reading stories on the lives led by youth on the other side of Nairobi.
“When the police shot dead a gang in broad daylight a few years ago, it was front page news for a week. People followed the story keenly and I asked myself, ‘Why can’t we portray that on our screens? Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a film scene with a police flying squad car chasing down a Toyota full of gangsters on Nairobi’s Kenyatta Avenue?’”
He says that directing Nairobi Half Life moved the story from a primetime news item to a meaningful narrative.
“It makes the audience reflect on who these gangsters really are. Why do they choose a risky life? What circumstances led them to these desperate choices?”
The film premiered at the 2012 Durban Film Festival in South Africa and received a Best Actor Award. That marked the beginning as other awards from festivals in Verona, London, Dubai, Kenya, Nashville and Los Angeles began rolling in. The film got selected as the Kenyan entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar for the 85th Academy Awards but did not make the final shortlist. It marked the first time Kenya has submitted a film in this category.
It has enjoyed box office success in Kenya, grossing $118,000 in only two theater screens. In Africa, Nairobi Half Life screened in Zambia, South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania and did successful tours in the United States and Europe throughout the past year.
In Hollywood terms, this success is relatively modest and reflects the long journey ahead for Africa’s film industry. The biggest challenge is that most African films have American or British actors taking lead roles. The credits roll with familiar names like Idris Elba, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Naomie Harris and Thandie Newton. There was a public outcry in South Africa when Jennifer Hudson got the lead role in Winnie.
“It’s about bankable actors. The film backers and studios have to make a return on their money. It’s a business and until the African market becomes formidable with low piracy levels, lead actors of films based on African stories will not be Africans,” says Gitonga.
He adds that Nairobi Half Life was shot on a budget of $500,000 due to a training initiative led by German director Tom Tykwer, with the support of the German government. Each year, after a rigorous selection process, 10 to 12 African filmmakers are selected to go through a two-week workshop where they learn the art of making films of an international level and interact with global professionals.
“If the cost hadn’t been subsidized, the budget would have been $1.2 million; a sum that is quite difficult to raise for African filmmakers.”
Gitonga describes himself as a cinema freak who got into the industry by chance during an internship at a film studio. He drifted to the directors departments and honed his skills by directing extras, eventually becoming a first assistant director for several films like Justin Chadwick’s First Grader.
“I never went to film school but spent 10 years learning in the field and got selected as the director through this training initiative, which is one of the best things that ever happened to the African film industry because we have passion and talent but lack the resources. They fund the workshop and film which helps bypass the countless short films one has to do to prove that you are a good filmmaker and can be trusted with money. I now have much better chances as I have a full feature-length film under my belt,” says Gitonga.
He adds that film distribution, where the masses get to watch the movie at affordable prices similar to buying milk and bread, needs to be resolved.
“We have to create a culture of movie going which increases the consumer appetite and results in more films being made, more movie theaters and DVDs available for sale at local stores.”
Perhaps if filmmakers across the continent merge to tell our own stories, it will create a cult following in the theaters. A semi-autobiographical film based on Kenya’s best-selling fictional book by John Kiriamiti, My Life in Crime is currently in production. The film with a proposed budget of $4 million has combined the best of Nollywood and Riverwood—Nigeria’s and Kenya’s film industries. The film rights are owned by Kenyan producer Janet Kirina, Nollywood’s superstar Jim Iyke has the lead role and the script writers are Kenyan.  Time will tell whether this venture will be successful, remembering Chinua Achebe’s famous words: Until lions tell their tale, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.

