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Biography: Taryn da Canha-Uhlmann (MA)

Taryn da Canha-Uhlmann has been involved with the Arts in South Africa her entire life.  Originally pursuing a career in the theatre as a professional ballet dancer, her interest in film took her away from the stage to university where she completed her Honours and Masters (with distinction) degrees in history and documentary film theory. 

She produced two films whilst at university during her post-graduate years.  Her Honours documentary, directed and produced with two fellow students, told the story of the wives of the Cradock Four and the role of woman in the Struggle.  Her MA included a full written dissertation and a documentary film, which she directed, produced, researched and edited.   The 2-part documentary on the History of South African Documentary Film was supported by the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) and was noted by many in the industry as an extremely well researched, informative overview of the South African film industry and a very important piece of work on film and politics in South Africa.

After leaving university, Taryn was employed by Cape Town production company, Big World Cinema where she worked as a researcher and assistant on several productions and on Encounters, the South African Documentary Film Festival.  She continued to tutor undergraduate film courses part time at UCT from 2001-2004, and during this time was asked to produce and lecture a 3rd year film course on the history of South African documentary filmmaking.  She lectured a condensed version of this course to 1st and 2nd year students at ADFA in 2003.

In 2002, she moved to Sithengi, the Southern African Film and Television Market, where she began as a researcher and moved on to become the Project and Development Officer, managing three co-production forums.  This role included actively sitting on the project selection panels for each forum, determining the financial viability and story appeal of each project, and helping match projects with local and international finance in the form of co-producers, sales agents, commissioning editors and financiers. 

In 2003 she was the recipient of the David and Elaine Potter Fellowship - a full scholarship awarded to her do her doctorate at UCT specializing in the South African film Industry.  She turned it down to continue her work and remain at Sithengi in the capacity of Project Development Officer. 

Her work at Sithengi has taken her twice to the feature film co-production forum, Cinemart, at the International Film Festival, Rotterdam, and to the Toronto Documentary Forum (TDF) and Hotdocs festival, where she worked with the organisation prior to their 2004 festival and forum as part of a festival exchange program.  In 2005 she presented Sithengi's African co-production initiative at Maisha, the script writing initiative developed by acclaimed director Mira Nair, for East African and South East Asian scriptwriters in Kampala, Uganda.

In addition to managing the co-production Forums, Taryn was, in 2005, given the task of managing the Hivos/Sithengi film fund, which includes making recommendations for which projects should receive financial grants from the SADC co-regional fund.

As of 1 September 2005 she will be taking on the role of market director at Sithengi, managing the Sithengi Market, inclusive of the Talent Campus, Co-Production Market, Product Market, Conference Program and overseeing general operations.  She will remain the Sithengi/Hivos fund manager.

In all, her devotion to the development of South African film has prevailed and she continually strives to aid this development through projects that use knowledge and research to educate and inform and ultimately grow the film industry in South Africa. 

She still remains a fierce supporter of dance and has been involved in theatrical amateur productions in her spare time.

Posted on Wednesday 21 Sep 2005