Production News South Africa

The Adventures of Bongani

INDV is calling for short film scripts for a groundbreaking project called The Adventures of Bongani consisting of four short films of 15-20min each which each follow the adventures through South Africa of a young African man.

The project is aimed at emerging filmmakers, film students, industry professionals - basically anybody who is willing to spend 7 days of their life working on the project for free. Each short film will be shot in roughly seven days.

Producer Derek Antonio Serra says: "Although to date INDV has received no support from the NFVF for its feature film initiative, we feel that considering the fact that we have the latest HDV equipment at our disposal, we may just as well shoot a series of no-budget guerilla-style short films this year to get the ball rolling.

"In order to maximise the distribution possibilities for these short films, we have come up with the Bongani concept - the first "feature film" shot on the new HDV format in Africa for general distribution."

Bongani was born in the Eastern Cape and is now embarking on his journey through life in search of his fortune. Bongani comes from small village or town, and the film will follow his mad adventures as he travels to the big city. He may be seduced by a streetwise mama or buppy, he may get a job as a drug-pusher, or a taxi-driver. At some point he may be fooled out of his meagre savings by tsotsi's, or a slinky woman. A fast pace is a requirement, each short film should have at least three adventures interwoven.

Ideally scripts should be written by writer/directors, but writer and director teams are fine too. The crew on each short film will range from 10 - 15 people including trainees.

The adventures can be set anywhere in South Africa, providing the writer and director can raise most of the crew to shoot in that region.

If you wish to submit a script, or get involved in the project in any way, please contact INDV at or call Serra on 082 5544315 / (021) 426 1665. Scripts can be emailed together with a CV to

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