SABC Protest more and more media, and some humour for a cold and wet day.

We have been sent some more links relevant to last week's protest, which we thought might be of interest to you:

Firstly our industry media friends at Screen Africa have published a great gallery of photos of the protest. These can be accessed here.

They also wrote one of the best articles that we have seen on the march. It can be accessed here. We are grateful to have an industry specific media in South Africa which supports and understands the issues we face as an industry.

News24 published an anonymous letter from an ex SABC staffer / industry producer which raised an extensive debate. You can see it all here.

Finally, we thought it might be a good idea for us to relate to something we have all seen over and over, in a way we have never seen it. Recognise any of these lines spun to us by the SABC, E-TV, M-Net or even a corporate client? This little video looks at "The Vendor (that's us) / Client relationship - in real word situations".... good for a laugh, but also a scary reminder that we ultimately do need to make money for what we do.

DFA DocLove Nights Presents the times of Harvey Milk

The DFA run a very popular documentary film slot with the Labia cinema in Cape Town. Check the latest screening on as part of this DFA strand of screenings. If you are a DFA member you get to go for free on the opening night, on other nights you get a discount at the Labia.

DFA DocLove presents

The Times of Harvey Milk

at Labia on Kloof, Cape Town

Thursday, 18 June 2009 at 20h30

Free for DFA members on opening night!

The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)

A film by Rob Epstein

In 1978, Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco city council, becoming the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California. One year later, he and Mayor George Moscone were shot and killed by Milk’s fellow council member, former police officer and firefighter Dan White. The Times of Harvey Milk recreates the tumultuous story of Milk’s grass-roots political organizing and election, through the shocking murders and their repercussions—from the eloquent candle-light memorial joined by tens of thousands of San Franciscans on the evening of the assassinations, to the angry mobs who stormed City Hall, breaking windows and torching police cars in the aftermath of the lenient sentence White received at his murder trial.

This classic portrait of communities in conflict has won countless awards, including the Academy Award for best documentary feature, and was voted one of the best documentaries of the decade in an American Film Magazine critics’ poll.

SABC Protest Video Johannesburg

SASFED Treasurer Member Michael Lee produced this great coverage of the Johannesburg Protest last week. Michael has asked you please input as to what could make the video worthwhile to go further (local festivals, etc). There is lots of footage available, and he wants to cut this into some format if there is interest for this. Please comment via YouTube.

Thanks to all those involved in making this possible.

Sithengi - Who is who, and latest presentation.

At the SASFED SGM last month there was a presentation from Sithengi, giving an update on what is happening regarding Sithengi this year.

It was confirmed in the presentation that DAC has agreed to "bail out" the loss experienced by previous Sithengi board, and to allow Sithengi to go ahead as a focused market this year. The volunteer committee has been working within their means with no support or finance for almost two years now to get to the point where all debt from the past can be accounted for. This is required so that DAC can release the money they asked for.

As a result of the shortfall in finance the current board has not been able to implement communications systems with the wider industry as yet, but hope to do so as soon as the past issues are resolved.

SASFED thought it would be useful to all their affiliates to find out WHO is currently on the Sithengi Board, and what their positions are, that way if you have questions, you can address them appropriately while full communication is restored. SASFED will gladly facilitate an introduction to the Sithengi board for any industry organisation who needs one.

The current board are:

1. Faith Isiakpere is Chairperson

2. Judi Nwokedi is Deputy Chairperson

3. Carolyn Carew is Treasurer

4. Firdoze Bulbulia - Media Liaison/ Spokesperson

5. Theo Seanego - Legal

6. Catherine Meyburgh

7. Dorothy Brislin

Also, Sithengi was to give a longer PowerPoint presentation at the SASFED SGM, but due to time and technical restraints that was not possible. As such they have kindly provided a copy of the presentation, which can be downloaded here.

We hope that Sithengi does resolve the outstanding hurdles left to overcome, and that we will indeed see a much needed market this year still. Certainly demand will increase tremendously if we as producers win the battle for IP ownership with local broadcasters, then we certainly need a market. We look forward to further updates from the Sithengi Board, and will keep you all posted as we get them.