01a / LIGHTS….. ACTION and moving pictures were on the way

Entertainment in the nineteenth century in South Africa consisted of a visiting and or local circus often with specialised equestrian performers; music hall entertainment with various acts, small groups putting on plays in both English and Afrikaans sometimes in the French and German languages as well. This resulted in theatres of various sizes becoming available for hire - with different degrees of success. However, this is not to imply that other pleasurable cultural amusements were not taking place. In 1893 Cape Town saw the opening of an opera house, by 1895 Johannesburg had the Empire theatre for vaudeville. In other words there was something for different tastes.

But a different lifestyle was definitely coming into being. Science was making strides in ways that would change everyday life in South Africa. Electricity was beginning to be more widely used, the motor car was slowly but more frequently to be seen on the streets of larger towns. Diamonds had been discovered in Kimberley in 1864 and gold in 1886 on the Witwatersrand. Many people streamed into the country, some hoping to make a fortune and others who did. Among the latter group of immigrants from various countries of the world, were those who sought novelty in entertainment. Thus with more money becoming available for leisure activities came the awakening demand for a different theatre experience. The arrival of the early cinematic industry, in its various forms, had arrived, in time, to play an ever increasing role in provincial culture.

Moving pictures caught and held the public’s attention and imagination. In 1895 a hopeful business man used a Kinetoscope to drum up business but the expense of the machine did not lead to great wealth. In the same year Durban was treated to a sound and motion picture followed by Cape Town in 1896. During the troubled political period at the Cape and Transvaal as a result of the Jameson Raid and which led to Cecil John Rhodes resigning as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, Carl Hertz arrived with an Edison designed projecting Kinetoscope. Martial law had been enforced in the Transvaal resulting in poor audiences at the Empire theatre. Eventually things did change and back came the audiences as well as countrywide tours.

Names of the showmen as well as those of the machines varied but mechanical improvements moved forward. During the South African War 1899-1902 films were actually made “in the field” so to speak. WKL Dickson arrived in Durban from Britain, bought a cart, two horses and provisions and with his Biograph camera managed to get a pass from General Sir Redvers Buller and joined the Naval Brigade resulting in a life made up of risks and hardships.

This war caused an hiatus in all forms of entertainment including moving pictures. Audience levels fell, overseas artists rushed to return home and military restrictions caused further problems. It was only when the Biograph began showing scenes reflecting strong patriotic motives that audience levels rose. The Good Hope Hall in Cape Town began showing Biograph Nights three times a week for six consecutive months. Thereafter, in 1900, shows were held in Wynberg a suburb of Cape Town and other parts of the Cape Colony: Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth, East London, King Williams Town and on to Durban, Natal. Around the same time W Wolfram also began showing films in the Colonies of the Cape and Natal. Before long his shows became known as Wolfram’s Bioscope and for many years the buildings in which these took place were known as Bioscopes, a very specific South African name for a cinema. In fact a new word had entered the local lexicon.

Over the next decade competition increased with some showmen falling by the wayside but with the actual motion pictures becoming more and more popular especially as there were those showmen who would take their equipment including “portable gas apparatus” into isolated small towns with no electricity. Primitive “talkies” known as the Biophone and then as Gaumont’s Chronophone began advertising but not with any great success. It was left to musicians to create sound.

After 1910, when the two British colonies and two former republics united to become the Union of South Africa, sites for permanent cinemas were found to accommodate the success of the moving pictures. Shortly thereafter the bioscope and music hall businesses failed with a number of different reasons being put forward for this happening. As a result, in 1913, W Schlesinger, a Johannesburg businessman helped form the African Theatres Trust Ltd which opened up the industry to a larger audience and a more profitable one. Another of Schlesinger’s enterprises was African Film Productions which produced a weekly African Mirror, said to be the oldest news reel in the world.

The First World War 1914-1918 saw serials making an appearance often with improbable plots, early American films of poor quality, films stressing patriotism. As the years passed it was the actor Charlie Chaplin who gained and who would go on to gain huge popularity. Films would, as technology advanced, become a totally integrated part of world wide cultural life.

01b / African Film in Cape Town:

The African Arts Institute (AFAI) harnesses local expertise, resources and markets in the service of Africa’s creative sector. It aims to build regional markets for African creative goods, services and artists’ brands; and to build capacity within the African creative sector. The institute was launched in February 2009 with a two-year grant from Spier. AFAI also plays host to Arterial Network, a continent-wide network of artists, activists and creative enterprises active in the African creative sector and its contribution to development, human rights and democracy on the continent. For more information: www.afai.org.za

African Film in Cape Town

The African Arts Institute in collaboration with M-Net's African Film Library is continuing the monthly Learn Africa Love Africa Film Nights launched in Cape Town during August last year.

