Cherry Film Festival seeks to open up local film industry
Scheduled to take place in Ficksburg over a six-day period (Monday, 25 November 2019 to Saturday, 30 November 2019), this year's edition of Cherry Film Festival seeks to drastically minimise the monopolised access to opportunities. Thereby opening up the industry to the rest of the population of creatives in the rural areas who have been marginalised.
Lebo Motaung, project director of the festival. Image source: Cherry Film Festival Twitter.
If we are to win the fight against the crisis of rising youth unemployment in South Africa, the relevant hands must commit to playing a more meaningful role in developing sectors such as the film industry, says Lebo Motaung, project director of the festival.
“Areas such as the Free State have an untapped thriving film industry, and deserve to be capitalised upon to help propel the industry to new heights,” he added. “This can be done by means of skills development at pre-development phase, understanding that this is one of the provinces where there is little or no income-generating activity, in the filmmaking space.”
A new generation of filmmakers
The Festival will be graced by influential industry giants along some of South Africa’s talented actors and producers, and the list includes Dr Jerry Mofokeng, Thembisa Mdoda, Dineo Ranaka, Mandla N., Lumko Johnson, Annelie Van Rooyen and Zikona Debese.
“Intended for township and rural communities with particular focus on youth from previously disadvantaged backgrounds, our goal is to help build a new generation of filmmakers and film industries from scratch, while creating spaces where small town and rural-based creatives can realise their dreams of becoming South Africa’s exceptional filmmakers,” Motaung said. “There is talent in Ficksburg of aspiring actors, producers, directors and writers that needs to be nurtured and exposed to opportunities and a Film Festival like this helps a great deal to achieve that.”
The Cherry Film Festival is supported by the National Film and Video Foundation and tickets are available at Computicket, for R100 per person. For more details on the event, visit, like and chat to us on Facebook at Cherry Film Festival, or join the conversation at @CherryFilmFest on Twitter and @CherryFilmFestival on Instagram, using the hashtag #CherryFilmFestival.
