ree s Company For Hollywood Sou Africans

24 April, 2017 - 07:04

Three South Africans - actors Stelio Savante and Chelsea Macleod, and writer and director Jean Barker - recently collaborated on a daring short film project far from home in Los Angeles, California.

LOVE YOU DAD is a creepy story of a father-daughter relationship that also stars American stand-up comedian Megan Nager https://www.megan-nager.com, who comes to warn Chelsea's character of her plight. It's a weird blend of magic realism, art-house and suspense.

Neither of the South African actors played a South African character.

Chelsea was chewing on a wine-cork between takes. Her voice coach said it would help her with her American accent, and it really did! says Barker. Of course, Stelio's been speaking American since he was 19 - though he still has his original South African accent in the bag if anyone needs it, along with others.

Chelsea and Megan approached Jean to direct this film about a year ago after Chelsea connected with Jean through a mutual friend in South Africa. The three women wrote, rewrote and workshopped the script as they raised the film's modest budget with the help of their scrappy producers.

Jean Barker and Stelio Savante - who's been living and working in the USA for many years - became friends after meeting for coffee. There are so few of us here that when we do connect, we immediately think: What can we do together? says Jean. This time, it worked out.

Stelio's an incredible actor. He's both very honest and deeply generous. So few people can be both. Chelsea gives an incredibly brave performance, and does it so subtly.

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Stelio should be familiar to South African audiences from starring roles in recent features such as Where the Road Runs Out and US TV series such as AMCs The Making of the Mob, Law and Order SVU and Nat Geos American Genius. Born in Cape Town, this American Movie award winner and SAG nominee is one of South Africa's most successful exports. He's been a steady star of independent, arthouse and foreign features distributed worldwide and highly lauded on the international festival circuit, and won the American Movie Award best actor award in 2015.

Chelsea Macleod began working as a commercial actress and model at a young age, a career that initially took her to London. She appeared on as ITV' This Morning and on SABC's Top Billing, as well as on WILL.I.AM's This is Love music video and in many young US filmmakers' TV pilots and shorts. She is currently in London for meetings and work

Chelseas instincts are terrific and Im confident that she has a bright future if she stays the course, Says Stelio Savante, adding: (Jean) is so exciting to work with because of the way she sees things... her choices are definitely unique and very very interesting and to me thats magnetic.

Love You Dad goes to festivals end April, and you can see some moments from it here. Jean Barker is completing a feature with related themes that she hopes to shoot in the USA in late 2018.

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Short Films

Africa South Africa

Jean Barker

Jeanbarkersa@gmail.com

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