In October, the 2013 Shnit International Short Film Festival was held simultaneously
in host cities Cape Town, Bern, Cairo, Buenos Aires and San Jose as well as in Kyoto,
Bangkok and New York. Two hundred films were screened in eight cities over one
global weekend.
In the Made in South Africa category, 21 movies were selected to show in
competition, with mockumentary Armed Response chosen as the winner.
“We were surprised and stoked by the win,’ say writers Donovan Graham and Greg
Parvess. “Our piece was the runt of the Shnit litter in many ways – this silly sitcom
pilot posing as a short film.’
The movie is set in a private security company called React that has opened its
doors to a camera crew for a month to demonstrate the staff’s commitment to their
“armed responsibility’, which results in unexpected hilarity.
“Greg and I studied theatre together and have zero film training, which funnily
enough helped a heck of a lot. We didn’t get bogged down obsessing over technical
stuff. We were determined to make a “mocky’ a couple of years ago and it was Greg’s
idea to set it in the private security industry.
“The character of Thomas, played by Sipho Mahlatshana – the trainee, a creation
we’re exceedingly, unabashedly proud of – came about almost immediately and we
pretty much built everything around him.
“We think of him as a South African Napoleon Dynamite crossed with Dawn Weiner
from Welcome to the Dollhouse.’
Graham and Parvess said that they decided that the film had to be set in Cape Town
because crime is, for the most part, slightly less hectic there. They were also
determined that all the humour should stem from character and situation.
“The biggest problem was that we didn’t have a VT monitor, due to budget
constraints, just my brother’s TV strapped to a bench, so I couldn’t get playback,’
says Graham. “It helped that our cameraman, Alexis Dominguez, was as cool as ice
and damn talented.
“We shot Armed Response on a Samsung something or other. Greg and Alexis edited
it. We didn’t have any money to grade it or send it to a sound engineer. Alexis gave
it a touch of class. We spent a lot of time editing, to ensure it had a cobbled-
together feel but was also snappy and with a clear narrative drive.’
The movie was shot at a real armed response company in the northern suburbs of
Cape Town and it took the team less than two days to film.
Says Graham: “We’ve been getting great buzz since we released it online and
extremely positive reviews. It seems to have struck a chord with a lot of people.
Armed Response is funny, but also probes what it means to be a modern South
African. It’s really in the hands of the broadcasters whether it will go further.
Graham reveals that the budget for Armed Response was about R20 000. And how
did they raise the money? “We went to an ATM and withdrew it.’
