“It’s never been a better time to be a filmmaker in South Africa”

‘Material was a very interesting film in terms of the new South Africa’, says Craig Freimond, writer and director of Material, the film just released on iTunes to celebrate the anniversary of 20 years of democracy in South Africa.

Material is a comedy-drama about a young Muslim man who works in his father’s material shop but dreams of being a stand-up comedian. It played on the circuit in the UK in 2012.

‘We chose to tell the story of a Muslim family and always knew that if we got it right we would have a willing audience from the Muslim community. What we didn’t realise is how much the film would be loved not only by the Muslim community but by all South Africans. We often heard the comment ‘It made me proud to be a South African’, which was not something we anticipated.

‘The film also reminded us of our commonalities. Another comment we heard was it started off as a film about a Muslim family but after a while it just became a film about a family”. I think Muslim people were also very proud of it and loved the idea that it was simply a film about a family and avoided any kind of stereotyping.

‘I guess part of the problem with a film industry from a country with a turbulent past like ours is that tremendous pressure gets exerted on our films to try and reflect, analyse and understand our past. I think that the South African film industry suffered a great deal from that around 1994. It’s still there to a degree but I think it’s got better. Films were mostly overtly political and often not very commercial, which partly caused a certain distrust in local films, i.e. that they were going to be extremely heavy and not much fun.’

While film can explore political ideas it can also be a yoke for an industry trying to be entertaining and vibrant, he believes.

‘I always felt that what was needed in our country was for us to be able to make a wide range of films; silly films, serious films, genre films, and this is largely what has happened over the last twenty years.’

Johannesburg-born Freimond (47) completed his drama degree at Wits University in 1988. Since then he has worked as a writer and director in theatre, television and his first feature film Gums & Noses, adapted from his play of the same name, won the Apollo Film Festival award for best feature in 2004 and since then he has won awards for his plays, his writing and his directing on stage, screen and TV, which includes improvised comedy series Sorted, which was nominated for an international Emmy award.

‘I suspect around 1994 we were probably making around six features a year. When I made Gums & Noses in 2003, there were around ten South African films being made annually. Now I am told the number is more like 25-30 a year.

‘For me this is great progress, there is a loosening up on subject matter and approaches. It is also giving writers, directors and actors more opportunity to develop their craft. It used to be unusual for a director to make even two or three films. Now the number of directors having made four or five films is growing. We still battle against Hollywood but so does the rest of the world.

‘Another thing that has made a massive difference in the last few years is state subsidies for films. Both the DTI and the IDC offer significant grants and subsidies. The film industry has been targeted as a growth industry and there is a great deal of support from the government. South Africa is becoming an increasingly popular destination for international films to be shot.

‘This is bringing in a great deal of international money into the country which in turn is having a positive effect on the local industry. Cape Town film studios have made a massive difference in this regard helping bring the biggest films in the world to SA.

‘In many ways it’s never been a better time to be a filmmaker in SA. I also believe that the problems at the SABC have inadvertently helped the film industry. As we seem to make very few decent TV series a lot of the people who would have worked in that industry have rather turned to making films.’

Freimond’s second feature Jozi, about the highs and lows of life in Johannesburg, and Material strengthen his reputation as a comedic director. He is currently developing an action comedy script for top comedian Trevor Noah that is due to shoot in October/November this year.

‘Before Material I was always a bit nervous about working with comedians,’ he admits with a laugh, ‘because I felt they didn’t have the neutrality of actors. They are people who have developed their own styles of comedy and sometimes that can be at odds with the story you are trying to tell.

‘But I dealt with a whole bunch of them in Material, like Riaad Moosa, Joey Rasdien, Nik Rabinowitz and Krijay Govender. They were  all extremely open and easy to work with. A real pleasure. When I was shooting with Nik and Riaad and Joey, I felt a real sense that I was working with three of the funniest men in South Africa and it felt really good.

by Marianne Gray in London