WAVING OR DROWNING Alex Davids Although Keyan Tomaselli's statement the impasse existing of the steril i ty at on the status of in that the book The S A Film Industry the film industry", is account "no more than a of and analysis industry is, his in effect, an account of the fruits core of South Afri can soci ety. by rather bri efly thereby establishing on any film industry. Tomasell i begins and ~ociety, eratlng cally "modest proposals" on aspects of the South African towards revitalising it. skimming over the economic and political his attention He then focuses the 1inks between cinema op- pressures more specifi- film industry before making some analysis of a society, itself is as much a document look is a specific as it the book almost exclusively taken account the flagging is by the industry As such, little in revitalizing experienced cinema is mag- it a minori for correctly context, the South African COlll1lunityat that faced by a heterogeneous confronts population. he simply fails and exploits pinpoints ty of South Africans the anomalies of to link these large: a the interests in the the short- of it receive as it Certainly, stands, is based on 1oca 1 box No a higher subsidy. the that public. thinking role of the needs The figures place. subsidy cinema-going to the white and prejudices the black market quoted throughout the economic hardship that caters Although Tomaselli system in a white real needs of film industry One cannot escape reflecting at an industry. refer ?f the potential lndustry. Part of n~fied by the fact flrst local c?mings with the vlable indigenous and problems the. 1oca 1 subs i dy sys tern ent renches mediocrity: offlCe account have to be dubbed or t~e subsidy fl~m-makers have thus gained drlve-in with stock appeal bl ack audiences. A poor generate whose experience film that makes money is taken of any potential tled system takes no account to urban audiences, of subsidies and Afrikaans takings is subsidised, to exploit a feeling language are just circuit sub-ti films films local that is his feeling closely to motivate the production whose interests that product that of a top-rate here with such a comparison. allied quo. With producers In trying for Compares the situation the French New Wave. However. hi s own view of ?gainst lS generally status ly on distributors viable release anywa~, surely experlence of were uncertain general pattern eme:ge from the type of cultural a~dlence wlth pleasure There is debate, ~layed by the cinema here ln~orced cntics pattern so that a film vitiating The Guest of how to cope with a film that of Moreoever, ambitious at present, the impetus is vacuum that to accept Hollywood-style by the lack of public is seen to be that also, to give in thei reyes, of a godlike conditioned is a case in point. released. about films and, 47 overseas marketing; Afrikaans films would such a market anyway. Moreover, the quality of product produced. Local by exploiting their situation used to more sophisticated comedies and dramas that have no real fare or, presumably, remote from Tant Ralie and Makouvlei . the platteland/ even though it may (and does) not worth watching. the potential exists in South Af:ica by the film industry, Tomaselll in France prior to the emergence of the local industry argues For one thing, to a group of being dependent on a state the emergence of a film movement film-makers who a:e opposed t? the SUbSldy, and ultlmate. quo for a are entrenched in the status the film can make IlDney at against such interests The the bO~ office would be ~gno:ed. that dlstnbutors It appears simply did not in~o the the French New\/a~e dld not an. i~ South Afrl~a. fit exists films ~s hardly unconventlOnal local gOlng to ~lew p~d~ctlOns. basis theoretical no real to the emergence of such a move~nt. that ~e role lS re- and thlS role The role of ~o-ca:led figure who recommends WhlCh fllms of an anaesthetic, films. fomented by crltlcal debate part played by the system of censorship of one should see, based on gut-level lives we are unable to exchange Surely from behind barricades. a cross-fertilization ideas, wards a finer, more discriminating the cinema as a communications medium. neartening Censorship often denies ant local box-office too 'controversial', examining any really overtly for more 'unconventional' same minority audiences the public films being produced at present, subsidy) their and hence, South African Admittedly themes.) political films, banned, that for its appeal. As in most areas instead we shout of our social at one another ideas: film-makers aimed ultimately appreciation Finally and critics should films at educating of one cannot operating to see some of film-makers any subject and of forget be en?aged in a publ1C to- the rol~ of the d1S- in South,Africa. the most 1mport- on (dependent that may be right and inhibits from tackling issues (This of course based on either excludes racial them from or more film festivals but do these not are interested in "art really have become an outlet the only attract anyway? films" Tomaselli does mention the potential dustry thi'Oug:1 its local Afrikaans of fairly of Afrikaans-speaking does not really within the local new audience needs creation of sophisticated audiences indicate, film industry, resul ting effect stars overseas television of and, because productions, on the film in- of the dubbing i[lto a demand on the part for more skilfully made local films. however, whether as presently from thei r exposure constituted, to TV. the actual infrastructure to exploit is, is at The conflict c:ommercial product 1ndustry at present. see': of course, aud1ence taste moul~ed ~y pre-release eXamlnatlOn of the advertising The Guest and short?ge of product w1th a "block-buster" is between viewing film as an art the core of the sterility form and viewing pervading it purely the local The type of film that dependent on the type of to a very large advertising extent campaigns. the film-going film offered public to them. by distributors, controlled Presumably Tomaselli's "wants Thus and close carrpai gns for Ditwas aand en dit was more , and Superman serves to demonstrate funds available when one compares the lack of clear the selling of a local direction like Superman. H~ eX1sts these as a film to be not our that proposals 1ntercourse, "Anaesthesia to the latter view, fulfills has observed ~e Afnkaner S? the present towards exposure. by being enslaved that groups that apathy and sterility identity must be rnythified One can appl aud hi s statement film industry; core is an implicit which is hardly change of attitude that dominate "film should and individuals, the South African the former. the At. the e~d of his book Keyan Tomaselli makes some modest proposalS st1mulat1ng the local deserve wider their U~fortunately at l1k~ly ~o occur, given the present soclal regarded as a conun~nicati?n medium which serves only as a moneymak1ngdeV1ce", but one could argue ~llm Indust:y, s Tomasell1 S? clearly 9?al. h1mself. quo by drugglng the masses and keeping them happy through medioc rity. base the State by a South African Bo~r~ 1S a lauda~le J\glng suc~ ratlngs ~~/enched 1nten:sts el f1nal analJ:'slS~ IS a solid t o~ of ~~e f1lm 1ndustry - 0 0 wn ana YS1S of,the ~~n~~at~~a~.~l~c~ed short that become another present infrastructure from producers through e fU ~enc2s themselves. Whether Mr Tomaselli's appointees is of dynamic debate film industry towards enc:o~ra9ing new film-makers a self-defeating a:e POSlt1ve suggestions. c1rcumstances, committee of experts with in eCh- a~d the Black man saved from up the status i~to the mak1ng of proposition, as proposition, ~ill in effect 1n maintaining and academics answer his an open f'l ~ m 1n ustry 1 ms gl',duct no account production. to be little is such the is of the Late: connectlon specificit~ dynamism that he discusses between of the subject to d1fferent art1stlc ~iew of from,the ldeologlca; e~r~s ltS two ~olnts. of What the productlon an l~eo- forceS WhlCh must De func- Moreover, lations" film production but a force in defining is not irerely those product "the rel ations, of defined social re- Harvey inventing al so suffers a contradiction from some "critical in Tomaselli misunderstandings". wnich does not exist. He seems No one would to be 49