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The Lions Roar

In the four decades of entertaining festival-goers, the annual National Arts Festival in Grahamstown has transformed itself from being a small Rhodes University Shakespeare Festival to Africa’s largest extravaganza of art, theater, film, music and more.
The festival’s 40-year anniversary was celebrated with some spectacular performances. And there was the powerful Marikana Musical, capturing the events of the Marikana massacre in South Africa in which 34 striking platinum miners were killed by policemen in 2012.
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The event has evolved, featuring festivals within the main festival. Since its inception in 1997, the Standard Bank Jazz Festival has been one of the highlights. This year, everybody watched to see if it would live up to its reputation. And it did.
The Jazz Festival director Alan Webster invited Grammy award-winning composer and conductor Maria Schneider, who played to a full house. Some of South Africa’s big names in jazz at the festival were Jimmy Dludlu, Hugh Masekela and Sibongile Khumalo.
The Student Theatre Festival’s line-up promised a strong future for South African theater. A number of the plays were around issues and scenes that directly affect the ‘born frees’ – children born post 1994.
Anthea Garman, Rhodes professor and Think!Fest curator, had thinkers and authors in conversation for the duration of the festival. New books were also launched.
The famous Village Green proved to be a popular haunt during the day, between shows, for hot meals and cold beer. Grahamstown’s oldest landmark, 1820 Settlers Monument, had free performances every evening. A number of projects are being developed to position the town as a year-round ‘creative city’.
Ismail Mohamed, director of the National Arts Festival, summed it up as a success.
“Celebrating artistic excellence was central to the festival’s program. We are bold and courageous to take calculated risks on untested works. We have often been surprised by the gems that we’ve discovered.”
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“Often the idea of community theater is associated with black amateurs, and it remains locked in that. When people talk about the mainstream, we often talk about white, musical theater, commercial stuff that plays in Monte Casino [in Johannesburg]&#8230;I still see a lot of that in festivals like this. It still feels like there are certain audiences for certain things. There’s very little crossover in those worlds. So, those who are able to be present, we should be taking on that challenge. I am trying to encourage crossover and encourage exploding these outdated notions about theater.”
– Lindiwe Matshikiza, 31-year-old actor and director of children’s play Donkey Child. She has also starred in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
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Africa’s Greatest Arts Festival

