Few things are as shared as the will of expressing through the medium cinema. Yet the means, the structures and the know-hows are probably less shared. For that very reason, the Produire au Sud (Producing South) program was set. Fostering meetings and networking, it nurtures local projects while cinema is almost always thought as global, which rimes -however weird it sounds- with Hollywood.
Development and production are the keys of every projects, hence the action of Produire au Sud in that field. It regards itself as one of the possible beginning -and one of the many pieces among others- that shapes those networks fighting for the cinema not being a privilege. Therefore, Produire au Sud always strives to make things easier.
O. Nathapon, director of A Moment in June puts it in its own words: « I first attended the Producing South workshop as part of 3rd World Film Festival of Bangkok in October 2005. Since the screenplay has been selected by the Produire au Sud competition in Thailand, as a first time writer/director, it helped my credibilities with Thai investors. Without it, we certainly would have had a much harder few years trying to raise money”. Invitation in manifestations as in Le Pavillon Les Cinémas du Monde in Cannes for Huacho and My Secret Sky are the continuity of that process of the networking an others important stages of the film-to-be.
Produire au Sud also has a real value on more obscure aspects of the movie production, therefore widely unknown and overlooked. Julie Frederikse, co-producer of My Secret Sky, says “the seminars on film sales and distribution and the actual case studies of co-productions also proved very helpful, providing insights into marketing and promotion issues and dealing with sales agents and distributors.”
Making a film still demands mountains of perseverance and willpower. Produire au Sud aims above all to lighten the burden a bit. « It has been a long road, taking three years from the Seminar I attended in late 2004 to the film being shot in mid 2008″, says Julie Frederikse.
Produire au Sud’s results are brought to light on the long term, when the films are finished -harder are the condition, longer is the production time- and producers keep-on producing other movies. The three films selected for the screening in 2009 proved -should it be necessary- the value of the program. Three films, three views on a highly versatile word : In My Secret Sky, from South-African Madoda Ncayiyana, an orphan ten year old girl and her younger brother go to the city in the hope of fulfilling their mother’s dream. But life in a big city is not that simple for two children. A Moment in June, set in Thaïland in 1999 and 1972, depicted the intertwined lives and fates of six persons and their hope of second chance that might never come. Huacho gives an almost documentary insight on two generations of Chilean peasants facing the demands of a “globalized” world.
Johann Sellas
Journalist
