They came dressed in their red-carpet glam — from classic elegance to high fashion, avant-garde to understated denim cool.
But little did many of those actors, filmmakers and producers traipsing before the flashbulbs at the Joburg Film Festival on Tuesday evening know that the new owner of the major streamer for local storytelling, on which several of them appear, would hours later drop a bombshell set to reverberate in the industry for years to come.
There was a slight chill in the air but thankfully no rain like the previous year, as guests arrived at Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton for the opening night of Tim Mangwedi’s six-day event championing African stories through a cinematic lens.
Into the cocktail lounge area, as waiters proffer bamboo boats featuring canapés from the La Parada restaurant next door, I spot Siyabonga Shibe, who plays a pivotal role in the movie that opens the festival, Laundry (Uhlanjululo).
As its writer and director Zamo Mkhwanazi later tells me, it is set in Joburg in 1968 and follows the story of a young man who has to choose between his love of music and the family business.
As I catch up with the seasoned actor, who has breathed life into a plethora of inimitable characters from Gaz’Lam to Scandal! and most recently, Shaka iLembe, Inimba and Showmax’s Outlaws, a voice exclaims, “That’s my dad!”
It belongs to teen actress Zekhethelo Zondi, who plays Siyabonga’s daughter in Laundry.
Zekhethelo, who already has a number of roles under her belt, took a playful route to the night’s “red-carpet glam” dress code in an ensemble comprising a dandy check jacket, white shirt and ivory pants trimmed with feathers by a Heidelberg designer called Ishmael (“He’s not on Instagram,” she pointedly tells me).
Up comes festival manager Taryn Joffe, and we discuss her recent nuptials, which took place at Cape Town landmark Zeitz MOCAA, before we all move over to the Theatre on the Square, where the opening film was due to start playing.
I spot the night’s host, Refilwe Modiselle (channelling old-world Hollywood glamour in an antique gold mermaid-style gown); actress Noluthando Ngema (striking in red); Nkanyiso Makhanya (who gave denim a debonair edge); and Tarina Patel, who went the couture route with a cropped gold Maison Schiaparelli bomber jacket teamed with a skirt by Indian designer du jour, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, and eye-popping jewellery by Amrapali Jewels.
Tarina introduces me to Chioma Ude, founder of the Africa International Film Festival, which takes place annually in Lagos in November. I also meet Eddie Hamilton, who has edited a number of Mission Impossible movies as well as another Tom Cruise vehicle, Top Gun: Maverick.
Into the theatre, and when the lights are dimmed, we are welcomed by Refilwe in many of our official languages, as well as sign language.
“This isn’t just a showcase of visual entertainment — it is protest, it is history and it is the future,” says the model, activist and author about the festival’s lineup.
The biggest applause, though, goes to Nicola Auret, the head of programming for festival sponsor MultiChoice, who opens her speech by pointing out that “globally the entertainment industry is under enormous pressure. Markets are shifting; traditional models are being reworked”.
“We cannot control these pressures, but I believe that African filmmakers know how to find rhythm in chaos. We know how to create despite it and, sometimes, because of it. And that matters right now,” she says, to nods all round.
I wonder, though, how many in the audience would still clap so loudly after waking up the following day to news that the broadcaster’s new parent, Canal+, would be shutting down Showmax, the game-changing local streamer which, since its inception just more than a decade ago, has been steadfast in its commitment to telling home-grown original stories.
With the local industry already contending with the stalling of the film and TV production rebate system, those filmmakers (particularly doccie makers) now face the added pressure that comes with losing a major buyer of local content.
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