SCREEN AFRICA EXCLUSIVE: Urucu Media, with the support of the French institute of South Africa and Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), presents a travelling programme of the Cannes Critics’ Week section of Cannes Film Festival in South Africa. The programme started at DIFF in Durban on 21 July and runs until 25 July, thereafter it will be moving to Cape Town and Johannesburg – thanks to a partnership with Cinema Nouveau from 28 July to 2 August.
Cannes Critics’ Week in South Africa provides a platform for alternative voices in cinema and involves the screening of five fiction films from first and second time feature directors, a masterclass presented by filmmaker Boris Lojkine, who’s film Hope opened the programme at DIFF, as well as filmmaker round tables in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Elias Ribeiro, filmmaker and founder of Urucu Media, says that Cannes Critics’ Week began 54 years ago as a response to the mainstream nature of the Cannes Film Festival: “There wasn’t enough room for emerging talent in the main Cannes Festival selection so the critics in France decided to curate this programme made for first and second time directors.’
“It’s become a platform for new voices to emerge,’ says Ribeiro, “because the eyes of the industry are all at Cannes.’
In 2014, Ribeiro and his business partner John Trengrove, while in France, met with the programme director of Cannes Critics’ Week and agreed to facilitate the traveling programme in South Africa, “I wanted to be a part of this firstly because I love the work that’s exhibited and secondly because I produce work from first and second time directors.’
The Critics’ Week selection at Cannes features seven films, however the travelling programme in South Africa showcases only five. Selected by Urucu Media, the French Institute of South Africa and curated by the Cannes Critics’ Week leaders, the five films were chosen with South African audience demographics in mind. “What we decided to do on the first edition – in order to engage more with our audiences – we went back over the last two to three years of Cannes Critics’ Week and we selected the best of those years according to what we thought would be more relevant to cinemagoers in our region,’ Ribeiro explains.
The five films screening in the South African travelling programme of Cannes Critics’ Week are Hope by Boris Lojkine (France); Salvo by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (France/Italy); The Kindergarten Teacher by Nadav Lapid (Israel); Suzanne by Katell Quillevere (France); and You and the Night by Yann Gonzalez (France).
Ribeiro explains that Urucu Media facilitating Cannes Critics’ Week in South Africa is part of a broader initiative by the company – supported by the French Institute of South Africa – to give a platform to unique cinematic voices not only in terms of audiences but also with regards to fostering innovation in the local filmmaking community. The broader initiative designed by Urucu Media includes a three-month screenwriters’ residency called REALNESS, for first and second time feature directors.
“It’s a three-month incubation period involving nine African directors, which we will select through a search using the help of film schools, festivals and cultural institutions. It’s pan-African, so we are looking for the top talent across the continent,’ comments Ribeiro.
The call for submission for REALNESS will go out in September 2015, in December the final directors will be announced and from 15 April to 15 July 2016 the residency will take place focusing on developing the first draft of nine new feature films.
Urucu has partnered with the Durban FilmMart (DFM), making it possible for those nine projects to thereafter be presented to an audience of independent producers and an international jury who will appoint the two most promising projects. These projects will then be optioned into Urucu Media’s development slate while the others will be available to the other producers.
“What we are fighting for is bold, brave, ground-breaking cinema,’ concludes Ribeiro.
