SA film industry 'sinking'

Cape Town - Representatives of the South African film industry have complained to parliament that they are staring de-industrialisation in the face.

"If there is not an intervention we are on the risk of sinking slowly away," MPs were told by Tendeka Matatu, producer of the highly regarded film Jerusalema, who was speaking on behalf of the Independent Producers' Organisation.

The portfolio committee on trade and industry heard on Friday that - thanks mainly to the global economic crisis - advertising volumes were down 15% or more and there has been a severe drop in film investment.

The meltdown at the SABC has left half a billion rand virtually frozen, Matatu told members, and added that South Africa is now beginning to lag as a destination for filmmakers because of competition from other parts of the world boosted by financial incentives similar to those pioneered by SA's Department of Trade and Industry.

Both big and small players are shutting their doors, closing down or cutting back, volumes in the post-production sector have dropped by 70% with equipment being sold off (mainly offshore). "Established players are leaving the country. There is a brain drain," he said

Foreign films, he said, have dropped for the first time in five years, and 20 years of skills history is in danger.

"The service industry in this country has basically built up 20 years of skill and if we let ourselves fall behind on that we are in great danger of losing the foundation on the industry," Matatu said.

While grateful to the DTI for the incentive schemes development strategy of 2005, which has been crucial to the industry, and to the IDC and the National Film and Video Foundation ("although it is underfunded"), Matatu asked that the industry should be treated with short-term assistance as a distressed industry, and that the SABC should be given bridging help to enable them to pay their contractors.

In addition the SA Revenue Service, should revamp the Section 24(f) tax rebate scheme, although he admitted that it had been abused by the film industry in the past.

Matatu also called for a review of the copyright law which would free up people who were commissioned by the SABC to exploit their own work, which under the present law (and in most other countries) is regarded as the intellectual property of the commissioning organisation.

- I-Net Bridge