It’s hard to believe that two years have passed since the tragic killing of 34 miners in Marikana. The horrific visuals of the shooting on August 16, 2012, remain fresh in the mind. Thousands of mine workers had been protesting against their meagre wages and poor living conditions when police opened fire, killing 34 of them. Police say they were provoked. South African’s were in shock like the rest of the world. Many believe the disaster was waiting to happen while others say the tragic events started a revolution. What did become clear that day is that despite the courageous fight against apartheid being won, the battle against inequality in South Africa is far from over. But has anything changed in the last two years?
<div id="attachment_2969" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2969" class="size-medium wp-image-2969" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/051201050-Desai-683x1024-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />Amsterdam, 30-11-2005 International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam IDFA 2005 Rehad DESAI Jury Amnesty Award Foto Felix Kalkman</div>
South Africa has some of the most valuable minerals in the world. For decades, men have slogged, under poor safety conditions, to recover these precious assets from deep beneath the ground, touching and feeling the gems, but never having ownership of them. The mining industry remains South Africa’s biggest revenue earner. Considering the importance, one would assume employees in this sector would be well taken care of, if not by their employers, at least by the government.
For years, mine workers and labor unions have raised their concerns, hoping for change. The recent Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) strike in the platinum sector made sure that this time the pleas of workers will be heard. Relentlessly, for five months, workers were gripped with poverty, hunger and cold until finally there was some respite. The unprecedented 22-week strike made history. The three major platinum producers finally agreed to higher wages, not what Amcu was demanding but enough to get them to return to the mines.
Reaction to the wage deal was mixed with many industry analysts calling it a loss for the workers.  Amcu called it a victory. But will this victory see real transformation in the mining industry?
Amcu leader Joseph Mathunjwa, now a household name, says the strike was not just for social justice but also to honor the workers that were killed at Marikana. Two years later, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry set up to probe the shooting is still trying to find out what led to the tragedy and who was responsible.
Political activist and filmmaker, Rehad Desai, has placed together his account of what happened on that day. In his new documentary Miners Shot Down, Desai pieces together witness accounts, interviews with political heavyweights and even victims that survived the shooting, to expose the social injustices that exist on the mining grounds of Rustenburg, 120 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg.
The film also tells a story of how the ANC, a party once obsessed with fighting for human rights and social and economic equality, lost its way and ended up in Marikana.
Miners Shot Down is a chilling account of the events that led to what has been dubbed the Marikana massacre, using video footage and interviews from the seven days in which miners were striking for better wages.
“I thought it was very important to attempt to set the record straight, to show people what happened and in the process of showing people what happened you begin to understand why it happened,” he says.
Desai was born into a politically active family. His father, Barney, was a leader of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and the family had to flee South Africa in 1963. Desai grew up in Britain but his parents constantly reminded him of his roots. While still a teenager, he joined his father in politics, passionate about fighting racism and capitalism. Both returned to South Africa in 1990. Rehad became a trade unionist with socialist ideals but after his father died, he ventured into television and film producing. To date, he has a string of documentaries to his name, many of which have garnered international acclaim for human rights.
His latest film is a story of working class South Africans that have been failed by their government, a government they believed was on their side.
“I think the revolution is coming back, the question is will there be a mature enough leadership to lead it or will the ANC, our ruling party, be mature enough to lead it, to be able to address the very real issues that this country faces or will they continue to follow the same path where the bulk of our people are excluded from the benefits?” asks Desai.
He is steadfast that the shooting on that fateful day was no accident, no measure of self-defense, but a conspired action to eliminate a problem. The film pieces together footage not seen by the public, scenes of the days before the shooting.
“It didn’t just happen, there were events that led to the shooting,” says Desai.
Horrific scenes of dead miners lying on the ground gives you an instant jolt back in time to the attacks carried out on innocent black people under apartheid, children scrambling for safety from gunshots. Desai admits that miners retaliated, but only after they were shot at first.
“Just as they were nearing their informal settlement, a number of vehicles moved in quick succession to sort of box them in, block them off and as that happened and as the miners drew nearer, teargas was fired at them, birdshot and rubber bullets, one of the mineworkers got his pistol out and fired back.”
This was the scene captured by television crews, played out on screens across the world, leading many to believe that the police fired in self-defense. But, Desai wants to know why police had live ammunition and why they had 8,000 rounds of ammunition that day. It is a question that is still being probed by the Farlam Commission of Enquiry. For Desai, it is clear cut; someone from the top gave the order.
Desai’s film takes a poignant look at the ANC as a movement and ruling party over the last 20 years, by following Cyril Ramaphosa.
“Cyril’s story from the 1980s, tells the story of the ANC, a movement which was heroic, courageous, vibrant, responsive, democratic which led a struggle against a white minority regime and succeeded,” says Desai.
Ramaphosa, once passionate about worker’s rights, formed the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in 1982. He later became a politician serving under Nelson Mandela. He left in 1999 to become a successful businessman, returning to politics in 2013.
At the time of the Marikana shooting, Ramaphosa was a non-executive member on the Lonmin board. The Marikana mine belongs to Lonmin.
“With the political kingdom the ANC gained, they lost sight of the bigger issues related to our economic democracy and we can see that story encapsulated inside the life trajectory of the man who’s become the deputy president of the ANC,” says Desai.
In March, Miners Shot Down was released at the One World film festival in Prague. The film took top honors, winning the Vaclav Havel Jury award for its exceptional contribution to human rights. It also won the Camera Justitia Award at the Movies that Matter Festival in the Netherlands.
The documentary is part of an ongoing campaign for justice by the miners and their families. They want the police to be prosecuted. Instead, miners are facing murder charges for the police that were killed. Explosive evidence recently emerged at the commission about killings committed by mine workers.  Witness accounts of atrocities committed by Amcu members, attacks on their fellow members for defying strike orders, the brutal mutilation and murders of police and of members of the rival union NUM. The commission expects to continue for some time as more new evidence comes to light.
The latest evidence again raises questions, what kind of struggle is this? No doubt there will be more stories to be told about Marikana.

