Breaking down the stereotypes
BIG SCREEN: SCREENWRITER CHANGES THE NARRATIVE
Producer talks about her passion for entertainment.
Storytelling is a gift that many viewers appreciate, they also appreciate the art of knowing the names of the storyteller. Bianca Isaac is a multiple winning director and producer. She is also a screenwriter who has helped change the narrative of South African stories on the big screen.
Speaking to The Citizen, the producer is energetic, often smiling and has infectious laugh easy to see how this has translated into her films but this was the unlikely passion which started from her grandfather.
“I didn’t always wanted to be in the film industry, I wanted to be a vet. When I was younger my grandfather had brought me one of those disposable cameras to take pictures. We are from Durban so when your family said you going out, it was at the beach for the day.”
She says that day taking pictures was probably the most inspiring thing for her but didn’t know at the time.
Since the age of eight she was always in drama classes and further down in her schooling years. Isaac says her enthusiasm for being a vet quickly changed after doing an internship, she couldn’t handle the sight of injured animals. She then went on to study film.
In 2012 Isaac opened her own production company Figjam Entertainment. From producing TV dramas Umlilo and Swartwater which won four South African Film and Television Awards in 2015, she was very aware that not enough local movies were being made during that time.
“At the time when I transitioned into films not a lot of people were making films in South Africa. The department of trade and industry had just restarted its programme and so it was quite hard,” she says.
“But what also happened at the same time is that institutions like the Industrial Development Corporation had opened its doors to all filmmakers but priority was given to non-white people, particularly women.”
She says the environment become more inviting for black filmmakers and is now flooded with diverse stories.
“I try to aim to make characters South African in the modern-day, as I see as South African,” she said.
Isaac’s lifelong partner Gregory Mthanji is a producer and they have worked together in a couple films. Since Mthanji is black and Isaac an Indian, she says their friends are mixed races and for a while they were in an environment where they didn’t see a lot of colour.
“We just saw people as for who they were,” she says, adding that people were the ones who pointed out that they were a mixed couple.
“All my films deal with a central subject matter, either a black family or Indian family but all the supporting characters are almost like a rainbow nation…more and more of my stories moved to the female lead not so much about the race.”
Her first film is Getroud Met Rugby in 2010. It follows the journey of a young mechanic often in trouble who had to decide whether to play rugby or face prison time.
Very flexible in her craft she went on to produce and write the romantic comedy film The Jakes are missing, starring Mampho Brescia as Janice and Pop Jerrad as Donald Jakes. The couple have fallen out of love and found themselves in police protection as they try to rekindle their romance.
The awards are great notoriety for Isaac’s but it’s not the complete goal for her. Her latest film 3 Days To Go released in 2019 is centred around an Indian siblings and family coping with the loss of their father.
Currently streamed on ShowMax, it won two international awards at the Melbourne Indie Film Festival this year for best director and best comedy.
The Global India Film Festival also recognised the movie which walked away with four awards, including best film. The movie is star-studded with the likes of Kajal Bagwandeen, Zakeeya Patel, Jonathan Boynton-lee and lead Leeanda Reddy.
“I made the film to break down the stereotypes of an Indian family they mostly portrayed with a heavy thick accent or portrayed in that comedic way,” she says.
There is a character who intentionally plays into this stereotype Isaac tried to make nearly all the characters almost general. It’s only when you see their faces you would know they are Indian.
“The film allowed me to break down those stereotypes. It was my first time directing and my partner produced it,” she says.
Audiences welcomed this change in the narrative with many younger viewers taking their parents to watch the film. Her latest production The Honeymoon which she will also direct and produce is centred around three female characters, women we know very well in our lives. And for Isaac, these are more important stories to tell.
The environment become more inviting for black filmmakers and is now flooded with diverse stories.