With a rich history in the creative space, the Joburg Film Festival (JFF) had to downscale their six-day festival due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Festival director and Lonehill resident, Bongiwe Selane said that the pandemic has had tremendous negative effects on the creative industry. This has resulted in the 2020 edition of the festival staged as a two-day event on 28 and 29 November at Joburg Theatre in Braamfontien.
With a focus on youth and audience development, Selane mentioned that both factors are strong pillars of the programme.
“We decided to work on youth and audience development because we feel like there are a lot of newcomers coming into the fore and we want to create the correct platform for them. There are also many people who want to break into the directing and writing space but the challenge has always been ‘How do we engage them’?” she said.
Being a tough industry to break into, Selane said there is always a focus on development. “What’s really important this year is that we decided to invite a number of specialists in content creation specifically for the nonlinear platforms such as YouTube.
“That’s the space people are playing in now. These specialists understand how to write and direct in that space, make films much shorter and they know how to monetise it.”
Selane also mentioned the growing trend of creating content on smartphones. “There is this trend of shooting things on your phone and that’s what we want to bring across.
“There is not always a need for the big and bulky cameras. A cell phone can be a tool as well so there will be a number of workshops about creating and downsizing content on these linear platforms.”
As a film-maker herself, Selane said the negative impact covid-19 has had on the production side is huge. “We have all had to start thinking differently about how to survive as creators and film-makers.
” I’m not sure if cinema is going to bring in the big audiences that we’re used to. Everything has to be bigger, creators need to think out of the box about how to make content, where and how long it will last and that’s the aim here, to start the conversation.”
This year’s focus of the 2020 targeted films has highlighted ‘displacement’, a fitting theme amidst the global pandemic.
Amplifying bullying, murder and harassment across the continent, the three featured films explore the lives of the marginalised people either by choice or circumstances beyond their control. This is Not A Burial It’s a Resurrection, There’s Power In the Collar and Beyond Moving will be the featured films this year.
Screenings will be held at Cinema Nouveau in the Rosebank Mall and the Bioscope at 22 Stanley in Milpark. Limited tickets will be sold at the door of each of the respective venues.
For more information about JFF visit: www.joburgfilmfestival.co.za/
