This year marks the 15-year anniversary of
the establishment of the Durban Film Office (DFO), the eThekwini Municipality’s
film industry development unit. To
reflect on this important milestone, as well as report back on achievements to
date, and to share insights from consultations with local film industry, and
its strategic vision, the DFO hosted a stakeholder engagement at the ICC on March
20, 2019.
In welcoming the stakeholders the eThekwini
Municipal Mayor, Cllr Gumede said, “As we feel the effects of the Fourth
Industrial Revolution on the global economy, and as we observe that the world
is digitally dynamic, and ever-changing, creating new roles for people to be
economically active in ways we have never imagined, it is vital that as a City
we remain ahead of the game. As government we act as an enabler for economic
development, and with the express goal to eradicate the triple challenge of
poverty, inequality and unemployment, we are mindful of the role that film
plays in driving a particular economy and how film and the moving image feeds
into this new digital economy. The Durban Film Office plays an important role
in keeping our economic development hub in touch with the film industry, as
well as being strategic about how filmmakers can be supported to ensure this
City continues to strive to become a hub of film activity with endless
possibilities of economic growth.”
Toni Monty, Head of the Durban Film Office,
adds: “The film industry is not merely about the creative process and end
product, there is an entire value chain that benefits from it: from locations
and infrastructure, logistics and services, hospitality and catering, post
production and distribution amongst other things. Then as a by-product, films
“sell” the City as a tourism destination and, or a film production destination
of choice. These economic drivers are what we are looking at harnessing going
forward.”
The DFO was established in 2003 by the
Ethekwini Municipality as a sector development office mandated to promote and
support the development of local film and television industry in Durban. Since its inception, the DFO has spearheaded
several developmental programmes to build capacity and awareness of the local
industry, one of these being the Ethekwini Filmmakers Association (EFA) in
2011, after the DFO recognised the need to establish a collective voice for
emerging Durban filmmakers and supported the association, through various
mediums including workshops to aid them in their field of filmmaking.
A Micro Budget Film Fund was established in
2012 and was one of the first of its kind in South Africa aimed at bridging the
gap between emerging and intermediate filmmaking,” The fund provides emerging
filmmakers with an opportunity to produce their first film within a mentoring
environment. To date, the DFO has supported 25 micro-budget producers, and 12
films have been completed with others still in production.
The DFO established its Development Fund,
designed to assist intermediate and professional filmmakers to package film
projects for the broader market and increase capacity to attract production
funding from provincial and national funding agencies and private investors. To
date, the programme has worked with eight projects, two of which are completed
and the other six are still in development.
The DFO has developed a Location Scout
Service, to further incentivize local and foreign productions to scout Durban
as a potential location for their next project. SCOUT is a programme to provide
and develop local location scouts and expose young and previously disadvantaged
filmmakers to the business of location scouting and eventually full location
management.
In 2009, the DFO established a highly
successful market access programme, the Durban FilmMart (DFM), in partnership
with the Durban International Film Festival. The DFM is an African
co-production market that aims to promote collaboration between Durban-South
Africa, Durban-Africa and the global markets.
“The business model was the first of its
kind in South Africa and Africa and has enjoyed tremendous support from
important partners across Africa and the world, with a record attendance last
year of 856 delegates. The market provides opportunities for emerging,
intermediate and professional level filmmakers, and this year celebrates its
10th edition in July 2019 alongside the celebration of 40 years of the Durban
International Film Festival. To date the DFM has worked with more than 200
projects in development with countless success stories such as Five Fingers For Marseilles, Alison, Inxeba
(The Wound), Train of Salt and Sugar
(the latter two were SA’s and Mozambique’s official selection for Oscar
consideration) amongst many others. “Two important additions to the DFM this
year are the African Locations Expo and a content buyer’s programme, which we
believe are going to be major drawcards for film-makers.” The festival and
market support policy is an additional market access programme that provides
support to Durban filmmakers who have been invited to present completed works
or projects in development at other markets and festivals.
Over the years, the DFO and DFM has also
formed strong partnerships with “sister city” festivals in Nantes (3 Continent
Festival) and the International Film Festival of Rotterdam; festivals and
markets such as Berlinale, Hotdocs Canada and Caribbean Tales Canada, Sundance
Film Festival (USA), International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam
(Netherlands), and funding and investment agencies such as National Film and
Video Foundation, Westgro and Department of Trade and Industry. Going forward
Monty explained that the DFM has upcoming relations with the Motion Picture
Association and in 2018 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the
DFO and the KZN Film Commission to ensure good intergovernmental cooperation
and programme synergies.
A key focus of the strategy is to develop
programmes to attract functioning production hubs into the City. “We supported
the establishment of Stained Glass Productions studio in KwaMashu that produces
the “most watched” SA TV soap, Uzalo,
on home turf. To date, this production hub has contributed R190 million over
three years to the local economy and employed over 600 locals across the value
chain. ‘We also have strong relations with Durban film producers VideoVision,
who have invested in, produced and distributed countless South African films,
including the current television drama Imbewu.”
Encouraging additional productions hubs in Durban will go a long way in
stabilising the local industries growth path. Other TV shows include the highly
popular Nat Geo Series Snake City and
the reality show eHostela.”
Durban has also played host to many film
productions that have gone on to be either box-office hits or snapped up for
the global festival circuit, providing enabling environments for film-makers to
network and develop relationships globally. Successful films made in the City,
include amongst many others, Izulu Lami,
Otello Burning, Keeping up with the Kandasamys (with a sequel about to be launched
this year), White Wedding, the Spud series, More than Just a Game and Deep
End currently on circuit in 26 cinemas around the country.
The DFO statistics over 15 years illustrate
the steady growth of the industry. Its permit office works with an average of
150 productions per annum, issuing in the region of 250 film permits annually.
Since 2003, the Durban Film Office has assisted over 3,000 productions to film
in EThekwini locations which has created employment of over 30,000 crew days
over the last 15 years. These production activities contribute R329 million to
the local economy annually. A key aspect of the strategy is to promote a
service culture in the City and increase these numbers over the next 5 years.
Going forward, and in consultation with the
industry, the DFO has developed a Sector Strategy, which will essentially focus
on four pillars. “We need to grow the local business network through the design
of programmes to encourage local film business formalisation which will allow
these business to access more opportunities,” explained Monty. “Another pillar
is to encourage new market entrants, which we would achieve by the creation of
a transformation and localisation policy and, within this, further grow the
existing content development - and market access programmes. We also need to
attract film and television hubs to the City through the creation of a policy
to entice TV series production, which provide consistent opportunities for
film-makers. This will include a framework to promote “Digital Durban” which
will aim to attract post-production and visual effect opportunities. Finally
the DFO aims to grow a film service culture through a strong marketing approach
to uncover, showcase and promote the services available in the City and to build
a film service community and promote Durban as a Film Friendly City.”
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