All "moveable items" in the Apollo Theatre, an authentic 1950s cinema, heritage site and the venue of the annual Apollo Film Festival in Victoria West, and its offices and restaurant were to be auctioned on 3 April.
This is the result of a court action taken by lawyers acting on behalf of Leon van der Merwe, who was contracted by the Apollo Development Association (ADA), owner of the festival, to run the 2006 and 2007 events. Van der Merwe is suing the ADA for an outstanding salary payment in the amount of R73,000, R10,000 of which dates back to the 2006 festival.
Said Van der Merwe , I was contracted by the ADA to run the festival for 2006 and 2007 and to bring the community back to the Apollo Theatre. The festivals in 2004 and 2005 did not have good local attendance because of political issues, as staff from Victoria West were mismanaged and board members left under a cloud. But in 2006 every seat was filled for films like Faith Like Potatoes and Ouma se slim kind.
"The ADA asked me to bring an international component to the Apollo, which I did through the Open Doek Festival in Belgium. We arranged the first exchange youth jury consisting of five Belgian and five South African kids. When the Belgian contingent arrived at the festival in September we found the ADA had done nothing to source the local jury so I had to rush round local schools and find one."
Read more in the April 2009 issue of Screen Africa
