Shot over five days in Limpopo, Madimabe: The Phalaborwa Story is an unorthodox feature film produced using no script, and novice actors. Screen Africa caught up with fresh filmmaker and director Mofenyi Malepe to talk about the improvised Madimabe: The Phalaborwa Story and how it was shaped.
According to Malepe the film was shot on nearly no budget. “I took my last R4 000 and headed to Phalaborwa to meet up with the natural talent in the region. I explained to them that we do not even have budget for food, that’s how dedicated we were to make it happen.”
Shooting on Malepe’s Canon 5D Mark II, the crew used Rode NTG 2 microphone and Zoom 6 recorder for sound, which ended up being the biggest challenge they faced. “There was sound coming from every household, as we were shooting during the festive season and everyone was playing their home theatres up to planet Mars, but we managed to minimise the disturbance,” says Malepe.
It was shot between 29 December 2015 and 3 January 2016 in and around the Phalaborwa township called Namakgale, which Malepe says is Limpopo’s oldest township.
Why would a director choose to make a film with no script? Malepe explained, “Scripts tend to limit the thespians and talent. I already had my arcs in my head, so, it came to me that if explained better to the cast, then we had a better chance of executing the moral of the story effortlessly. I must say they came to the party, we can only grow from there.”
Malepe noticed a uniformity in the cast’s love of the story and said: “It probably invigorated their relatability. The direction I gave them was that they must not act but portray the characters at hand. For talented people, that became an easily digestible task.”
Malepe wanted to begin the journey of unearthing untapped talent in his hometown. “I spent a decade in front of the camera as the only actor from my town and it felt lonely hoisting the flag alone, it is time my people get their shine and we are going to do that as a clique.”
Inspired by a lack of dialogue among traditional and religious leaders, Malepe said “We are all shareholders of this thing we call life, so we must cohabit harmoniously and meet each other halfway. Dialogue is very crucial, if we fail to talk, we will perish because of lack of knowledge. Every individual can teach others.”
Moving back to Limpopo Malepe said: “I see myself bidding my goodbyes to ‘Johustleburg’ because we want
