Thinkpiece Thursday

I Am Not A Witch

In a remote Zambian village, Shula, a nine-year-old girl, is orphaned and alone. Shula is unwanted by everyone and considered a nuisance- so they accuse her of being a witch.  Shula is an innocent easy target.

The villagers gather outside the local police office and demand action. The skeptical policewoman sees a small child. But a corrupt government official, Mr. Banda, who declares himself Shula’s “state guardian,” sees a pay cheque.

Mr. Banda is a sweaty fat verbose conniver, a combination of lethal and ludicrous. He carts his prize to the local “witch camp”. Shula can either join the other “witches” as free field labor or be killed as a goat. Shula and the other women are tethered to their chores by wide cotton ribbons. One end is attached to their backs and the other end wound around enormous wooden spools housed on a large flatbed truck. They are held captive by a light floating “chain” that wafts in the breeze.

The ribbons are a brilliant metaphor. They look like something from a fairy story and seem surreal and silly until you consider how sinister they are. They are the way that men like Banda control the women and he reminds the elder “witches” to be grateful for how much extra ribbon he has given them since taking office. It’s a familiar argument by men who want to restrict women and want women to be grateful for their constraints. It could always be worse, right?

In my experience…

I recently visited Cape Town. The city counts down the days until taps run dry and are closed off. I’ve seen firsthand how life changes in a severe drought. Shula is exhorted to dance to alleviate the local lack of rain and water starvation. In the purity of her innocent heart, Shula dances herself to death and the rains come. This frees Shula from her enslavement and inspires all the “withes” to cut their ribbons and disappear from the camp.

This is a dreamy surreal movie with dark undertones of exploitation and slavery.

drought in cape town

I’m heading back to the UK tomorrow, and I’ve had the most inspiring few weeks in South Africa. Our Pitch winners are absolutely amazing. Our judges’ panel was unanimous in the selection of an unprecedented two winners!

I’ve had a chance to work with both winners personally and we will continue development work over Skype.

We also presented six Master Classes in Pitching and Adaptation at area film schools. It’s been a whirlwind of activity.  I enjoyed every minute but I must say–  it’s good to be back in my UK home.

In the next couple of weeks, I’m heading off to Belgium to work on a long-running television series.  I’m prepping to return to the USA in the beginning of April.  It seems I’m always on the move… I’m like Waldo! Who knows where I will pop up next.

I do love traveling. It’s one of the perks of my job. I get to go and do what I love in places all around the globe. It’s a real privilege to make new friends and experience different cultures.

But it will be good to get back to the US and have a base near family for the next few months. To quote Ferris Bueller:

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Lessons to Learn from Wakaliwood

2009. Isaac Nabwana Godfrey Geoffrey (or Nabwana I.G.G.) was just a fan of Hollywood action movies. He was living in the slum of Wakaliga, near Uganda’s capital city Kampala. He decided to make his own- Uganda’s first action movie! He sold everything he owned and made bricks so he could raise enough money to buy an old Sony camcorder.

Don’t Scale Back Your Ambition

Isaac rallied the people of Wakaliga together, with less than a $200 budget, to make Who Killed Captain Alex? an action movie that makes no sense whatsoever but is absolutely hilarious with surprisingly good action. One of the reasons is that he and his friends taught themselves Kung Fu and now compete in local championships, so the action is authentic. He built himself an editing suite to include CGI in his films, and after making every movie, he has to delete the footage so he has enough space to make his next film.

After the film became a success, he developed “Wakaliwood”, a film studio within Wakaliga that has created such hits as Bad Black, Cannibal Mama, and Ebola Hunter. They play film festivals worldwide, and enough fans bankroll Wakaliwood that it is self-sustaining. Isaac dreamed big, made a movie whose ambition doesn’t necessarily match its budget, and it paid off. His long-term project is building an entire life-size replica helicopter for his next film! and he’s almost there!

Don’t Forget Where You Came From

Isaac had survived the Ugandan Civil War and lived under the brutal dictatorship of Idi Amin. Yet he fed his experiences into his movie, which makes for one of the funniest moments in the movie. His production company, RaMon Film Productions, is named after his grandmothers Rachel and Monica, who raised him. He even composed a song dedicated to them which plays over the credits of Who Killed Captain Alex?

Throughout it all, Isaac has remained committed to improving his community through the growth of Wakaliwood. People in Wakaliga who sell his DVD’s are allowed to keep a large percentage of any sales. He cares about his friends and his family, whilst doing what he loves without sacrificing his integrity.  Not always true in Hollywood.

