Emerging filmmaker Bonita Sithebe cannot wait to rub elbows and network with international filmmakers at the 75th edition of The Cannes Film Festival in France.
Sithebe will join the rest of international film industry as part of the programme run by the KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission which shines the spotlight on female filmmakers this year. Sithebe will be attending the world’s biggest film festival with another filmmaker Sithabile Mkhize. The two are jetting out of the country on Wednesday.
The Cannes Festival starts on May 22.
The KwaMashu-born filmmaker will present her recently produced film The Valley of a Thousand Hills privately to distributors with a plan to score an international distributor. The film will premier officially at the Durban International Film Festival that is taking place in July.
Though it will not be the first time Sithebe goes to The Cannes, this time two things make her trip exciting. “The Cannes is where the whole world in filmmaking meet. My film will be shown privately to international distributors and that excites me. As filmmakers, we normally make movies and struggle to get distribution.
“Secondly, I have a project that I want to pitch in one of the sessions with an aim to get co-production partnership. What makes me look forward to this is that we will be doing pitching sessions at the time when the world is interested in South African stories.”
“International filmmakers are aware that we have unique stories and diverse culture in South Africa. When we take these stories internationally they always want to know why you feel your film stand out. I think we need to tell more stories of cultural relevancy like Inxeba,” added the 42-year-old.
Mkhize, 34, who is the producer of a film called God’s Work is also looking forward to network with international producers and sales agencies.
“I’m going there for the first time. I’m looking forward to meet other filmmakers and learn as much as possible. The main goal of going to The Cannes is to get finance for it to can go to production.
“I have lined up meetings that I will be attending at the festival. For now, the film is just a script and I don’t have financial backup to shoot it. But I also want to learn about the new trends in filmmaking.”
KZN Film Commission’s COO Jackie Motsepe explained that the two female filmmakers were selected out of a myriad of applications received.
“As per our strategic goals of empowering the youth and women in the industry in the telling of their stories, Ms Sithebe and Ms Mkhize’s projects stood out, and we are confident that they will achieve the objectives they have set in attending the festival
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