Holding Up A Mirror To A Massacre

A blank projector screen hangs in the middle of a room in William V.S. Tubman High School. A handful of expatriates and Liberians mill around, waiting for the film that was scheduled to start rolling over an hour ago. Young women wait expectantly behind a table filled with snacks and baked goods. But most of the yellow plastic chairs are empty.
After plugging and unplugging a jumble of chords and tapping a few computer keys the film begins to play. Restless children and 20 or so adult members of the audience sit as a film titled No More Selections We Want Elections screens. It traces the 2005 elections that saw President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf come to power. The sound is gritty, light streaming through the sheer curtains washes out the image on the screen and the audience is small.
This is the first time Liberia has held a film festival. The brainchild of Pandora Hodge, a young Liberian student, and a collection of her colleagues from the University of Liberia and SPARK, a Dutch NGO that fosters entrepreneurship in post-conflict countries. The Image of Liberia film festival was held over three days in Monrovia in February and aired Liberian and African films in classrooms and communities throughout the city. Some screenings were packed and went off without a hitch; others ran late and attracted a sparse audience.
Through the festival, Hodge and her team hope to challenge the war-torn image of Liberia and build up interest in the art house cinema called Kriterion that she and her colleagues are trying to establish. Films about Liberia’s brutal recent history – it’s civil unrest that spanned three decades, killed 250,000 people and destroyed the nation’s infrastructure – are notably absent from the program that is filled with a small selection of Liberian and African films.
“We are creating a platform where young people can go to express themselves. A cinema is a really good way to get people involved and get people aware of what is happening in the country and abroad,” says Hodge.
Inspired by the model of a cinema that was created in Amsterdam by university students involved in the anti-Nazi resistance movement in the aftermath of World War II, Hodge hopes that Monrovia’s own Kriterion can provide part-time employment to students and also become a hub for Liberian cinema and intellectual debate. The Kriterion model has also been adopted by students in post-conflict cities like Sarajevo.
But, establishing an art house cinema will be a challenge in a country where most people get their slice of cinema in ramshackle video clubs, sitting on wooden benches watching Nigerian, American and Indian films off eerie television screens that sit small in the darkness. In Monrovia, cinemas are virtually non-existent – two of the three cinemas, remembered fondly by Liberia’s pre-war generation, have been demolished. Only Rivoli, a cinema in downtown Monrovia, is still standing and seems to screen Bollywood movies exclusively. These cinemas aired mainly American movies as films were largely limited to government public relations and propaganda. But Hodge and her team, through surveying and research, found Liberian audiences want to see more locally produced films.
Unlike some of its neighbors in the region, like Nigeria and Ghana, Liberia has never had a vibrant film culture. Liberia’s cinema scene is small and amateurish with only a handful of directors producing quality films.
Derick Snyder, a filmmaker and producer, describes most Liberian films as birthday party quality.
“You got a little camera for your daughter’s birthday and you just film the yard. We’ve still got a lot to learn,” he says.
Snyder is one of a handful of Liberian producers who are able to shoot and edit quality films. Most actors are untrained and perform for free; those with talent and ambition head to Nigeria, Ghana or Gambia. Lack of access to equipment, technical know-how and stale plotlines, have hindered the growth of Liberia’s small film industry, says Snyder.
“Everyone is doing ma, pa, daughter crying in the living room love stories,” he says, adding that Liberians prefer the drama and slick effects of many of the Nigerian films.
Snyder, like many producers, has a day job shooting events for the United Nations Mission in Liberia and produces films on the side. He says most filmmakers struggle to earn a living.
Unlike other African countries, the Liberian government provides limited funding for the arts.
But, over the past year, there have been efforts to develop filmmaking by organizations such as Accountability Lab, an NGO focused on funding small projects that encourage accountability. Nigerian-Liberian director Divine Key Anderson heads a part-time film school that helps train students to make short films focused on accountability issues.
“Since 1847, we have been writing papers and not much has changed in this country and that is because 70 percent of our population are illiterate… but with film even a blind man can see,” says Anderson, who, like Hodge, agrees that film can be instrumental in creating political debate and change.
For James Emmanuel Roberts, who made No More Selections We Want Elections, the arts play a vital role in creating national identity and broader political and social debate. Roberts, 70, headed the national cultural troupe in the 1970s and helped create a satire television series called Kotati, meaning ‘sit down there’ in the Kru language, that aired on Liberian state-run television.
Roberts argues the development of a film scene in Liberia will play an important role in creating a collective historical memory that was largely erased by the 1980 coup and civil war, during which many records and archives were destroyed.  He says that cinema could help Liberians shape the story of their nation, whose recent history has been narrated by outsiders, namely Western journalists. Roberts and his son are currently working on a film on the 2011 elections.
After I finish interviewing Roberts, the public electricity cuts out and Hodge and her team rush to fuel up a generator for the next screening.
Creating an art house cinema, in a country whose cultural scene is only just beginning to re-emerge a decade after the civil war, will be a challenge. Hodge is confident she and her Kriterions are up to the task and that the film festival will continue to attract a culture-hungry audience.