Expect the Unexpectable

Isaac made Who Killed Captain Alex? for fun. He never intended for anyone outside Wakaliga to see it. But when a copy of the trailer was uploaded to YouTube in 2010, it became a viral sensation across the globe. One of the reasons it was a success is because Isaac hadn’t intended to make money from the film initially, or have it be his “calling card”. He did what he loved for the fun of it, and that passion shines through.

Isaac was recently invited to China, home of his beloved Kung Fu movies. People all over the world love his films and journalists from the likes of Vice, BBC and Al Jazeera are constantly writing about Wakaliwood. Isaac managed to capitalize on his 15 minutes of fame and made it something sustainable. Who Killed Captain Alex? could have been written off as a joke, but 8 years later he has created a film industry in his hometown.

The Moral of the Story

Don’t scale back your ambition. Don’t forget where you came from. And to quote the film, “expect the unexpectable”.

Isaac should be an inspiration to filmmaker and writers alike. You have no excuse not to write your script or make your movie- if Isaac can make an action movie for $200 in a Ugandan slum, and keep it personal to him, then what’s stopping you?

Our full field was relatively small to start (as expected in the first year) but we managed to have six amazing finalists.  Over the course of a long weekend (our residential), we worked with the group and worked individually.

Their three-minute pitches vastly improved from their original submissions. After questions and critiques, their five-minute pitches made a further leap forward. Additional feedback took their following twelve-minute pitches to a solidly professional level.

Quite honestly, each pitch would have been a deserving winner.  In the final analysis, and in an astonishing precedent-breaking development we named two winners. The judging panel was enthusiastically unanimous that both pitches MUST win.  It’s never happened in a decade of competition in the UK, and we certainly never expected it would happen here in SA

It was quite literally a magic moment both for the winners and for the competition.  One winning story (The Second) is set in rural Kwazulu Natal in the dying years of apartheid. It is a profound story of hope in the midst of chaos and violence.  It was pitched by our youngest ever winner, Mpumelelo Kheswa (22) and will be our first ever film in a foreign language (Zulu). The other, pitched by Howard James Fyvie, ( Ramsey) is our first animation and comedy. It retells the story of Abraham and Isaac from the perspective of the ram. “Ramsey” believes he is destined for greatness and that this will be as a stand-up comic. (It is a hilarious dark comedy!)

I am so proud to be working on the development of both short films.

Here are our finalists–

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Tsotsi

The film, Tsotsi, is an adaptation of an Athol Fugard novel of the same name.  Set in a Johannesburg slum, it tells the story of a young street thug who highjacks a car only to discover a baby in the back seat. The character and film are a classic Power of Will story. It is Tsotsi’s connection with innocence that saves him, even as it triggers his downfall.

The film won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006.

Here is how the production saga began. A British producer and good friend optioned the book.  The biggest challenge was to update the story originally set in the 1950’s. A lot had changed in South Africa since the book’s publication.

The producer and I discussed adaptation issues over the weekend he stayed with us in Santa Monica. I watched A Reasonable Man, starring Gavin Hood.  Gavin was then a little-known writer-director-actor from South Africa. In A Reasonable Man, he plays a Power of Conscience lawyer defending a black cowherd on a murder charge.

The producer and I agreed Gavin would be an interesting choice to direct Tsotsi. I gave a dinner party and Gavin was invited along with my producer friend and a possible production partner. Gavin knew the book and offered some insight into how he would approach writing/directing the adaptation. What a wonderful creative evening!

Along the way, I read script rewrites and looked at dozens of edit versions, including three possible endings. I enjoyed every minute and am so proud to be associated with this wonderful project.  Below is a segment of A Reasonable Man and the pre-Oscar win trailer of Tsotsi.  

I am hoping to discover more breakthrough South African talent while working with young filmmakers in Cape Town and Johannesburg this month.

A Reasonable Man

https://youtu.be/GOgt9j2ZY8o

Tsotsi Trailer

https://youtu.be/rjxLQPumRpc

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I’m in South Africa for a few weeks, and am involved with The Pitch South Africa, an expansion of the “Enter The Pitch” competition that I’ve been involved in for many years now.

I’ve been working with some incredible South African filmmakers, and I’m so inspired by the talent of the finalists both here in South Africa, and back in the UK where this year is going to be the 15th anniversary of Enter The Pitch!

