Extreme fun with Footskating 101: Daniel Dercksen talks to writer/co-director Brendan Jack

With the release of Footskating 101 on September 14, it's clear that there's a new wave of filmmaking hitting South Africa: Graffiti filmmaking, allowing filmmakers like Brendan Jack to whip out their creative talent and spraypaint our past history of filmmaking in South Africa with fresh and invigorating colours that spells out fun and erases loaded messages.

For those who are not familiar with the art of footskating, it's similar to skateboarding, without using a skateboard.

If this sounds crazy, the film Footskating 101 explores the dreams of the son of a poor miner's son (played by Rob van Vuuren), who sets out to save his small town from exploding, his family home from the government, and his granny's lungs, all by inventing the new extreme sport of footskating... which is skateboarding for those who can't really afford a board.

For Brendan Jack, who wrote the screenplay and directed the film with 187 (Thomas Ferreira), "the younger generation of viewers are willing to accept new ideas. They don't need that trusted formula."

"We want to go out there and open people's minds to what's in our minds," says Jack. "Do things in our own way. Even the process of making the film, it wasn't done in a way that was done before, like it was with Straight Out Of Benoni, which is very structured and the crew hierarchy was there. Even from a ground level we want to try and do it differently. We want to take people to a different place and do it in our own way."

The film was made at a budget of R1 million rand by "pre-planning, asking favours, sweating, sometimes shooting from the hip…. and when all else fails, by praying."

"We installed Final Cut Pro on a Mac at a friend's flat - that way we saved spending on an edit suite in a fancy office. The only difference between a flat and an official edit suite is that you get toasted sandwiches and air-conditioning in the suite. Plus, in the flat you can roll out of bed and edit at three in the morning when an idea strikes."

The end result clearly reflects a spirit of camaraderie that was in place during the process of making the film.

"With this film specifically, when you've got a maximum of ten people carrying lights around and holding booms, and you've got actors holding equipment, I think that spirit of camaraderie, and the fun we actually had on set, it's definitely translated onto the screen," says Jack.

The initial idea for Footskating 101 started when Brendan was involved with Crazy Monkey.

"We've got a lot of extreme culture being pumped at us, like the hottest BMX tricks and all that sort of thing. We thought of doing our own version for people who aren't willing to break their legs for a trick. We had an idea for skateboarding without a skateboard, as this new extreme sport we wanted to invent."

Jack firmly believes that footskating has "captured a lot of people's imagination", judging from the feedback they are receiving.

"We get kids sending us their own footskating moves that they've filmed on their cellphones. The whole idea of it, it's so quirky and out there and people are doing it themselves. "

How does Jack relate to the art of footskating?

"I mean, being the best in the world, I relate strongly," he laughs.

For Jack, who grew up near Durban Deep in Roodepoort, it was not his initial dream to become a filmmaker.

"I never imagined myself actually doing it. I've always enjoyed film and watched a lot of film growing up, and been quite interested in it, but I never though that I would head toward the South African film industry," says Jack, who ended up in advertising.

"That's where the bug started, being on the set for adverts, seeing how it all works and comes out. That's where it started. As you can see, Footskating is quite lateral, it's quite out there, and a lot of adverts are very … not, so we basically started coming up with our own ideas, and just enjoy putting our own thoughts out there, and people actually enjoying it. "

Watching the film, one couldn't agree more. The main aim of Footskating 101 is to get across to people that they have to stop being so serious and have some serious fun

"The coolest things I've ever heard, besides the Crazy Monkey stuff that we started on, is that we were at some school, and the teacher asked us if we really liked the stuff we were doing, the footskating side of things? You have kids who are at an age where they've got to be better, be alpha males and that story of thing, and they try and copy the Jackass guys, slapping each other. The footskating and Crazy Monkey is giving them permission to be silly and offbeat, and not have to be like the best, which I think was great."

It's rather difficult to define Jack's style of zany comedy and the antics of Footskating 101, delivering a bunch of the craziest characters and wildest events ever seen in local films.

"It comes from various influences growing up," says Jack. "From Steve Martin to Benny Hill we used to get on VHS. The old British comedy, like Faulty Towers, the Two Ronnies. Also, we used to get a lot of David Letterman and Johnny Carson videos."

Jack loves comedy, and comedy clearly loves him. 

"It's the way I see the world. Some of my favourite films, like Glengary Glenn Ross, The Winslow Boy and Withnail and I, may not sound like it, but I think there's a lot of humour in those as well."

He agrees that he fulfils an important role as filmmaker to add some humour to a society inundated by bad news and negative things happening?

"I'm not saying that I am the guy who is going to change everyone's day, but it would be nice if people come out of my film and have a smile on their face, and perform footskating if they feel like it. I think people shouldn't take themselves so seriously."

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Copyright © 2007 Daniel E. Dercksen/ Printed with permission in the Weekend Argus on September 9, 2007