for local producers to find funding elsewhere. As a firsttime filmmaker, without the NFVF one has very little chance of accessing funding from the DTI or Industrial Development Corporation; beyond that, international film funds seldom look at co-funding projects that do not have buy-in from their local funding body.
Approximately 96 % to 98 % of what’ s in cinema in South Africa comes from one of the eight major Hollywood studios, with the remaining screen time shared with international“ art house” cinema. According to a report given at the 2009 NFVF Indaba, of local films that generally cost between R9-million and R20-million to make, only 40 % recoup between R100 000 and R4- million, with a further 22 % making less than R100 000. This excludes international co-productions. This, however, leaves 38 % of local product recouping over R4-million.
There are two types of locally produced films that do reliably profit at the box office. The first kind are“ Hartiwood” films such as Bakgat, Semi-Soet and Liefling, which are made in Afrikaans, feature middle-class Afrikaans stories and are shot around Hartbeesport Dam. These films tend to be made for around R3-million and often double or triple their money. Bakgat made a total gross of about R7-million, including box office, DVD and television sales. Liefling made about R13-million. Hartiwood films are made for a local audience, in their own language and they’ re screened in cinemas close to where that audience lives.
The other type are films starring Leon Schuster. It might have escaped the Sediba acolyte’ s attention, but Schuster does not strictly follow a three-act structure; Mr Bones 2 recouped R32-million at the local box office, roughly three times more than District 9.
Similarly the micro-budget, Nollywood-influenced direct-to- DVD Bubblegum films produced by Chicco Twala, are made with a local audience in mind. Through a unique combination of spaza shops and direct marketing, they frequently make substantial
Henk Pretorius profits, as do the direct-to-
DVD Venda films of Khathutshelo Mamphodo and Tshidino Ndou. These strategies are now being emulated by director Philani Sithebe and the emerging Durban micro-funded film scene.
In order to look at the box office of NFVF films a distinction must be made between NFVF-funded films and NFVF films developed through Sediba. NFVFfunded films include Tsotsi, which brought in just over R8- million locally, and the highly successful children’ s film Zambezia, which earned R8-million. A successful film that has passed through Sediba development is Spud, which cleared R18-million. But other Sediba-based films haven’ t fared as well; 31 Million Reasons brought in R874 644, Izulu Lami made R377 677, Matabane’ s State of Violence returned R58 200, and Otelo Burning, a script edited by Hamilton himself, made only R216 470. This is not to say that the Bubblegum or Hartiwood films are“ better” than the NFVF’ s Sediba product— they are just, in general, more successful at the box office.
As Shongwe-La Mer says:“ I feel that South African audiences are far too sophisticated to be sold the regurgitation of Americana we repackage as South African realities in our cinema. The nation’ s reaction to our cinema seems generally intelligent to me.”
Tailor-made
CONTROVERSY
The Hartiwood and micro-budget direct-to-DVD models work, according to Henk Pretorius, producer of the
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