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Playing out like a taut political thriller, the drama around the prestigious opening-night film at the Durban International Film Festival just won’t die.
Earlier this month, City Press reported on a string of resignations at the festival, including that of manager Sarah Dawson, because of alleged interference by the University of Kwazulu-Natal, which owns the event.
We reported that when Anant Singh’s latest big-budget apartheid-era production, Shepherds and Butchers, directed by Oliver Schmitz, was offered a gala screening but not the opening slot, Singh questioned the decision and copied the university’s deputy vice-chancellor, Professor Cheryl Potgieter, in on his email. Potgieter then decreed his film would be the opening film, leading to the resignations.
This week, the festival’s new manager, Peter Machen, announced the opening film – and eyebrows shot up because it wasn’t Shepherds and Butchers. Instead, the film granted the honour is a documentary called The Journeymen.
The Journeymen is the first documentary to open the
37-year-old festival since An Inconvenient Truth in 2007 and proves that local doccies are coming into their own.
It is, by all accounts, an innovative and relevant film. In it, three young photographers with very diverse backgrounds travel the country for months, recording their encounters with fellow South Africans – from the Cape Flats to Orania – on GoPro
cameras strapped to their chests.
“When I saw the latest version, I just thought, wow, this is perfect and appropriate to open the festival. It is certainly no artistic compromise,” said Machen, who did not heed Singh’s later request to set up a committee to choose the opening film.
But then a new twist emerged: one of the three photographers in the film, Sipho Mpongo, was the subject of a City Press investigation into sexual assault and harassment at Michaelis Art School at the University of Cape Town. Mpongo was found guilty of sexual harassment of a fellow student and charged with community service by the university.
Many social-media commentators were alarmed that he can now be held up as a hero at the opening night.
Documentary producer Jolynn Minnaar said: “I condemn Sipho’s actions and any instances of sexual violence.”
Mpongo has subsequently spoken and blogged about his journey to realising how harmful his actions had been.
Minnaar said she believed Mpongo had “shown grave remorse and continues to work earnestly on his process of rehabilitation”, but that none of the photographers “intend on shying away from conversation or deny or defend Sipho’s case”.
Machen told City Press he was in no way dismissing sexual violence, but felt it was important to separate art from the artist and also to use the festival to discuss the issues the films raise.
He said he thought long and hard about accepting the job, but was worried the festival would be cancelled if someone with experience didn’t step in.
Dawson said it was a shame that the curatorial process had been compromised.
