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You must be on top of the world now that TRIOMF has 'come of age' and moved from the festival circuit to the main circuit in South Africa?
The SA market is important for me as a southern African filmmaker - it is great to have an audience here that is 'inside' the story, especially if you feel that they are interested in your film ; it is also essential to have a local movie get the stamp of approval - this was helped by the DIFF Award of 'Best SA film of 2008' ; but it is also a serious financial market if you add up cinema, dvd and TV.
How would you describe TRIOMF?
A jol ! But better if I approach this from POV of why I made this film. A filmmaker, if he\she wants, can make films ONLY for the local market in whatever country. That can be quite expensive if you take Bollywood as an example. In SA, Shuster is the closest to Bollywood as you can get, and it works. So bravo for him. But there is another local audience. The new film Swap hits out at a growing black all-income group audience, hungry to see local stories, - by going straight to dvd. So now we are talking of Nollywood type movies with Swap - the big difference being that here we want to make them well - shoot with flare, gets actors to act etc… not just enter right exit left, camera on the pod!
For me it is a matter of pride to make a movie that works locally and internationally. This is in part financial - for the sourcing of production finance, but more viscerally the reason is artistic. For many years now many of my films gets wheeled out regularly on TV (when there's nothing else to show?) - this does not happen anywhere else in the world. JIT was the first Zimbabwe movie - it played to packed houses for months - than I sold it all over the world - one sale to Blockbuster I USA after the cinema release - covered the entire cost of production. Authentic but universal - that's my moto. I try to be a bridge between Africa and the rest of the world.
You co-wrote the screenplay?
I always write the 1st draft , then look for someone to work with from then on. It's like looking for a good partner in love - near impossible. But it worked well with Malcolm Kohll who is a producer and a writer - he is more commercial in attitude than I am (the act 1/2/3 type), but this worked well as we were tugging in different directions and met somewhere in the middle.
It is an important film in your career; how did it impact on your life and change it?
Every film is the most important. Until you make it, then if feels that it's not quite important enough, but the next one will be…. Nothing has changed since I started out. I am known in Africa (that's how I got the money for Triomf in France), but only a bit internationally. I am not a brand "Almodovar Brand". So each time it's like being at the beginning of my career. And I don't chose easy subjects. No one anywhere wanted to back Triomf. Here, white trash was considered to be a very strange subject by the powers that be. And overseas they could not fit it into their concept of what should come from Africa or SA - it was not action adventure like Blood Diamond, not costume drama like R Grant's 'Wah Wah' , and not about whitey coming to save the continent 'Constant Gardener'; nor was it PC and earnest on SA issues like race, or truth and reconciliation. I was offering a very non-PC slice of life that was just too much for them. International stars, however, really saw the power of the roles in the script and I had no problem attracting some strong names - although they did not bring in the funding evnentually - they, too, were not a big enough brand (Tim Roth, Sissy Spacek, Jessica Lange…. "Come back with Meryl Streep and we'll talk" said one international sales agent needed to lever the IDC into action at the time with vast sales projections.
The bestseller is now a controversial film: how did it happen? What made it possible?
The miracle of the French funding (imagine asking the USA government for money to make a film about hillbillies and incest) but the French did - and one private backer, the Zimbabwean Lyndon Plant who liked me and my work and said "I have some money in savings, it's either you or the stock market." Maybe now he made the right decision after all.
Was it a difficult process getting it to the big screen? Explain.
Took 7 years. Very tough sell.
TRIOMF is undoubtedly one of the most talked about South African film in ages. Why do you think the film has stirred up such heated debate?
15 years since democracy we can make any film we want. Look at Jesusalema, Bunny Chow. We do not have to make films that the outside world expects. Or TV. Film is an emotional experience not a lecture. Triomf has power, intensity, humour - the stuff of drama. So the audience gets disturbed. Some don't like to be disturbed, they seek a sedative or an upper. This film does not hold back -it's in your face. People walk out. Others laugh a lot. Everyone reacts differently - it depends what class, what sector of society you come from - it's the same all over the world with audiences who have seen it. Here, coloureds are the best audience - they get it all, no problem and they laugh the most. Some middle class whites don't even smile - they are in shock and feel so sorry for the protagonists that they leave the cinema straight for the charity shop. The black SA audience feels they are being taken into a world most of them didn't know existed - and they like that, I have had no adverse responses from them.
But I am not seeking to do a film for any other reason than give people a real experience, and hopefully one that is not the usual kind. No one leaves the cinema with indifference, at least.
If there is a message in it -
a) poverty knows no colour
b) marginalized sectors of society or marginalised nations are in danger of suffocating themselves; so better to reach out not close in, seek 'the other' and do not make the other into an enemy in your eyes. This is what went wrong with the Afrikaner nation… and could go wrong for the Zulus.
When you first started working on TRIOMF, did ever imagine that it would turn out as it did?
When you have to spend 8 years on a movie - you better be very clear what it really is.
What do you hope local audiences will get from watching the film?
"I'll never forget that film as long as I live" - the words of a member of the audience at the press show in Joburg
Your views on the industry in South Africa?
The rebate is a great sytem. SA has great talent - actors, music, stories - only needs more directors and writers to be created. Up to now more whites have had the right education for this. I went to film school in Paris. Slowly this is changing. The future is rosy. But you need to be a good hustler - there is not enough backing around to make a film without private funds. The industry is in flux due to a revolution on a par with the Guttenberg Press - digital and the web. Now we are in between two stools. This is worse abroad where dvd sales have slumped due to downloads. Here the time of downloading a film = 24 days! But in Japan it takes 5 minutes. Cinemas are closing everywhere - only for the blockbusters. We need to smell out the new ways to the audience and know which audience that is.
Any tips/ advice for aspirant filmmakers?
Be sure of what you are going to present for the funding search - and think about who your market is destined to be as this will determine the entire approach (either it's a Morgan Freeman vehicle - or is it for dvd in Soweto)
Your next project?
"The Black Diamonds" A cross-cultural comedy with thriller overtones, set in the world of Johannesburg's new black middle class rich. A young woman comes up from the Cape Flats to find a rich man. She meets a Lady-killer in a posh club, and ends up for a while in a serious relationship with him installed in his lavish apartment. Inevitably he betrays her several times. Overcome with jealous rage, she uses her petty criminal brother to rough him up. But this brother is part of a gang that sees the advantage of upping the anti. Soon our Don Juan is in fear of his life.
Read more about how the film was made
VISIT:
Website: www.triomf-movie.com
Blog: http://triomfmovie.blogspot.com
Read more about Michael Raeburn:
www.michaelraeburn.com
Proudly South African filmmaking
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