After last year’s drama, Durban festival tackles is

The 2016 Durban International Film Festival ended in an awkward fashion. There was the resignation by the festival manager, Sarah Dawson, after a tenuous planning season, which crescendoed with a dispute about the opening film. There was also controversy about the opening documentary, The Journeymen, after one of its filmmakers was outed as a sexual offender. And there was the festival organisers’ poor handling of issues of rape culture and sexual assault. All this left a very bad taste on many a pallate.

It would seem that this year’s festival is at a pivotal point in its 38-year existence. The question must now be asked: What constructive action has the festival taken as an arts body to ensure it is a safe, inclusive space in the film industry, when it was felt to perpetuate rape culture last year?

With daily reports of injustices against women, children and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex community, the importance of discussing issues of sexual assault and harassment is on the top of people’s minds.

It was the scandal at the 2016 festival that prompted a small group of women in the African film industry to launch its own response to genderbased violence and discrimination. The Sisters Working in Film and Television — SWIFT for short — officially launched last weekend at the festival’s Film Mart, its networking and development level, my body actively defies what my culture dictates it should do and signify. But I am not the only body that defies narrow definitions of culture.

Apart from defying physical expectations, there is nothing about our culture that we necessarily fail to uphold. In the same breath, so-called “real men” do not necessarily satisfy what culture expects from them either. But by virtue of being physically and socially compliant, their place in the culture is unquestioned.

Although Xhosa culture rightfully creates a space for abiding male bod- programme arm. Specifically, the Film Mart is a joint programme of the Durban Film Office and the Durban festival.

“The controversy of last year was a big thing. The incident with Sarah Dawson — nobody would treat a man the way in which she was treated,” said Sara Blecher, director of the acclaimed film Ayanda (2015) and founding member of SWIFT.

She added that talking to other women at last year’s event highlighted the need for the formation of a womenled organisation.

A long-term objective for SWIFT is the creation of tangible changes for women in the industry. One way to ensure this happens is by offering a platform for women to network. This ies to flourish, endowing them with the tools to occupy their designated place as men in the culture, defiant bodies such as mine are expected to forego self-definition to satisfy cultural expectations of manhood.

This double standard necessitates an inquiry into what exactly our culture prioritises and for what reason.

Inxeba is not only a deepening of this inquiry, it also represents another moment of vital confrontation for South Africa.

The film confronts the prevailing depictions of the black body, the erasure of dissenting voices will support both emerging and established women filmmakers and address the sociopolitical disparities that define individuals’ experiences in the industry.

“The industry’s gatekeepers are often men,” said Blecher, “who then groom their younger male counterparts. It is a very closed industry. We are busy fighting for our own space.”

Blecher explained that, because film work happens mostly on a freelance basis, many women have to take on multiple jobs simultaneously while juggling motherhood and at times studying.

One of the ways in which SWIFT is creating public awareness is through an online campaign, #ThatsNotOkay. In short video clips, real-life incidents and, most importantly, the limitations of our film industry’s narrative exploits.

The film’s documentation of defiant male bodies makes a valuable contribution to the collective history of Xhosa men, whether they bear the wound or not. are acted out to inform people about the treatment of women in the film industry. In addition, WhatsApp and online groups have been created to offer a safe space for women to be heard. They cover everything from solidarity and advice to legal discussions.

Zoe Chiriseri, the chairperson of SWIFT’s interim board, said it was crucial for the organisation to serve as a support base for women filmmakers and to ensure their rise to the top in the industry.

“SWIFT is a mobilisation of what we have been wanting to do for a while,” said Chiriseri, a property broker and film producer.

After a year of discussions and extensive workshopping with industry peers, lawyers and psycholo-