Us On Film

Set in Kenya’s Hell’s Gate National Park, Disney’s animated film, The Lion King celebrates 20 years on June 15. The Lion King’s stage adaptation of the original 1994 film has grossed more than $5 billion across the globe. The original film is the highest grossing hand-drawn film in history.
It tells the story of Simba, a young lion who is to succeed his father, Mufasa, as king. But after Simba’s uncle Scar murders Mufasa, Simba is fooled into thinking he was responsible and flees into exile in shame and despair.
While growing up with two wastrels, Simba is given some valuable perspective from his friend Nala and his shaman, Rafiki, before returning to challenge Scar to end his tyranny.
The story is set in the kingdom of lions in east Africa, with influences from biblical stories of Joseph and Moses, as well as William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Though it has had great success, the production of The Lion King has also had its problems. A dispute arose between Disney and the family of South African Solomon Linda, who composed the song, ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’, originally titled ‘Mbube’ in 1939. In July 2004, the family filed a lawsuit for $1.6 million in royalties from Disney. Two years later, Linda’s heirs reached a legal settlement with Abilene Music who held the worldwide rights and licensed the song to Disney.
In 1997, three years after the release of The Lion King, Walt Disney produced the musical stage adaptation of the same name, with the first show in Minneapolis in the United States. The musical went on to become one of the most successful in Broadway history and is still running across the globe to this day.
Britain’s stage production of The Lion King casts a huge number of South Africans. In the current run, 25-year-old Nicholas Nkuna is wowing audiences as the third South African to be cast as Simba, following Brian Temba and Andile Gumbi. Before heading to Britain to play Simba, Nkuna was the second youngest black Phantom in the musical The Phantom of the Opera.
“I auditioned for the show for two years and got a call back for the final in the third year. I went to Florida in America to do my final call back. Towards the end of Phantom, they rang me to let me know I got the job,” says Nkuna.
In July 2012, Nkuna moved to Bristol to start rehearsals for the spectacle.
Playing the lead is a huge responsibility and expectations are high. But as time went on, Nkuna says he eased into the role.
“It was incredible; it was eye-opening. The standard of performance is different, the preparation is different. With The Lion King, there’s acting, there’s singing and dancing and you also have the animal elements to it. So you’re half a lion, half a human,” he says.
“You need to learn how to move like a lion. It was interesting to do those workshops. We did Javanese movements. There’s certain cultural depth that they do that’s sort of similar to how humans would move animal-like.”
After two years of traveling with The Lion King, Nkuna has decided to end his journey as Simba to focus on his music and other business adventures.
But the show must go on. In March 2013, The Lion King was launched in Brazil and for the first time in Portuguese. It has been performed in six other languages. It has also been seen on every continent besides Antarctica.
The creators of The Lion King are probably sitting somewhere saying to themselves, ‘Hakuna Matata’, as the Lion King could enthral audiences for decades to come.
<h4>The Soul Of Simba</h4>
The opening scene of The Lion King is unforgettable. As the yellow African sun rises over the horizon, a Zulu voice cries ‘Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba’. It means ‘Here comes a lion, Father’.
That voice belongs to South African award winning musician Lebohang Morake, but to the world of arts and entertainment he’s known as Lebo M.
Morake grew up in Soweto, Johannesburg. From a young age, he started singing in a local pop band. In his first interaction with the music business he saw corruption. At the age of 12, he released his first single Celebration which received a lot of local success. However, Morake only received $20.
After finding success in Lesotho, Morake received a scholarship to study music in the United States (US). It was there that he met world-renowned composer Hans Zimmer. The two worked together on the score for the film The Power of One.
Years later, Hans Zimmer was hired to score the most successful animated movie in history, The Lion King. Zimmer wanted to make the music authentically African and there was only one person he had in mind for the job.
Zimmer traveled to South Africa to find Morake. The two returned to the US where they created a soundtrack to the film that won them numerous awards as well as a Grammy for best instrumental arrangement with accompanying vocal for The Circle Of Life.
Riding on the success of the film, Morake was then commissioned to write the music for The Lion King musical which instantly became a Broadway hit. Morake composed new songs for the production which went well with the music from the original movie.
It has become one of Broadway’s longest-running shows with productions in several countries around the world.
Morake’s original compositions and voice can be heard in a number of films including Chicken Little, Mighty Joe Young, Congo and Tears of the Sun. When you listen to Morake sing, you may not understand the lyrics but you will understand why everyone calls him the voice of The Lion King.

Tag: Film

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