Modern Eyes on a Painful Past, a South African filmmaker’s manifesto and MA study goal.

Modern Eyes on a Painful Past,

a South African filmmaker’s manifesto and MA study goal.

After crossing the pond in 2008, I am still intensely involved and motivated by my country of origin. My years as a corporate filmmaker here in the Netherlands have brought be full circle to my greatest motivation: South Africa.

As I was growing up, I experienced massive changes in the world I was living in. As a white person I was shielded from much of the violence, but I could observe it, albeit from a distance. Sometimes the violence came closer, like the day my father and I were attacked at a petrol station, and the day my brother was shot. In spite of such events and the constant flow of bad news coming from South Africa, I remain a child of the Mandela years. I have a stubborn belief in the ideals of humanism, tolerance and reconciliation. My inspiration and aspirations as a filmmaker and storyteller is rooted firmly in this belief. It defines not only the kind of human being I aspire to be, but forms the cornerstone of a great dream of so many visionaries, and the essence of what I intend to leave behind on this earth.

Bitterly the principles of reconciliation have become scarce of late in South Africa. Recent events, like the vandalisation of statues, moments of blatant disregard by the status quo to uphold the constitution, and a surge of xenophobic violence have brought rapid and intense polarisation. As the seasoned political observer and journalist, Max du Preez, recently implored in an opinion piece on Moneyweb, "Hope is the commodity we need most now. Hope that we're not descending into conflict and instability; hope that Project New South Africa is still on track; hope that the future is indeed going to be better than the past.” (Du Preez 2015)

These words resonate with the essence of my goals for this study. Without hope South Africa is doomed. I have always believed that the arts have a responsibility towards society. In my theatre work I have always aspired to achieve that which I personally yearn for: to have my own prejudices and pre-conceptions challenged through the innate human desire for brotherhood and reconciliation. As an artist I have always been dissatisfied with my own culture’s apparent inability to evolve; and with the constant looming threat from the raging masses, barely held at bay by a morally depleted and broadly corrupt black elite. Film, as the most powerful and transcendent form of communication, can serve as the vehicle to achieve understanding and empathy across this divide. I am intent on exploiting this opportunity.

For me to reconcile in the present I look at the past. South Africa’s past is a goldmine of cinematic opportunity. It comprises of worlds moulded by conflict and adventure, and carry with it some of the most emotive stories of friendship and loyalty that I know of. Friendships that transcend the borders of tribe, culture, race and language. Friendship beyond the mistrust of the traditional. Friendships that existed not because of, but in spite of the inequalities of the past. Simply depicting such friendship achieves what no measure of political activism can: it proves that racial nationalism is a contrived and nonsensical ideology that evaporates quickly amid personal contact and resulting understanding.

My primary goal for a postgraduate study is thus:

Achieving mastery in the research and creation of a historical South African screenplay, that inspires understanding and respect.

My secondary goal is:

To provide collaborators, advisors, investors and other partners with proof that I am the right person to create this film with.

The steps toward goal one could be: researching and choosing a story; writing a synopsis, tagline, log-line, outline, treatment and draft script. Goal two could be achieved by the creation of a short film inspired by the story, a teaser trailer, a look book or director’s treatment.

Possible studies to achieve goal one can include:

1. identification and analysis of successfully executed historical adaptations and biopics.
2. identification of screenwriters who have been successful at historical adaptation and biopics; and extracting a set of writing principles to apply to my own writing.
3. investigating the threshold of universality and relevant screenwriting techniques to reach broader audiences.
4. defining target audiences and harnessing gained insights in writing a story with the added ability to inspire understanding and tolerance based on audience paradigms.
5. Defining and applying principles for the creation of emphatic characters.
6. Researching cultural and historical trends to apply to the creation of authentic characters, space and context.

Possible studies to achieve goal two can be:

1. Identifying and analysing a collection of look-books and/or director’s treatments and defining a set of principles to be applied in the creation of a similar document.
2. Identifying and analysing a collection of feature-related short films and defining a set of principles to be applied to the creation of a similar production.
3. Identifying and analysing a collection of feature-related short films and defining a set of principles to be applied to the creation of a similar production.
4. Consolidating the research gained from goal one in a documentary film with cinematic re-enactments.

Bibliography

Du Preez, M 2015, 'Radicalisation and polarisation: the encroaching threat', Moneyweb 10 April. Available from: <http://www.moneyweb.co.za/moneyweb-opinion/radicalisation-and-polarisation-the-encroaching-threat/>. [2 January 2014].

Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

A reflection of a totally biased and subjective viewer.

To most South Africans, Nelson Mandela is more than an icon. He is the father of our nation, the very symbol of reconciliation and no less than a messiah. He embodies to me personally the ability to reposition our perspectives and understanding of a brutal world. Attempts to describe our sense of pride and emotion we experience at the memory of the tall, dignified man with his gentle humour and magical voice will somehow always fall flat. We are fiercely protective of him and one should imagine that any attempt to depict his story would be folly. Especially if such attempts are made by outsiders. Suffice to say that I didn’t expect this film to touch me so deeply.

