SA 'has many stories'
2006-06-05 13:38
Lucille Botha
Cape Town - A film with bite - that is what Gavin Hood, director of the Oscar-winning film Tsotsi strives for.
"To sit for two hours in a movie with lots of stunts and nothing to think about is like eating a hamburger. I prefer a well-prepared meal, no junk food," said the passionate director/actor/writer over a cup of rooibos tea in the Arabella Sheraton hotel.
He was honoured last week by the men's magazine Men's Health for his outstanding contribution to art and culture in South Africa. He flew in from Los Angeles for the occasion and intends spending a week in the country.
Hood said he thought a good movie had two key elements - it was entertaining yet also offered something to think about. He said he wanted to make people think and talk and argue about a movie.
Although he is currently working on several projects, one specific project is in a more advanced state of production. Called Rendition, it is a political thriller that he believes will get people talking. It is about the CIA's policy of interrogating people in foreign countries where laws on torture are more lax.
No place like Hollywood
About Hollywood he says, "There is no such place. It is just a hill with a sign. I live in Los Angeles, a city where beneath the plastic and the posturing, there are people serious about making films and not being one-hit wonders."
Gavin is still fighting against piracy. Earlier this year, Tsotsi lost a lot of money due to the spread of illegal copies of the film, presumably stolen from editing studios.
"It is local industry's biggest battle. When you buy a pirated DVD, you invest in crime, but when you buy a legal DVD, you invest in the industry and help to make more films.
Yet he is excited about what is happening in the South African film industry. "It's only getting better. We have to remember that we are not competing against other South Africans, but against every filmmaker in the world."
People are the same
He says South African films should be of a high quality, moving people to judge it on its own merits and not view it out of sympathy.
"Africa has many stories and the question is not if the world is open to them. People across the world have more in common than we think. The human emotional experience is very similar. It is about the way in which these stories are told.
"The world will be interested in our stories, as long as they are told well."
But it costs money to make good stories.
Tsotsi cost R22m to make and required local and international investment.
Gavin believes government should channel money into developing young scriptwriters and directors.
"Thanks to the ads that hare made here, we have fantastic equipment and technical teams, we only need the scripts."
Gavin wants to keep on making movies until the day he dies.
He loves the idea of finding ideas within stories and to develop these - but even more than this, he wants to do whatever he is doing, really well.
- Die Burger