ARE we South Africans poor when it comes to acting?
Or are we not good enough to portray our own heroes?
All the time actors portraying characters from our history books and those in movies about the lives of our leaders are non-South Africans.
The recent announcement that Idris Elba is set to play Nelson Mandela in The Long Walk Freedom movie came as no surprise. Instead of fighting the announcement, lets look deep into what is wrong with our film industry.
Obviously Elba, the award-winning actor, is gladly looking forward to portraying Mandela, while our own South African actors feel overlooked.
This time around the excuse given is their lack of global fame and not being tall like Mandela, who is 1.93m.
It is true that Elba comes with fame and there is value associated with his name.
But it is sad that none of our own actors will feature in the movie.
This will be the fourth movie in which the lead role of Mandela is played by a non-South African - while our own government is not investing in arts and culture.
A United States actress and singer, Jennifer Hudson, is the lead actress portraying Mama Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
The movie is in production.
Denzel Washington played as late Steve Biko in Cry Freedom.
The film industry is also ruled by who has the biggest purse. Given our historical background, the South African government has a duty to invest in the film industry. Our film audience is too small and there is a need to develop that market.
It is small in that the majority of South Africans do not see movies or have access to cinemas.
We need to stand up and find lasting solutions in building our film industry. Good local movies such as Yesterday, Sarafina and the Oscar-winning Tsotsi and Paradise Stop have reached international markets. These movies were well-produced.
Urgent attention has to be given to the areas of script development, financing, distribution and marketing, otherwise the industry will not grow.
Using international actors to play the roles of our icons is temporary and short-sighted.
We have to build our own industry and groom actors who can play such roles.
SA actors need a good boost
ARE we South Africans poor when it comes to acting?
Or are we not good enough to portray our own heroes?
All the time actors portraying characters from our history books and those in movies about the lives of our leaders are non-South Africans.
The recent announcement that Idris Elba is set to play Nelson Mandela in The Long Walk Freedom movie came as no surprise. Instead of fighting the announcement, lets look deep into what is wrong with our film industry.
Obviously Elba, the award-winning actor, is gladly looking forward to portraying Mandela, while our own South African actors feel overlooked.
This time around the excuse given is their lack of global fame and not being tall like Mandela, who is 1.93m.
It is true that Elba comes with fame and there is value associated with his name.
But it is sad that none of our own actors will feature in the movie.
This will be the fourth movie in which the lead role of Mandela is played by a non-South African - while our own government is not investing in arts and culture.
A United States actress and singer, Jennifer Hudson, is the lead actress portraying Mama Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
The movie is in production.
Denzel Washington played as late Steve Biko in Cry Freedom.
The film industry is also ruled by who has the biggest purse. Given our historical background, the South African government has a duty to invest in the film industry. Our film audience is too small and there is a need to develop that market.
It is small in that the majority of South Africans do not see movies or have access to cinemas.
We need to stand up and find lasting solutions in building our film industry. Good local movies such as Yesterday, Sarafina and the Oscar-winning Tsotsi and Paradise Stop have reached international markets. These movies were well-produced.
Urgent attention has to be given to the areas of script development, financing, distribution and marketing, otherwise the industry will not grow.
Using international actors to play the roles of our icons is temporary and short-sighted.
We have to build our own industry and groom actors who can play such roles.
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