One of the lead actors in The Race-ist, Jonathan Pienaar, a man who has been a great strength to me in making my first movie, sent me this mail. He asked me to chuck it on the Blog.
When you read it you will see how it was possible to make such a cool movie with such limited resource (1% of District 9's Budget). I had some really awesome, supportive, talented people believing in me and my vision for not only this film but the film Industry in South Africa.
Any South African film maker will tell you that it aint easy making a film... but some people certainly make it easier!
Johnny is an actor, a writer, a poet and a natural mentor to all around him. The guy really gives a damn! I have gotten on well with him from the day I met him.
Anyhoo.. his letter is below, it's mostly about me, I'm glad it's a nice one :)
Jonathan Pienaar.
I met Andrew Wilmot about two maybe it was three years ago, doing a voice over and he was the engineer on the job and he turned to me and said ‘I want to make a movie!’
I have been able to see Andrew take what was an idea and drive it forward, because he can.
Most give up; many draw conclusions from illusion and simply judge.
Andrew and the team around him did it.
I was fortunate to act in this movie and see the kind of mentality, that needs to form, begin and start moving towards a way of making films that doesn’t result in a separation of all the entities needed to create the films we want to make.
A way of making films that is supportive.
That is the only way I wish to work. It is never about one film, it is the many films that come after it, that tell the tale.
I have got to know Andrew and I have seen immense courage and maturity in a craft that sometimes requires the enthusiasm of a child. It was his beginning, his first, in which he directed and produced, that is mad, he did it.
Things crumbled around him, he kept going.
In the beginning we all need support, understanding and the guidance to grow.
South African film making of the past is dead, gone, and no good to us. It doesn’t work. Now is all we have and that is a beautiful thing. Individuals like Andrew are rare; he is talented, relentless, mad and loving.
Many have more experience than Andrew and would have done things differently, but Andrew was the one who had the guts to do it.
I have never questioned Andrew’s integrity, I have seen him face his own ego and step over it, when necessary, the rough diamond of the first time movie maker who takes it on with only the support of a few tough individuals, doesn’t get cut gently, it has been hammered into clarity.
Open mindedness is of more worth to us as an industry than burnt passed experiences.
We are not victims, we just simply need to drop the past and make it for ourselves.
The support is what will work. It is too small a country to survive with the greed mentality that now seems to govern all of us. So we change it.
Andrew Wilmot is the right man for the job.
I have had to question myself, what do I want?
Do I want to be a part of a team that continually makes the best movies we can, at the time, with a sense of relationship, or do I want to just make a little money to bide me over till the next? Do I want to take, or, do I want to give?
In the centre Mr Venter is where I want to be, balance. There are no heroes, no villains, just all of us doing the best we can, at any given moment, mistakes I have discovered are easily forgivable far easier than resentment.
Secretly I think I have resented the South African film industry.
I now find it far more rewarding to work with and support a passionate team of people, like ‘The Race-ist’ and do what I can to make it work than focus on a little bit of money.
The money will always come.
If I have been any support to Andrew and his brilliant team I am grateful.
Thank you Andrew for your courage, madness, enthusiasm and love.
Jonny
