THE second annual Indie Karoo Film Festival hosted in Prince Albert - aka the Jewel of the Karoo - at the weekend proved to be an enormous success for organisers.
The main venue for the festival, the R7 million state-of-the-art Showroom Theatre, had several sold-out shows over the five-day event.
The Showroom Lecture Hall was host to scriptwriting and video-directing workshops, while the Zwartberg High School hall, the Jans Rautenbach Schouwberg – both a theatre and a homestead – and the Sidwell Willams Centre were secondary venues.
In all, 36 independent film-makers showcased their works to industry roleplayers and audiences of up to 400 people.
The films were spread across three categories: full-length features, documentary film, and short film.
The best full-length feature was awarded to Twee Grade van Moord, directed by Gerrit Schoonhoven, starring actors Sandra Prinsloo and Marius Weyers.
Best documentary film went to Boers at the End of the World, directed by Richard Gregory, and best short film was awarded to I Made a Film You Will Never See, directed by Elmi Badenhorst.
A lifetime achievement award went to veteran actress Lida Both.
Festival organiser Cecelia Voges said she was happy with the success of the five-day event and thanked her crew for their hard work.
“This is a very intimate festival, and everyone who was involved gave their best to make sure everything ran smoothly.
“We have learnt a lot from this experience, and next time we would like to give comps for people who can not afford to buy tickets,” Voges said, adding that plans for next year’s festival were already under way.
At the start of the festival, some people living in the town’s North Side – the end established for coloured workers during apartheid – said they had never heard of the festival, and were in the dark about any hype around it.
A big drawcard for those who could attend was director Gavin Hood’s film Eye in the Sky.
Hood is a South African film-maker, and best known for writing and directing Academy Award-winning film Tstotsi.
On Saturday night, the Showroom Theatre was packed to capacity for the screening of his movie, and 20 extra seats were placed to accommodate an overflow of people.
Written by screenwriter Guy Hibert, Eye in the Sky stars Helen Mirren as Colonel Katherin Powell, a UK-based military officer in command of a top-secret drone operation to capture terrorists in Kenya.
Through remote surveillance and on-the-ground intelligence, Powell discovers the targets are planning a suicide bombing, and the mission escalates from “capture” to “kill”.
But as American pilot Steve Watts, played by Aaron Paul, is about to engage, a 9-year-old girl enters the kill zone, triggering an international dispute reaching the highest levels of US and British government over the moral, political and personal implications of modern warfare.
“What I never want to do is preach to my audience.
“I don’t like films that try to tell you what you have to think. But at the same time, I want to provoke my audience to think.
“The films I enjoy doing the most consist of two things: entertainment and that which leaves me with something to think and talk about,” Hood said.
@FrancescaJaneV