On 5 December the Western Cape Finance, Economic and Development MEC Alan Winde announced that the promoting of Cape Town and the province as a film destination would now fall under Wesgro. Previously the marketing of the film industry was done by the Cape Film Commission (CFC).
Wesgro is the official destination marketing, investment and trade promotion agency of the Western Cape.
Addressing stakeholders Winde said the country was experiencing slow economic growth and jobs and unemployment remained high, indicating that “our tax envelope is shrinking and our government has to do more with less’.
He said Wesgro already has the responsibility of marketing the Western Cape and adding the film sector to the portfolio would “mean that we have a streamlined and coordinated marketing strategy with which to approach local and international markets’.
Wesgro had already started implementing plans to ensure that in the 2012/13 financial year, “film trade and investment to the value of at least R1bn will be leveraged’.
Winde noted that for this period, Wesgro would embark on “aggressive marketing’ to encourage “as many international block-busters and commercials to be filmed in the Western Cape’.
Screen Africa requested feedback from CFC CEO Denis Lillie, who said: “We were present at the meeting with MEC Winde and were surprised to read the MEC’s press release, issued after the meeting, as much of what is mentioned was not discussed at the meeting. We are not sure why the Provincial Government has apparently decided to duplicate what the CFC does, however, we are continuing to offer the service to our members and the broader industry.
“The CFC is an independent not for profit company. We receive our funding from various sources both through government and commercial means. From the CFC perspective, we are still operational and, following interaction with the Department of Trade & Industry (the dti), they have approved our application to take a delegation of 15 filmmakers to the Berlin International Film Festival and the European Film Market (EFM) in February. This delegation is made up of members of the CFC and the Independent Producers Organisation (IPO) and is in partnership with the dti and the South African Consulate in Berlin. For the first time we will be hosting a South Africa stand at the EFM.’
Last Friday the CFC also put out a call out to industry in partnership with the Gauteng Film Commission, Durban Film Office, the dti and the South African Consulate in New York to take a delegation of film makers to Tribecca Film Festival in April 2013.
“As far as the Wesgro announcement is concerned, we will continue to do business with the industry and government in the way we have been for the past 18 months and also work with Wesgro to support relevant film initiatives. We recently applied to the MICT SETA to leverage funds for training and development programmes. The CFC is still interacting with the DBSA on our Jobs Fund application and we continue to arrange and support trade delegations to various festivals and markets. We are also working very closely with SEDA on the development of 60 small business film cooperatives.’
Lillie points out that in the past financial year, the CFC has assisted industry in bringing in R2bn to the Western Cape in features alone.
“We estimated the economic footprint to the Western Cape to be R5.5bn including commercials, animation, reality TV, gaming, TV series, documentary etc. and we also gave support and assistance to industry in the creation of 2,500 sustainable jobs,’ comments Lillie.
