Digital Movement to launch at the Sithengi Film & Television Market 2003

No expensive film, no expensive 35mm blowups and prints = low cost and actual profits! No more "gatekeepers" to tell audiences what they should see means that we finally get to tell OUR stories to OUR audiences.

Be part of the Revolution - join the INDV Movement today! No more begging and pleading for money you'll never get. Just bring us your excellent script, give us some of your creative energy, share a few hours of your time with us as a crewmember. Have a say in the movie you help make. Together we, the filmmakers of Africa, can tell our stories.

A co-operative of 10-15 passionate filmmakers can shoot a feature length DV film and post-produce it on a cash budget of R 250 000 - R 400 000. Partial funding of INDV projects would come from the NFVF, with equipment supplied by Controversi Films, and the likes of AFM Lighting and Filmair. Post-facilities are available from INDIE Films and Refinery. It's already happening - sign up now to be part of SA film history.

WHO ARE INDV?

A core of independent filmmakers who have already begun to achieve success in their respective fields already support INDV:

a.. Akin Omotoso directed GOD IS AFRICAN, the first locally produced DV film to be released theatrically in South Africa.
b.. Derek Antonio Serra has produced and directed several DV documentaries through Controversi Films, and was an associate producer on GOD IS AFRICAN.
c.. Paul Lensen runs Renegade Pictures and lectures in DV production at the Cape Technikon and AFDA.
d.. Terry Westby-Nunn has directed numerous broadcast inserts for CITY LIFE and NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, and is an excellent editor and documentary director.
e.. Thabo Mvumvu works as a DOP on both drama and documentaries and directs short films.
f.. Riaz Solker has edited numerous DV productions including episodes of WOMEN SPEAK OUT!
g.. Sipho Citabatwa has worked as an AD on several DV projects and assisted with crowd casting on Country of my Skull.
h.. Mbongeni Buso is an 18 yr old emerging director from Khayelitsha who has directed two DV productions through INDV's training and development programme.

You and you... and possibly YOU

Hosted by Controversi Films and the INDV Movement, the festival sees the launch of the Independent Digital Feature Film Initiative, and an exclusive screening of the Amarabella collection, a selection of short films showcasing filmmaking talent in Gugulethu.

Freelance director, screenwriter, and journalist Matthew Kalil, who has been working closely with the filmmakers in Gugulethu, will talk about independent filmmaking and the Amarabella project - he is also a guest at the University of New York later this month, where he will deliver a lecture on Independent Short Filmmaking in South Africa.

The exciting new independent digital feature film initiative (INDV) is a co-operative of top independent producers, directors, DOP's, scriptwriters, technical crew, editors, actors and trainees who support the concept of shooting ultra-low budget feature films on DV.

The programme at the Festival of Independent Filmmaking includes the screening of excerpts from Controversi Films' Cultureclash! , which follows a crew of four local filmmakers on a 6 000km trip through South Africa in search of the elusive Rainbow Nation, and Speaking Out, showing their production style and approach. Sensitive viewers are warned that the content carries explicit language and visuals!

The short films that will be screened from the Amarabella Collection are Kalil's Laptop, a hilarious tale that shows how one can bridge the gap between township and suburb; Natalie Chapman's Day of the Junkie, a story of addiction, crime and friendship set in seedy Sea Point; and Thabo Mvumvu's What Goes Around Comes Around, a film that 'breaths the township vibe'.

"It took 6 months to make 5 films and that was with no outside funding," says producer-director-writer Natalie Chapman. "We achieved our short term goals and plan to continue making films, uplifting the township community and showing by example that we should stop procrastinating and do what we know we can do well, make our own movies about our own people using our own wonderful stories." Also on the line-up is assistant editor and commercial director Tamsyn Reynolds' Cheap, a kind of 'docu-poem' set to music, about chicken farming.

A unique aspect of the NTVA's monthly festivals is that it not only offers a platform to local filmmakers to display their work, but also gives those interested in the industry an opportunity to meet the filmmakers, network and share ideas.

For more info contact:
Derek Serra
Controversi Films
+ 27 21 426-1665
+ 27 21 424-9404