The Race-ist official Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN MOVIE ‘THE RACE-IST’ SET TO HIT THE BIG SCREEN

Johannesburg, March 8th, 2010: - Local film, THE RACE-IST is set to heat up the big screen on April 1st, 2010 when it goes into national release. The film, which boasts a star-studded local cast, has everything that South Africans love in a movie… Plenty of fast cars, hot girls and loads of action.

The movie boasts an unusual combination of South African talent including Tsotsi star Craig Palm, up-and-coming actress Nicole Smart, veteran actor Ian Roberts, Jonathan Pienaar, Strini Pillay, DJ Mark Stent, Brandon Auret, former Big Brother turned security specialist “Bad” Brad Wood and is the feature film debut for two household names - Afrikaans pop icon Kurt Darren and 5FM’s DJ Fresh. THE RACE-IST is written, directed and produced by Andrew Wilmot.

The story revolves around a young boy called Lukas (Craig Palm), whose dream is to become the quarter-mile champ. He grows up with “insufficient resources” to achieve his dreams and fast track himself to stardom. But when he meets former coach of the quarter-mile champion, “Oom Noel” (Ian Roberts) - who is persuaded to mentor Lukas to champion status - Lukas realises that his dream of winning might actually be a possibility. Love, comedy, racial differences, patriotism and inspiration are issues which unfold to thicken the plot.

The film will be distributed to cinemas around the country on Thursday, April 1st 2010.

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Heather Vorster
Nu Metro Entertainment
Tel: (011) 340 9396
E-mail: HeatherVo@numetro.co.za

Official Music Video of the Movie

A Letter from Jonathan Pienaar.

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

Another cool poster :)

Some cool behind the scenes interviews and stuff :)

You know you're a Race-ist when:

1) Someone calls you a 'racist' and you're like "Thanks man, you should see my epic double clutching skills!"

2) The word "Piston" is something you do at the Urinal.

3) You think a racist is "an oke what drives fast"

4) You think Jub Jub and Malema would actually be ok if they kept their speeding to the track. But they don't, so they're doff. Politics Schmolitics.

5) You have a pile of Speed and Sound Magazines next to your loo for an intense reading experience!

6) A horror fliek is when the okes' car breaks down, not when the zombies come running out of the bushes.

7) You know what 'variable valve timing' actually means.

8) You know who Chad 'Spyke' Luckhoff is.

9) You ask for a 'Jeremy Clarkson special' when you go to the Barber.

10) You can't wait to watch The Race-ist at Cinemas!


More Race-isms:

James Sutherland

Your a Race-ist if you like don't mind inhailing 2nd hand tire smoke...

James Sutherland

Your a Race-ist if someone asks you if you smoke and you tell them "only when I drop my clutch on pull away!"

How difficult was it to make The Race-ist?

www.therace-ist.com

Careful now.. I'm gonna let you in on the reason they invented the phrase 'no pain, no gain'.

We've been showing our movie to investors and sponsors lately and after each viewing, my self confidence picks up a little more. So I feel sort of ok to share my experiences here with you...

Making movies?

It's scary as hell, because nothing works out quite like you want it to but you try to make it as cool as you possibly can with what you've got and hope like hell that someone will like it...
Evidently all directors go through this... I wonder what a mogul like James Cameron feels like when people watch something like Avatar for the first time? Does he already know that he is going to smash box office records.. again. or does he also chew his nails for the duration of the first screenings?

Well I aint Jimmy Cameron... yet! :)

This is my first movie and from the start the cards were stacked against us!
My first movie is a quarter-mile racing action-comedy movie with the best Cast I could find in a country where it is financial suicide to spend more than R2 mil on a movie (unless you are the awesome Leon Schuster!).

Anyhoo..

We jumped in Boots and all!
Went for it like wildfire!
And boy did we learn!
This is the most hectic film school there is baby, burned hands and chopped off fingers!

Before I let you in on the hardships, let me say this: Although things did not go as planned or promised, we forged through the fire and came out stronger and better on the other end. I believe we have produced a great product... but don't take my word for it, go watch it yourself!

