Film industry needs new approach
The article, “Film industry deal may create boom,” (The Herald, March 12) made reference to the exodus of skills from the Eastern Cape film industry.
While it is a very real problem it is not caused by a lack of film production infrastructure as the article seems to suggest.
The first step to developing the industry locally is to fund local filmmakers so that there are enough local productions to hire local crews who are then able to make a living off their skills without having to move to Johannesburg or Cape Town.
The ECDC is partially to blame for this exodus, as the large majority of the funding they have for film development is spent on Johannesburg productions that are shot in the EC.
Once the production is over, so are the jobs, while the income generated by the film stays in Johannesburg with the production company.
We will only be able to talk about a budding EC film industry when we see local production companies producing content in the EC.
Investing in film production infrastructure will yield minimal results as this infrastructure will only benefit and be used by Johannesburg production companies who need or want to shoot in the EC.
Local production companies will remain without support and thus unable to make use of this infrastructure which would have been paid for by the city and/or province where they reside.
If the MBDA and the ECDC are serious about developing the EC film industry and retaining talent, they need to revise their strategy and focus on empowering local production companies and filmmakers. In this regard, Anele Qaba already tried to activate the metro’s film industry, through the creation of a music and film office while he was head of local economic development at NMBM.
This office operated for a number of years but made no tangible impact whatsoever.
This sounds like a repeat of this endeavour which honestly feels more like a political distraction rather than progress.
When will the Eastern Cape value its talent enough to support them instead of empowering established production companies from Johannesburg?