As with any well executed film the music played a role. The team of Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Alex Heffes and Larry Mullen Jr. came up with a very moving soundtrack and title song. Also precise utilisation of traditional song and music during various turning points of the story culminates in a beautiful score that gives the many poignant moments a sense of eternity or urgency. This did also contribute to a moment of confusion. The film revolves around a central political plot that is not established in a clear way. During the inciting incident Madiba chooses to join a rally for lower bus fares, launching his political life. The choice is however dealt with a bit glibly. Madiba makes the choice very easily and at not too great cost and risk to himself. Despite the attempts by William Nicholson to interweave a family-drama mini-plot into the first act providing pressure for the main character, the choice is too easy. His meeting of and courtship of Winnie is accompanied by wondrously warm love music giving one the impression that the central plot is the love Story between Madiba and Winnie. The Winnie-plot is later ended bitterly with a shot of Winnie alone and rejected. Perhaps this was a deliberate attempt by the filmmakers to crush the sensitivity an vulnerability of personal touch and love in the wake of political and moral grandeur.

Everything before the 80’s is mythology to me. Further into the past I can only reflect upon from an external point of view. That said I didn’t notice any moments when Willie Botha’s art direction was not truthful. Even the minutest details like camera’s of journalists seemed true to the times. I did however miss a sense of being pulled back to the time I experienced in my own life. A moment of sensory flashback. Something that Clint Eastwood to my opinion captured more urgently in Invictus, by utilising the digital looks of the day and dramatising much of the exposition in vivid montages. The editing of Lol Crawley was largely unapparent and not self conscious to the benefit of the story.

It took me a while to start believing Idris Elba in the role of our Madiba. Curiously as the character grew older I experienced him to be all the more truthful. Even through all the layers of latex and make-up (or perhaps because of it) Elba’s emulation of his voice, his flowing stagger and uncompromising commitment was crystal clear and cut deeply. My theory is that the challenge to portray a character of similar age was cutting too close to Elba’s own self in the first act. As the film continued onwards depicting the later years of Madiba’s life, there was a greater wealth of resources available for the actor to do the research and craft work.

The beautiful Naomi Harris lures the audience into sympathy and empathy with her fiery performance of the fierce mother and revolutionary leader, Winnie. As mostly is the case with such things, the casting is one of the first steps to marketing and selling the film, so casting A-list british actors in these roles was perhaps a necessary evil. As South Africans we need not let our sense of pride take too much of a bump to the head in view of this choice, as the many smaller characters in this story are portrayed brilliantly by local actors like Tony Kgoroge, Riaad Moosa, Zolani Mkiva and Gys de Villiers to name a few.

The progression of the story swept me along like the flow of the Zambezi without noticing much of the inner workings of the film. This is why I consider it to be such a success. I started watching with extreme prejudice and mistrust, expecting little emotional satisfaction from a story I grew up in and that I know inside out. William Nicholson’s screenplay cleverly utilised the infamous Act II dip by placing Madiba’s incarceration at the beginning of this. Putting us in the cell with him in the very moment he is confronted by the bars from which he could never escape.

Chadwick combined well with DOP Lol Crawley to bathe the characters in Africa’s amber and orange glows, especially during the love scenes and in Madiba’s rural Xhosa village where his moral and spiritual roots lay, giving the viewers a sense of spiritual fulfilment and immortality during the final climax of the film. It seems that from script to props with all departments in between, very little poetic licence was taken in the creation of this film. This perhaps indicates an appropriate respect and veneration for Nelson Mandela and the cornerstone moments in his life by the creative team. A fact that the filmmakers have been criticised for by the likes of Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian, “It is a thoroughly well-managed movie, although it sees events purely in South African terms: it steers clear, for example, of the fact that US intelligence forces helped the 60s South African government to arrest Mandela in 1962. It could perhaps have probed a little further into the mystery of exactly what Nelson thought about his wife's activities while he was in prison and exactly what tensions were caused with his imprisoned comrades by finally deciding to negotiate with the government in the late 1980s.”

Bradshaw continues to defend his opinion in terms of the character of Winnie Mandela:

“It is a potent performance from Naomie Harris, and the film does not shrink from the showing the grisly "necklacing": but the movie, perhaps like public opinion itself, is tonally unsure about Winnie, unable to triangulate the uneasy alternate needs to condemn and condone.” (Bradshaw 2014)

The film visits some of the most horrific moments on both sides of the aisle of South Africa’s rebirth, but left me with an urgent sense of responsibility and duty. As if being in the presence of the grand madala, our old giant himself.

Filmography:

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom 2013, motion picture, Pathe Productions Limited, London.

Invictus 2009, motion picture, Clint Eastwood, Los Angeles.

Bibliography:

Bradshaw, P 2014, 'Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom – review', The Guardian 2 January. Available from: <http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jan/02/mandela-long-walk-freedom-review>. [2 January 2014].