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A last-minute entry at the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) proved to be lucky when local film “1960” won an award.
The film walked away with Best South African Feature Film award at the DIFF Award ceremony on Monday night.
The film features stars such as Zandile Madliwa, who plays the lead role, Sanda Shandu, Ivy Nkutha and Chris Gxalaba.
According to directors Michael Mutombo and King Shaftthe, when film editing was completed, all festivals, including DIFF, had already closed.
A brave move taken by the distributor of the film forcing organisers to watch it after the closing date yielded good news for the team.
The film was added on the list and was even chosen to open the festival.
Co-director and cinematographer Mutombo said: “It feels amazing. It is a lot of validation to prove that we were not crazy when we shot it. As an artist you need that validation. “It is great news that we won when we came into the picture late. We had already given up on entering it because we got delayed by the editing process. When the distributor took a chance, it worked. Now that we won at DIFF we are going to enter it in the Oscars and other international festivals.”
The title “1960” is inspired by Sharpeville massacre of March 21 1960 when 69 people were killed when police opened fire on demonstrators against “pass laws”.
Mutombo said they wanted to make a film influenced by the love for jazz music and so much politics.
“We wanted to make a film that is in that era but not strongly focused on politics.
“Basically, between ourselves as producers, we love jazz and we created this world around 1960,” he said. “We wanted to tell a story of this young woman and the love she has for music.”
The jury defined the film 1960 as a powerful historical re-imagination that lays bare some of the chasms of trauma in our history and the effect this has generationally.
“We come from a legacy of a lot of pain and a lot of secrets,” said Mutombo.
“The film offers a sensitive portrait of a powerful woman with full agency, and highlights a narrative sensitive to gendered erasure.
“The film also does a beautiful job of portraying the historical period, offering a window to the past.” — sowetan.
Online Reporter