The next offering in the series will be screened at the Labia on Orange on Tuesday 10 April at 6.15pm. It is an offbeat science fiction film, a genre not often ventured into by African filmmakers. Les Saignantes (The Bleeders) was directed by Cameroonian filmmaker Jean-Pierre (Obama) Bekolo in 2005. The film premiered at the Toronto film festival and subsequently won the Silver Stallion (2nd prize) and Best Actress Award at Fespaco 2007 in Ouagadougou.

The Bleeders is set in a fictional African nation in the year 2025. Two streetwise women, the one an ambitious prostitute and the other her best friend, are sent on a strange odyssey through a decaying city when an evening assignment, a prominent politician, dies.  In trying to dispose of the body, they discover a number of people looking for a way to turn their poor fortune to their advantage, a crooked politician, a Machiavellian taxi driver, a handful of street people, and an underground society of covertly powerful women.

The film is in French with English surtitles.

For more information on this and other events by the African Arts Institute, visit www.afai.org.za or follow us at

The Learn Africa Love Africa Film Nights form part of a diverse series of ongoing events, all focused on African creative content, and promoted by the Institute at various Cape Town venues. Similar programmes will be replicated in Johannesburg and Durban during the course of this year.

More monthly screenings

Learn Africa Love Africa Film Nights continue thanks to the generous support of the M-Net African Film Library (AFL). During 2011 AFL made six African cinema titles, including Ousmane Sembene classics, comedy from North Africa, a musical from French-Guinea and drama from Nigeria, available to AFAI. This second series of screenings brings another seven contemporary African cinema titles, some never screened in the city before, to Cape Town film lovers.

The rest of the screening line-up for Cape Town, March to August 2012, is as follows:

a comedy, Lalla Hobby (1999) directed by Moumen Smihi (Morocco) on Tuesday 8 May;
two short films, Gombele (1993), directed by Issa Traoré de Brahima (Burkina Faso) and Sidney Poitier na Barbearia de Firipe Beruberu (2001), directed by Francisco Vellardebo of Mozambique on Tuesday 12 June;
a drama, Le Destin (Destiny, 1997) directed by Youssef Chahine from Egypt on Tuesday 10 July;
and finally another comedy, Le Ballon D’Or (The Golden Ball), directed by Cheik Doukoure from Guinea/France (1994) on Tuesday 14 August.

Tickets are R30 from the Labia, , or call / email to book.
More information about the African Arts Institute at www.africanartsinstitute.org

01c / The Write Journey Workshop and the ABC of Writing a Screenplay

The Write Journey workshop will be presented in Cape Town and Johannesburg, with trainer Daniel Dercksen taking writers through the write pace in Cape Town, and Dirk Fourie facilitating the workshop in Joburg.  The workshop takes place in Cape Town at Homebrew Films and at Sasani Studios in Johannesburg on Saturday, March 31, April 14 and 21 and May 5 from 10am until 1pm. 

The ABC of writing a screenplay – a 4 Saturday morning workshop for budding screenwriters in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

If you’re an aspiring storyteller with a vivid imagination whose ideas are larger than life, The Writing Studio has an exciting The Write Journey workshop at Homebrew Films in Cape Town and Sasani Studios in Johannesburg on Saturday, March 31, April 14 and 21, and May 5 from 10am until 1pm.

Aspirant screenwriters can learn the fundamentals of building and telling a compelling story, and how to effectively dramatise your idea, characters and plot.

This outcome-based workshop explores the writing process, developing characters and mastering the art of structure, as well as examining the world of contemporary filmmaking and films.

It is a basic workshop that explores the art of visual narrative and the craft of writing a universal story that reflects the uniqueness, history and culture of South Africa and Africa. The Write Journey is about writers connecting with the process of writing productively in their comfort zones and producing South African stories the world wants to experience.

Budding screenwriters will understand the principles of writing for a visual medium and what it takes to be screenwriter in South Africa.

The inspirational and motivational workshop is ideal for ANYONE with an idea for a story. If there is something or someone you want to write about this is your opportunity to turn thoughts into words. 

The course turns theory into practise and ideas inside out. It explores the full dramatic or comedic potential of stories and empowers storytellers to write a compelling story that will reflect the uniqueness of their culture, history and experience.

The course is also ideal for novelists who would like to adapt their work into a visual medium, or writers who want to write stageplays.

The workshop in Cape Town is presented by Daniel Dercksen, a published playwright, writer, movie journalist, and qualified ETD Practitioner (Education, Training and Development) who has been teaching workshops in screenwriting, creative writing and filmmaking throughout South Africa the past 18 years.

Director, writer and editor Dirk Fourie, who has been teaching workshop in filmmaking and scriptwriting for The Writing Studio, will facilitate the workshop in Johannesburg.

For the agenda of The Write Journey workshop and registration, send an email to or call Daniel 0n . Visit our website for other courses and services: www.writingstudio.co.za

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Celebrating the art of storytelling and the craft of writing
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