I wanted to share with you our 6 brilliant finalists, pitching their short films based on, or inspired by, The Bible. See what you can take from their pitches for any pitches you might have to make going forward.

We’ll be announcing the winner soon, and I’ll make sure to announce it in an upcoming post.

Relevé

Language of Love

No Where To Run

Black Jackets

The Second

Today

This month is Power of Love month, but this week takes a slight detour because of the biggest movie of the year so far- a true cultural phenomenon.  Black Panther features examples of both the light and dark side of Power of Conscience, and it tackles themes of what is right and who gets to decide that issue.

Black Panther

Black Panther tells the story of T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), the recently coronated king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda. Built around the world’s rarest metal, Wakanda is the most technologically advanced nation on earth, and centuries ahead of everyone else in every respect. At its heart, it’s a story led by Power of Conscience character.

Power of Conscience Characters follow their own moral code and expect others to do the right thing. They operate on their own level of justice and think solely about what is right and what is wrong. Most importantly they are compelled to tackle in injustice and correct what they perceive as wrong-doing.

T’Challa’s Moral Dilemma

T’Challa must compromise his moral code to become the leader that his country needs.  He is challenged by a Power of Conscience antagonist that is the seeming opposite of everything he stands for. He learns to become the kind of leader who makes decisions that are for the greater good, despite opposition.

I will try to avoid spoilers for those of you who haven’t seen the movie- Go see it yourself!

Too Good To Be King

“You’re a good man, with a good heart — and it’s hard for a good man to be king.”

One of the central dilemmas that faces King T’Challa in Black Panther is whether he should cooperate with the rest of the world and share with them what Wakanda has to offer. Many in the nation he now leads believe that the world is not ready to interact with Wakanda.

Throughout the film, T’Challa does the right thing no matter the cost. Members of his family and his heads of security disapprove. When he learns of his father’s dark past, and his connection to film’s lead antagonist, Erik Kilmonger (Michael B. Jordan), he sympathizes with Erik and realizes he must lead Wakanda in a different direction to his ancestors.

T’Challa’s journey is going from being an uncertain man who does not feel ready to carry out what he knows the be right, to a King who has conviction in his actions.

Mirror Image

Erik Kilmonger (Michael B. Jordan) represents the dark side of Power of Conscience. Some people have already compared T’Challa and Kilmonger’s approaches to that of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X respectively. He is an outsider to Wakanda, determined to use Wakanda’s resources to benefit others. However, his vision is far more violent than T’Challa’s.

Erik takes it upon himself to take revenge for the injustices that the world has perpetrated on all his African forebearers. He believes that Wakanda has an obligation to help the oppressed outside of the nation. He is willing to shed blood to make sure that they rise up against inequality.

Erik shows how far Power of Conscience Characters will go to do what they believe is right. Although his intentions are noble, T’Challa knows that it will result in a scenario of endless bloodshed where no one truly wins. Erik is so blinded by his moral code that he becomes the kind of villain he wants to destroy.

Doing The Right Thing

Black Panther features both ends of the spectrum for Power of Conscience Characters. The film shows how far people are willing to go for the greater good, as they percieve it.

T’Challa becomes a better man when faced with constant challenges to his authority and beliefs. Erik is so blinded by rage and tragedy that he believes the ends justify the means. He goes too far in his attempt to conquer Wakanda and wage war on the world for past oppression.

Power of Conscience

Power of Conscience Characters provide plenty of opportunity for conflict in drama. They work well in serious or comedic stories. For more examples of Power of Conscience characters, check out my eBook about this Character Type at the ETB store.

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This is the first year launch in South Africa.  Enter the Pitch has been going strong in the UK for about a decade.

In both locations, the competition is the ultimate adaptation challenge.

Entrants are asked to make a two-minute pitch adapting a Bible story, character or situation as a short film for the big screen.  The film can be set in any era (past, present, or future), in any tone or style (thriller, space odyssey, mystery, love story, etc.).  The artistic choices are endless.  The only caveat is the film must stay true to the emotional heart of the original story.

Lust, violence, betrayal, romance, war, murder, fidelity, greed, forgiveness all figure in the collection of books we call the Bible. Every human situation and conflict is represented. The story possibilities are endless.

Successfully adapting one of these stories will teach you how to how to adapt any kind of material.  I am the development consultant and I help the pitch winner every step of the way. It’s a fascinating process and one I hope you consider being a part of.

The UK Enter the Pitch Competition

The SA Enter the Pitch Competition

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