When Tsotsi, the powerful film about the quest for redemption in the life of a black teenage African thief, won the Best Foreign Film award at this year’s Academy Awards, South Africa and its growing film industry were firmly thrust into the media spotlight.
Based on the novel by renowned South African writer Athol Fugard, the cinematic version, set in present day Africa and focusing on the highly topical issues of poverty and AIDS, garnered audience attention and industry support on an international level.
Support that many now believe could be the saviour of this often beleaguered film industry, which, whilst achieving notable gains since the end of apartheid, has not yet lived up to the enormous promise it holds in terms of assuming its place in the global cinematic pantheon.
Since 1986 the film industry in South Africa has produced 78 feature films, including Tsotsi, Drum, Hotel Rwanda, Red Dust and Yesterday. In 2005/2006 alone, the industry produced 17 feature films with combined box office earnings of around £4.2 million.
And whilst unquestionably impressive on a local scale, these figures are quite literally a drop in the ocean compared to film industires flourishing in other parts of the world with much smaller population bases than the African continent.
So what has been keeping the South African film industry back over the last few decades?
Tsotsi’s director Gavin Hood commented, when his film was first nominated for an Oscar that: “We have a small industry at home in terms of the local product that we make – there’s quite a big industry because a lot of international production shoots there – but in terms of our own local storytelling we’re just beginning to make more than one film every couple of years.”
A situation many are hoping will change in light of the unveiling late last month of a South Africa/ United Kingdom cinematic collaboration aimed at enabling the UK and South African film industries to work together to create world class cinema.
At the unveiling of the proposed collaborative partnership, part of a wider drive by the UK Government to create a new set of fit-for-purpose co-production agreements, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell commented that: “British film is in good shape…(and) South African cinema is also going from strength to strength, as exemplified by the recent success of Tsotsi…. But there is much we can learn from and share with each other.”
South African Culture Minister Pallo Jordan, who unveiled the initaiative with Jowell, likewise commented that: “This marks an important milestone in cementing and redefining relations between the two countries as we have a long history. We have no doubt that this will strengthen indigenous African film which is increasingly gaining a foothold in the international market.”
Positive words undoubtedly, but ones that have many wondering whether an influx of cash is the only thing needed to bolster a still fledgling industry that has had more than its fair share of problems since its beginnings over a century ago.
Historically, despite being one of the earliest countries in the world to produce film, South Africa never developed a vibrant film industry like its European or American counterparts for a number of reasons, political and social, living as it did under the helm of apartheid, which quite literally divided the African nations for many brutal and bloody decades.
And while in terms of desirability as a film location, South Africa has a number of advantages over other more prosperous sites, including good weather, a diversity of locations, English-speaking and experienced film crews and technicians, in the past, many of these marketable attributes seem to have been seriously under utilized in terms of the betterment of the South African Film Industry as an entity.
In 2004, commenting on renewed interest in the South African Film Industry, the Premier of the Western Cape Ebrahim Rasool commented that, “This industry must be nurtured for the long term. Now is not the time for quick killings. This approach of short term gain must change. The sustainability of the industry depends on our ability to maintain our key competitive advantages.”
And while African film bodies such as the Industrial Development Corporation
(IDC) and the National Film & Video Foundation (NFVF) have made enormous strides in their efforts over the past decade to improve the foundations of the South African film industry, there still remains a daunting amount of work ahead if the industry is to succeed in its aim of becoming a powerful force in the global cinema market.
To many, the work being done at present by African film makers is of enormous importance in helping to redefine what it means to be an African in the 21st century.
African scholar Kanyoro Thirikwa, talking about the importance of the work being done by African film makers in terms of representing the lives and histories of African people, commented that they “tell real and personal stories about us, in a completely different light from the stories narrated by foreigners through often-ineffective tales about our history in ‘African movies'”.
Which leads to the hope in the hearts and minds of many present day South Africans that the initiatives currently afoot will take these issues and others just as pertinent to the needs of the African peoples into account.
At the unveiling of the recent South African/ United Kingdom cinema industry collaboration, Culture Minister Pallo Jordan noted that “Indigenous African film has gained a foothold and is thus destined to take its rightful place in the global market place and thus contribute to spreading the spirit of hope, contribute to economic growth and creating opportunities for self-reliance among our artists.”
Sentiments agreed with by many, including Eddie Mbalo, CEO of the National Film and Video Foundation, who, whilst excited by the seemingly positive changes in the South African film industry as a result of Tsotsi’s Oscar win, also cautiously noted that “It is going to put us at a different level – the challenge will be whether we can sustain that”.
