London's Black Filmmaker International Film Festival 2015 has invited the feature documentary When I Was Water to screen in Tottenham at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre between Friday 3 July and Sunday 5 July.
When I Was Water is a documentary about the conflicts between modernity and tradition, the city and village, seen from the perspective of a young girl called Marry-Ann, who grows into a woman over a period of 20 years. The mfmiff screening will be the European Premiere of the film.
Independent South African filmmaker David Forbes S.A.S.C. who produced, directed and shot the 82-minute film, says he was surprised to get the invite out of the blue after several prestigious festivals had turned the film down.
It's clear that someone watched the film and was very touched by it. The festival itself is the brainchild of filmmaker and Festival Director Menelik Shabazz , with the stated aim of bringing the unseen to light , says Forbes.
It's not every day you get a film that took 20 years to make, but it's also not the sexy or politically correct kind of film that big festivals usually go for.
When I Was Water is about a very ordinary person who was extraordinary. She embodies the real-life experience of millions of women around the globe, and audiences will identify with that, except if perhaps they come from a so-called developed world' society. I think that it's an important film in that sense, that the untold story of millions of ordinary people has been captured in this one film that speaks volumes about the other stories out there, says Forbes.
We got the idea while making another doc in mid- 90s, to make a sort of Seven Up film but with one central character and follow them year by year rather than just every seven years. We never knew how the film would turn out, because we were following real life events in a classic doc manner.
Funding it was a nightmare. Everyone would say, Wow! That's amazing. What a great idea, etc, and then the funding would not materialize. It became the film that no-one wanted to fund, that no-one wanted to see, yet the response from initial screenings has been incredible, laughs Forbes.
It doesn't start with a bang, but you get drawn into the story and it is also amazing to see Marry-Ann become a woman in just 80 minutes. She had a roller-coaster ride through life, and fortunately we caught most of those moments, Forbes continues.
I got a Kenyan to edit the film. I had worked with Franki Ashiruka before on another co-pro in Nairobi, and we just clicked in what we liked and didn't like, the kind of music that we thought was appropriate etc. I had been so involved in the story, for so long, I felt I was too close to the subject matter.
Franki has lots of international experience, but was also a black African woman, who could bring that sensibility to the film, while maintaining the distance required so the film did not become an ethnographic portrait, but captured the nuances of the heroine's journey and emotions. I'm very proud of Franki, I think she did a fantastic job editing the film.
Forbes is busy negotiating a deal with the SABC for another of his films, the award-winning The Cradock Four, five years after he completed it in 2010 and won Best SA Documentary at Durban International Film Festival later the same month. The film was also nominated for the Amnesty International (Durban) Human Rights Award, but for some reason was never screened on public free-to-air television in South Africa. The Cradock Four was nominated for Best Documentary Script this year at the 2015 Muse Awards.
My films always take a long time to make, says Forbes. But this was exceptional. We had to watch how events unfolded and find a natural arc for the narrative to conclude successfully for Marry-Ann. We believe the film will resonate widely with audiences worldwide. It's a truly global story.
To view the trailer: https://vimeo.com/119625964
Website: www.wiww.co.za
SmartMonkey interview:
Social media handles
And
To check out the bfiff festival:
#bfmiff2015 @bfmiff @BGACentre
To contact David Forbes or get more pictures and information:
david@shadowfilms.co.za www.shadowfilms.co.za
+27 82 450 8003 @DavidShadowFilm
za.linkedin.com/pub/david-forbes/14/87a/b36/
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London's Black Filmmaker International Film Festival 2015 has invited the feature documentary When I Was Water to screen in Tottenham at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre between Friday 3 July and Sunday 5 July.
