(Brad
Backhouse as Jimmy; Tim Wells as Wiese; Caval Goodyear as Smit. Pic by Val
Adamson)
A
Shot at the Big Time, a short film by award-winning
Durban film-maker, Janet van Eeden, has been selected for the Durban
International Film Festival. It will be the screened as part of a Think!Fest
panel on the Legacy of Apartheid Conference during the National Arts Festival
this July.
The film, inspired by the story of van
Eeden’s brother, Jimmy, who died on the border three days after arriving in
1979, during the Apartheid Border Wars, is directed by Australia-based Stephen
de Villiers, produced by Janet van Eeden and London-based Magda M. Olchawska,
with Durban-based director of photography, Luke Pallett. Original songs have
been written by Jonathan Handley, of the 80’sRadio Rats fame, while the score
has been composed by John McGuiness.
Van Eeden is Production Course Coordinator
and Screenwriting lecturer at AFDA in Durban. She’s written and produced many
stage plays and wrote the script for the internationally-acclaimed White Lion (2010). She says that it has
taken nine years to write the poignant story inspired by her brother’s death.
The short was produced as a promo for the full length feature, in the hopes of
attracting further funds.
The film, which was shot on location in
Pietermaritzburg and surrounds, features Sean M Cameron from Cape Town as Staff
Sergeant Van Staden; AFDA graduate Brad Backhouse as Jimmy, the small-town rock
star with a big time future who is drafted into the army, and celebrated actor
Tim Wells who plays the role of Corporal Wiese. UKZN Drama student, TQ Zondi,
plays the role of Petrus, Jimmy’s friend. Others in the cast include Caitlin
Harrison as Jess, Cade White as young Jimmy, Livvy Henning as young Jess and
Mapumelelo Maphumulo as young Petrus.
“After many years of trying to find the
right producer to make this film in the way that would pay tribute to my
brother and others who died needlessly in this war, I decided to take the reins
into my own hands and produce this film myself,” explains van Eeden.
Inspired by Peter Broderick, a US
crowd-funding expert who spoke at the Durban Film Mart two years ago, she
launched her own crowd-funding campaign on IndieGoGo.com on the 11th day of the
11th month of the year 2011, Remembrance Day, in honour of all those fallen in
war.
“It was at a time of personal turmoil for
me and I wasn’t too sure I knew what I was doing, but I posted a Youtube clip
of a song written especially for A Shot
at the Big Time by musician friend, Jonathan Handley and put it up
alongside the, by now, well-honed treatment of the film.”
“I had no idea of the response this film
would receive, but within hours, the story touched a chord in so many hearts of
people around the world. Not only were people donating money, they were also
donating skills. This was a true labour of love with a string of people
volunteering including the full cast, a team of Media Honours students from
UZKN under the guidance of Navikiran Babulai and Karel Schmidt who created the
EPK, graphics design company, Visual Graphics, based in Australia who designed
the poster, publicist Sharlene Versfeld, photographer Val Adamson, wardrobe
mistress Kirsty Geldart-Mitchell and first assistant director Stuart Nixon.”
“Money came from the most unexpected
sources, and although we didn’t raise a huge amount, it captured the
imagination of these amazing people. It was then I knew that this film had
universal appeal and just had to be made.” she says.
Three months of concentrated pre-production
went into the making of this demanding short, due to the military nature of the
film. There had to be intense attention to detail in the military scenes and
van Eeden was able to secure the services of Sergeant Major Mike Bond from the
Natal Carbineers Unit in Pietermaritzburg who gave the crew access to military
weapons and uniforms and ensured that every single detail on each of the
thirteen military uniforms was 100% accurate.
Last year, the feature film project was
selected for the Durban FilmMart and this year the short will be screened at
the Durban International Film Festival (July 18 to 28), which attracts a
significant number of industry guests and an audience of close to 32,000.
Van Eeden will be speaking on a panel at
the Legacy of Apartheid Conference at the National Arts Festival in July where
the film will be screened. “I will be drawing on my own experience as a sister
of a young man who lost his life as a result of the mental anguish he underwent
as a victim of conscription. I will also reveal the very tough road I undertook
to tell this story, which I might add, was met with some frightening resistance
from unknown entities in cyberspace, determined to deny that this kind of thing
ever actually happened. This of course has made me even more determined to tell
this story, in its full feature form.”
For more information go to www.shotthemovie.com, or e-mail janet@janetvaneeden.com
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