The Independent Mzansi Short Film Festival (IMSFF), which takes place from 25
to 29 June at the Maxi Cineplex in Tshwane, will host six engaging workshops,
an assorted spread of short film screenings and a feature film created by
directors at the Tshwane University of Technology’s (TUT) Film Academy.
Six workshops will feature at the festival, each geared to enhance the capability
and business skills of existing and budding local film makers. Confirmed seminars
include: Legal Workshop for Independent Filmmakers, presented by South
African film events group SAFTEC; How to make product placement part of your
movie’s pseudo reality, presented by Pieter Oosthuizen and the MadRobot
team; Creative Rights for Screen Writers, presented by the Writer’s Guild of
South Africa; and How to keep up with film technology, presented by Media Film
Services.
The feature film, Wolf Wolf – Hoe Laat is Dit, is the collaborative effort of 20
directors from TUT’s Film Academy and stars Anel Alexander, Dewald Reynecke
and Justin Strydom. Created as part of the 2009 fourth year students’ final
project, the film questions whether a person, or a killer, is able to change if they
learn to love and care for someone.
Jarrod de Jong, organiser at IMSFF comments: “IMSFF thrives on the fact that
the University of Pretoria is the central point of our community, and the students
will eagerly embrace this event. It’s good for this community which is particularly
artistic and film-friendly.’
Festival sponsors include Hatfield Plaza and MAXI-Cineplex, SAFTEC, Media Film
Services, Mad Robot, Slender Wonder, Afrinolly, Gauteng Film Commission, Grey
Cloud Productions and headline sponsor Global Access.
Guy Sclanders, creative producer at Global Access comments:”The skills and
experiences of today’s short film makers will ripple forward into the future to
give rise to a creative, sophisticated South African voice in narrative storytelling.
Raising the bar beyond the norm is a goal of Global Access – clearly one of the
IMSFF’s too – and one we believe should be the goal for all media companies in
South Africa.’
According to de Jong, audiences will have a diverse film line-up to look forward
to. “We have received an overwhelming amount of entries in excess of 100.
Although our core focus was the domestic filmmaker, we have been bombarded
with entries from international avenues and due to their interest we have
accepted a selected amount of films from around Africa and other international
countries. Of the films which have been submitted, about 50% have received
numerous awards from other festivals around the globe.’
Festival tickets for two-hour screening sessions and a one-and-a-half-hour
workshop can be purchased at the venue for R25, while a day pass, which offers
access to all sessions and activities on a particular day, is available for R65.
The festival programme can be purchased at the festival or downloaded from
the IMSFF website (www.imsff.co.za).
