Traditionally, behind many a successful movie with a woman playing a starring role has been a man pulling the strings. Basically, women have narrated a story from the perspective of scriptwriters and producers, who are predominantly men.
In the coming years things may change, as emerging women film makers, who have been struggling to break into a male-dominated field, have a real shot of turning their dreams a reality.
Government and its partner organisations such as the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) and Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) have introduced programmes to attract and skill women into the sector. This emerged during The New Age’s business briefing on “Women into Local Content Production”, which was attended by Communications Deputy Minister, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, NFVF Chairperson Mmabatho Ramagoshi and PanSALB CEO, Rakwena Monareng.
Among those programmes in place are access to funds, training and skills development through various bursaries as well as mentorship programmes.
In addition, the Department of Trade and Industry’s Black Emerging Filmmakers Fund aims to assist in bridging the inequality gap for filmmakers in South Africa.
Deputy Minister Ndabeni-Abrahams said the stories women tell should drive social cohesion and national identity.
Ndabeni-Abrahams said the three stakeholders – namely the DTI, NFVF and PanSALB – were aware about rampant fronting practices, and urged women not to be “front” for anyone to secure lucrative contracts.
“Though the Presidency task team on creative industries we are reviewing the funding criteria because they are not empowering women. Women do not own the studios, which is why we said our broadcasters have to come to a point that if they are commissioning you, they must ensure that the studios that they utilise must belong to women.”