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WOMEN SPEAK OUT! SERIES NEARS COMPLETION
The 24min documentary Body Beautiful directed by
Omelga Mthiyane is now in post-production after
a month of filming in Cape Town.
This is the final programme in the
groundbreaking four part series WOMEN SPEAK OUT!
which was produced by Derek Antonio Serra for
Controversi Films. A training and development
project partly funded by the National Film and
Video Foundation (NFVF), the series gave a voice
to three emerging black female directors under
the mentorship of an experienced
producer/director supported by a top crew.
Bring Back Yesterday, directed by Lungiswa
Sithole provides viewers with a controversial
glimpse into the lives of pensioners in the
township hostels of Langa and Guguletu. Parent
Alone, directed by Bongi Mdongwe looks at the
phenomena of men raising their families as
single parents, while Body Beautiful is an
eye-opening study of body image among black
women. Speaking Out by Terry Westby-Nunn is a
pacy behind-the-scenes look at the realities
facing emerging black female filmmakers
achieving their dream of directing a documentary
while working with a white male producer.
The first three documentaries in the series
premiered to a packed house at the Sithengi
Southern African Film Market in November 2002.
Producer Derek Antonio Serra sat on a panel of
producers during the build-up to Sithengi 2001
and he selected the individual documentaries
during a pitching session by over 150 hopefuls
and packaged the concept as a series.
Controversi Films then successfully applied for
a production grant to the NFVF, and the series
went into production in September 2002. Several
other female filmmakers were present on the
shoot as trainees, and Serra is proud of the
fact that so many women were empowered with
production expertise on the series. The
documentaries were shot on state-of-the-art DV
cameras by Craig Alsop, Thabo Mvumvu, Maya
Morgan and Paul Lensen and edited by editors
Reynold Henjewele and Riaz Solker. Award-winning
sound engineer Alan Day was responsible for the
final sound mix on the series. The series will
be offered for licensing to both local and
international broadcasters, and the directors
stand to benefit from a generous cut of the
license fees.
The support of the NFVF was central to the
success of the series, as well as the
opportunity which the Sithengi Southern African
Film Market offers to African filmmakers to get
their product seen by international
broadcasters. Controversi Films has produced a
string of documentaries on social issues,
including Cape of Rape, Streetlife Virgins and
Cultureclash, and is currently in production on
Innocence Lost, which looks at the issue of
child rape through the eyes of children.
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