Award winning director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka (Of Good Report), and
producer Lwazi Manzi, have joined forces with Spier Films to develop and produce a
number of new films through both Spier Films and a new joint venture called
Mercurial Pictures.
Films include The White Devil, a supernatural thriller which Spier
Films hopes to shoot in March next year in the UK; and Dead by
Dawn, a US set cop thriller to be financed and shot in South Africa in
collaboration with Justin Cohen’s Picturescope.
“We believe that Jahmil is one of the most interesting directors in South Africa at
the moment,’ says Spier Films MD Michael Auret. “And we have had an extremely
positive and creatively exciting process working with him and with Lwazi Manzi who
is an incredibly talented emerging producer, so it makes sense for us to develop a
joint slate.’
Spier Films aims to work with more South African talent, combining creative and
strategic experience in a partnership to launch feature films into the international
market.
Spier Films has also joined forces with director Vincent Moloi on his debut project
Tjovitjo, which tells the story of a township dance troupe. The film has
received support from the National Film and Video Foundation and the Hubert Bals
Fund.
