(Nicole
Schafer on location in Malawi)
KwaZulu-Natal based filmmaker, Nicole
Schafer, bagged the award for Best SA Documentary for her film Buddha in Africa, at the Durban
International Film Festival (DIFF) awards ceremony on July 23.
What is of significance for this first-time
feature filmmaker is that DIFF is included as a Documentary Feature Qualifying
Festival by the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences. This means that Buddha in Africa automatically qualifies
for consideration for an Oscar nomination.
The 90 minute documentary about a Malawian
teenager caught between his African roots and Chinese upbringing had its world
premiere at the HotDocs Documentary film festival in Canada in April, and
opened the Encounters Documentary Festival in Cape Town and Johannesburg in
June where it received a Backsberg Encounters Audience Award. It was also in
the official selection at this year’s Sydney International Film Festival in
June, and has a host of other festivals lined-up including the Hilton Arts
Festival in September.
"The journey of making and completing
a documentary can be a long and challenging process and it is very meaningful
to have this affirmation and recognition here at home at the Durban
International Film Festival, where we first pitched the project several years
ago,” says Schafer.
In 2011, she pitched the project at the
Durban FilmMart, the industry development programme of the Durban Film Office
and the DIFF. Here she won the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam
award for the Most Promising Documentary, and travelled to IDFA in 2012 where
she was able to further develop the project.
“As Executive Producer I have watched this
extraordinary story unfold over the past 7 years, a story that opens up
discussions about contemporary Africa and the implications it holds for the
young Africans who are caught in the clash between African and Chinese
cultures. We are proud to be the broadcast partner across the continent on our
documentary film strand AfriDocs,” says Don Edkins of AfriDocs.
Buddha
in Africa, which has had support of the
KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission and other international funders, has already been
sold to several international territories.
Paris based documentary sales company CAT
and Docs are representing the film internationally.
For
further information visit https://web.facebook.com/buddhainafrica
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