Ebhofolo (This Madness) is an exploration of the large and small battles for survival and visibility that are fought on the picturesque frontiers of the post-colony.
THE MADNESS-INTO THE STORY
‘Ebhofolo’ is an experimental short fiction film, which follows the story of two black characters, one a waitress, the other a hired killer, as they navigate a day in their lives in Cape Town. BUSI, a waitress who works for a seaside restaurant in Cape Town’s upmarket, predominantly white coastal service industry, struggles to shape her identity as a young black women. In the face of continually being erased and undermined by the subtle and pervasive racism of her inherent in workplace and its clientele. SIZWE, a man who finds himself indebted to a violent society in which he has no control, must carry out the violence of an unknown organisation, one that he can neither challenge nor escape. Both characters are stuck in a hostile world, that by its very existence denies them the right to self-determinacy.
The film attempts through the subtle interplay of these two lives, to talk to the violence of becoming in Post-Apartheid South Africa, that pain which has been both invisibilised, and hyper-visibilised. The story is punctuated with references to the subliminal and magical elements that underscore so much of how we make meaning from space and history. We see the stark images of SIZWE’s ancestry haunting him and bringing his violent past into question. The isolated workshop of a carpenter, whose many beautiful wooden carvings counterweigh the destructive exclusion of our lead characters, but at the same time manipulate the psychosis which possess both BUSI and SIZWE.
For SIZWE, he must make an ultimately fatal choice to either succumb to the violence of his work on his own terms, or continue with the hollow and traumatic tasks he has been assigned.
Neither character finds any ultimate resolution, but instead, we are provided with a glimpse of the small and dramatic ways in which life resists its expectations, often not through abandoning society, but slowly etching out some place in it. This is a story of survival, a story that never ends.
WHERE DID MY MONEY GO?
Paying our very talented and committed actors
Lights, Sound, Lenses and Camera Equipment
Locking down locations
Post-production Editing and Recording
Distribution, including festival entry costs
LOCATIONS, LOCATIONS, LOCATIONS
An essential part of every film is the unspoken character of location, and we have spent much time finding some of the most visually interesting spaces in which to carve out this film…
“Mid-shot hallway ANTIQUE STORE, into bathroom, we see BUSI standing at mirror splashing her face with water, she is exasperated and fragile.”
“Camera focuses on flower painting on wall at exit for a moment, framing BUSI in door exit, BUSI tries to neaten herself up, BUSI exits frame.”
“Camera pans to reveal a seaside restaurant, located parallel to a railway line, shabby chic.”
“Wide-Shot of wetlands and dunes, we are at the body dumping site. SIZWE stands as a solitary figure as a flock of seagulls rise from their nesting places in the dunes, and fly overhead.”
THE MAKERS
PULENG LANGE-STEWART: Writer, Director
Puleng is an honours Theatre Making student at UCT. She recently was shortlisted for the 2016 PEN Student Writing Award, and her work on the student production FIGS won her the award for most promising playwright at the 2016 Grahamstown National Arts Festival Student Fest. She is a writer, performer, director, illustrator and mother based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Her central interests in the creative arts include an interdisciplinary approach to storytelling, that combines elements of multi-media design, dramaturgy and performance art. Ebhofolo will be her first independent venture into filmmaking.
JANNOUS AUKEMA: Writer, Director, Cinematographer
Jannous is a filmmaker and composer based in Cape Town, South Africa. He has worked in a wide range of visual mediums, most recently; music video’s (The Brother Moves On), sound and video installations (Philip Miller-BikoHausen, which premiered at Germany’s prestigious Avant-Garde festival, The Darmstadt Summer School), television mini-series (When We Were Black 2-Khalo Matabane). He has many years of experience in the film industry, working as an editor, cinematographer and most recently as a composer. His work has been seen on many platforms, from galleries, to cinemas, stages to televisions.
MILESTONES:
This is a simple breakdown of our costs as related to our overall budget and what your money will be providing for us…
-R5000 will get us the lenses we need
-R10 000 will get us the above, plus booking and locking down locations
-R15 000 will get us the above, plus paying our fantastically talented actors
-R20 000 will get us the above, plus getting a professional sound recorder to do all our on-set sound
-R25 000 will get us the above, plus additional camera equipment we need, such as lights, dollies, rails and other fanciful gear
-R30 000 will get us the above, plus give us the money we need for festival entries, allowing us to send the film around the world once it is complete