WITS FILM AND TELEVISION GRADUATES

PAMELA OREEDITISE

Pamela Oreeditise Sebigi finished the Certificate in Broadcast Television course in 2004. She returned to her hometown Mmabatha where she involved herself with a local film festival and we would occasionally hear from her when she required material to promote the division at the festival. With this honour she joins the ranks of successful graduates of the course who are making an impact in the Film and television industry such as Lungi Dolamo, winner of the MNET EDiT in 2002 and now procuring content for Telkom Media, Neo Mapetla, assistant commissioning Editor at the SABC and Lerato Letebele running her own company, Spoonfed, which produced a series for the SABC last year.

LUKE CARSTENS

Besides winning the best project for MNET EDiT 2005 Luke Carsten s production Still Moving (for the International Panarama ) was selected to particate in the 7 Festival Internacional de Escuelas de Cine, held in Buenos Aires from November 20 - 25, 2006.

The festival received nearly 400 films from 63 schools in 37 countries and, the Selection Committee had chosen 25 films for Official Competition and 40 for International Panorama.

Luke Carstens the director of Still Moving along with Anthony Haenen, who had done the sound for his as well as an entry from Griffiths University in Australia, were invited to the festival with shared hotel accommodation in downtown Buenos Aires for the entire festival. Also invited was a representative from each school. Ian Walters represented WSOA, Film and Television division. The Hotel Elevage a sponsor of the festival has an exclusive cinema in which selected elements of the festival were also exhibited.

The student festival was divided into two sections, the festival proper and an International Panorama of entries in which section Luke found his entry. The programme was extremely interesting in that besides the student festival there was also a festival of Johan van der Keuken documentaries and Tex Avery Cartoons! In collaboration with the Cannes Film Festival a selection of the best entries to the Cinefondation of that famous festival and 20 years of La Femis, the French Film School, which was represented on the jury by Marc Nicolas who acted as chairman. A series of Master Classes was conducted by Dudley Andrew, who runs the Graduate Film Studies programme at Yale. Called the Cahiers Line and using the films of Eric Rohmer, Jean Luc Godard and Jacques Rivette he illustrated the French critic Bazin?s thoughts on His ?New Wave?. Besides Nicholas and Andrew the jury consisted of two Argentinian jurors and a representative from Brazil who is head of editing at the Art and Communication School of USP (Sao Paolo University) Maria Dora Mourao. She is president of the South American chapter of Cilect, the international association of film schools. Most of the work on the festival was done by the students. Besides South Africa there was representation from Bulgaria, China, Uruguay and Chile.

The School is set in the Bohemian quarter of Buenos Aires called San Telmo. The buildings are all late 19^th early 20^th century. The school has approximately 300 students, mostly from Argentina but a number from neighbouring countries such as Ecuador. The University was established in 1991 and held their first festival in 1993. Despite Argentina?s economic woes it has been held biannually since then only missing one cycle. www.ucine.edu.ar

MACIEJ KWIECINSKI

Maciej Kwiecinski, a 2006 WSOA Masters Film and Television graduate, received three awards for his short film The Crossing at this year?s MNET Edit Awards held in Johannesburg earlier this month. Maciej received the award for best script, the runner-up prize for best project and the award for best direction at a lunch hosted by the broadcaster amidst great support from fellow students who crewed on the project.

According to Maciej the project, filmed in Pella and Skuinsdrif in the North West Province was a huge learning curve for all. ?So many people put an enormous amount of time and effort into the making of it. It s so great to see those efforts pay off like they did. The experiences that we went through proved to me that filmmaking is really about developing a strong bond between everyone involved, as well as a healthy respect for communication. As much as that, it s all about a good understanding of how to balance time and money, with art and a lack of sleep. Thank you to the entire cast and crew for their selfless dedication, support and patience.

At WSOA TV Damon Heatlie, Ian Walters, Lieza Louw and Donald Dawson built a strong support base for the production, helping in aspects ranging from the development of the script, to the organizing of archive material, equipment, casting and the arrangement for final mix. Without their interest and input we wouldn t have managed.?

This prestigious annual competition invites students to submit ideas for a documentary or a fiction film and after a fiercely competitive first round the best of projects are submitted to the broadcaster for the final selection. The chosen projects receive a substantial budget for the student crews to produce their films. Completed films are also screened on MNET.