A first call for projects in April elicited over 150 applicants for features, short films and documentaries. Seventeen awards were made during this first round of disbursements to first-time and experienced writers, directors and producers. The disbursement was spread across the SADC region, encompassing filmmakers from Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia, as well as South Africa. In several cases, co-production partnerships across borders were able to enhance submissions.
Two feature films projects received awards from the HIVOS/Sithengi Film Fund for script development. They are Weight of Whispers, produced by Bridget Pickering (South Africa/Namibia) and Akin Omotoso (South Africa/Nigeria) with Zimbabwean writer-director, Farai Sevenzo. The second movie is an animated feature for children by Edward Stemmet, called The Family Cow, a comical, warm and touching treatment of two boys who sell the family cow and then run away to avoid parental trouble, but get into much bigger trouble in town when they fall in with tsotsis. Stemmet says it's a feel-good movie. All's well that ends well. And, says Stemmet, the Hivos award offers the possibility of a happy ending for animation feature films, after the "huge historical stumbling block" which has hampered the development of this genre.
Five documentaries were funded. What Makes a Zambian, by Samba Yonga; Xoliswa Sithole's Return to Zimbabwe, the auteur's journey back from Joburg to the country that nurtured her from childhood, right through university. It's also a complex journey back in time through the recognisance of her uncle, Edison Sithole, who was one of the first Black Doctors of Law, a liberator and nationalist who was abducted and killed during the Zimbabwean struggle. After a long period of financial and political complications, the Hivos award once more fills Xoliswa Sithole's sails on her very personal odyssey.
The other three documentaries are essentially biopics. From Mozambique, there is Joao Ribeiro's homage to the great writer, Mia Couto and Camilo de Sousa's Ricardo Rangel. Botswana's contribution by George Eustice is a tale of another national giant, Seretse Khama.
Of the five short films from First-time filmmakers two Zambian contributions - Kitchen Party by Samba Yonga, and Tears for Blessings by Nector Mbilima - both lay the groundwork for a nascent Zambian film industry.
South Africa carried away two grants in this category for Thamsanqa Mthiyane's Inuxuluma Lansondo and Nel Foord's Miranda. And Zimbabwean newcomer, Marko Phiri from Tshabalala in Bulawayo will make his controversial film of a young teenager's shadowy encounters with sex and sexuality, under the mentorship of the Zimbabwe International Short Film Festival forum.
Zimbabweans feature again (twice) in the Short Film category by Experienced Filmmakers. Tsitsi Dangarembga grabbed two of the four awards - for her two productions, Until the End of the Month, a collaboration with young writer and filmmaker Tawanda Gunda; and for, To Runyararo, a piece that emerged from grassroots women's workshops over two years, to be directed by Heeten Bhagat, a young director from the ZIFF stable with a clutch of short films to his name.
South African Jean Meeran will make Brown Europe Pageant and Gabriel Mondlane from Mozambique earns an award to shoot A Palma Penosa.
The last of the HIVOS/ Sithengi awards is for a SACOD special project to train regional filmmakers.
Please note that the Second Round application is now closed - deadline was Monday, 1 August 2005. Sithengi would like to thank those regional filmmakers for having submitted your project proposals for the second round of the HIVOS/Sithengi Film Fund.
For more information, contact;
Sithengi
Tel: +27 21 430 8160
Fax: +27 21 430 8186
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: sithengi.co.za
Posted on Friday 22 Jul 2005
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