Final Notice of Outreach
This email serves to follow up on IDAA’s last two emails regarding the state of the South Africa’s concerning film industry and what we can do to address some of its pressing issues.
We recognize the change in management positions at NFVF at the time of the first email from us on Friday 10 February 2023 that you as the Department of Arts and Culture had forwarded – a change which likely contributed to why we did not receive a response.
However, we are yet to receive any correspondence following our second email on Thursday 9 March 2023, and we strongly urge for the Department of Arts and Culture and the NFVF’s input in the following matters: as per my previous email, gender and race issues specifically in Cape Town remains pertinent, which could be a factor when considering the inequality of pay. Moreover, black filmmakers and industry professionals are gatekept from opportunities, reflected to an extent, by the demographics of HOD positions in Cape Town’s industry severely lacking diverse representation. All of this is compounded by the low standard of working conditions on a national scale. Hence, this email is our final outreach for us discuss how we can implement better strategies and polices to rectify these issues before we are left to take these matters into our own hands.
We appreciate the various funding projects rolled out by the NFVF and Department of Arts and Culture into the film and television industry. However, funding alone is not the appropriate solution to addressing these issues’ core. Our livelihood as directors, writers and below-the-line crew is completely dependent on producers who, by and large, regulate, set and enforce industry practices, mostly to their benefit, and which are often at our expense. Henceforth, we need and demand change and industry transformation it is a matter of urgency.
This needed change cannot be another project that will take a year to go off the ground: some of our fellow filmmakers have waited for decades for change, and have either been forced to switched careers, or even passed on. More industry professionals, both locally and internationally, have recognized these issues, and some have confessed to trying to flag and address these issues on their own, but after tireless efforts, failed due to the industry’s barriers and red tape.
We would love to discuss a way forward together with the Department of Arts and Culture and the NFVF. As this is our third and final outreach email, if we do not receive a response from you, we will take the necessary action while exposing the government’s inaction.
We look forward to your timely correspondence so we may give the industry the positive transformation it desperately needs.
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IDAA NFVF Email(1)