Imagine jumping into a project that is bigger than anything you have done before, has almost no support from the powers that be and is complete virgin territory for you.

You just have something in your gut that says "you can do this" and you know that you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that it is something you have to do. Something you were born for. Like.. destiny or summin...

You do your homework, do your courses and then you jump in, and go like hell!

Halfway through your project, you start realizing that 2009 wasn't such a lekker year to make your first movie...
Marketing budgets get cancelled and Investors start dodging phonecalls...
You only realize 6 months later what the hell happened.
Epic economy fail.

When you are making a movie, money is literally everything!
Your cast and crew live from movie to movie - this means that if your movie does not pay them, you literally steal bread out of their mouths!

Imagine being the guy who has to pay those bills and then finding out that you are being strung along by investors and manipulated by the bigger sponsors who have to pay... These guys have legal departments who play you like a fiddle and have much more money (go figure) than you do for lawyers...

Dude.. we are talking sleepless nights, anxiety attacks and general 'where are you God?' prayers!

You keep pitching, begging, asking.. whatever you can to raise the missing bucks... Then you realize that the only way you're gonna pay these bills is to finish your movie.

Try being creative with a shotgun to your head!

Take a deep breath...

Annnnd...

You speak to as many of your suppliers as you can in the storms of responsibility. Some are uber supportive, taking the knock with you and trusting you to finish your project and pay your bills. Others are the exact opposite. All that matters to them is getting paid - and rightly so, this is their bread and butter and I made commitments! Some begin to sabotage your efforts to finish the movie, others hold footage ransom... It's a whirlwind of hell , a perpetuating nightmare that you think you may never wake up from... you lose your house, your car, you are homeless, living with friends and family but still you push on.. take the calls, make the calls, do the pitches, stay focused, stay positive... It hurts like hell when you realize that there is very little friendship when it come to money but your entire life gains new perspective when some of those who have the right to crucify you are the most encouraging. Some phone you consistently, cheering you on. Others phone you consistently with threats and even extortion. You keep hammering forward, thankful that your wife has not left you and suddenly....

on the morning of Monday the 15th of March at 09h55

...Twenty months after you left your job...

 ...it's over...

You deliver the final product... and people like it.

Sponsors are happy.
Investors are happy.
Test screenings go well.

None of it makes sense. After so much hell, you are wondering if there is a catch somewhere.

 Suddenly Investors are approaching you for your next projects... it's crazy...

You dare to think "We did it".

Not even Box office matters... we finished it.. we did it.. we delivered... We can actually do what we set out to do!

 I'm so exhausted right now that all I can think of is sleep. I think I should be enjoying the beginnings of the taste of victory... but until those bills are paid (IN THE BANK), sleep is a luxury... A week or two more of pressure and making investors happy and then it's me, a chair and a book.

I have a black eye. The combo of sleepless nights to finish the movie and blood pressure from the constant stress over such a long stretch inexorably lead to the inconvenient symptom of passing out every now and then... like on your desk.. with your eye.. haha.

I can feel the pressure starting to leave my soul though, the finished product and Investor approval were massive weights upon my shoulders. Someone got me a Bulldog pup as a prezzie - wow man - band aid for the soul! :)

Enough of the emo, lets keep moving!

The premiere is going to be awesome... Even though many of the sponsors did not keep their promises to us, we kept our promises to them - we kept them in the movie, we did not threaten them for money and now the fruit begins to show. Not only will the bills be paid, but many of those same sponsors are more excited about the marketing campaign and premiere than we are! 700 guests fed and hydrated plus given cool prezzies without it costing us a cent... Sound systems and lighting sponsored for bands and DJ's... awesome awesome awesome. Playstation threes to GIVE AWAY and the list goes on. The light at the end of the tunnel is not a train.. hallelujah man! If I had the enrgy I'd be in my garden doing a jig in my undies right now.. I guess I'll save the jig for when those bill are paid eh?

So Ja... After the marketing campaigns, premiere, events and all the other work that goes with it, I'm gonna sleep for a while.

And then my next movie will make this one look like it's in nappies.

Watch this space!

www.therace-ist.com