Craig Freimond releases his second feature, Jozi

UIP will release writer/director Craig Freimond’s second feature, Jozi (formerly known as Stiff), on an optimistic 42 screens on 26 February 2010. The black comedy follows James (Carl Beukes), a comedy writer who’s lost his sense of humour because he’s fallen out of love with Johannesburg. “It’s an unconventional love story about a guy who learns to love a place that everyone loves to hate,” Craig explains. Johannesburg, with its crime, electric fencing, and feather duster sales men, is an unlikely romantic lead.  “It’s not easy to turn an intangible thing into a character, and yet it has been done in films like LA Story or Manhattan. The US are particularly good at mythologizing their cities,”  Craig says. A “quasi-satirical, contemporary, quirky comedy” style emerges when you compare Jozi with Craig’s first feature, the cocaine comedy Gums ‘n Noses. He acknowledges this is something he nearly lost after his debut, a period in which he increasingly found himself in demand as a screenwriter for hire. “A lot of what I was asked to do was outside of my style. It’s taken me a long time to get back to that, film-wise.” He credits VideoVision, who commissioned the film. “They were the first to say: ‘What do you want to do?’ rather than, ‘Can you adapt this book or write this sort of film?’ They had the balls to say: ‘Try it again’ and just let us go.” Jozi has more weight than Gums ‘n Noses. “One of the criticisms of Gums ‘n Noses  was that it was a bit shallow, whereas with this movie we tried to do something that was funny but had a bit of heart. I‘ve always been obsessed with the gag, so I get nervous if people aren’t laughing. It’s been a journey for me to learn that sometimes people need to not laugh and take information in.  When I watch it now, the poignant and  reflective moments are some of my favourite parts.” Technically, Jozi’s benefited from Craig’s time as a commercials director at Machine. He entered the film industry from a theatre background – Gums ‘n Noses was a play he was asked to turn into a feature - so he’s been on a steep learning curve. “If commercials do one thing, they make you concentrate on the minutiae, so I had much more of a sense of the visualization of the film this time.” He also surrounded himself with a quality team that included Tsotsi DOP Lance Gewer and editor Megan Gill. One of Craig’s strength as a director is in the space he gives his actors. “Sorted was revelatory for me in many ways,” he says, referring to his International Emmy nominated comedy show with Lionel Newton, who also appears in Jozi. ”It showed me that you can completely improvise, which I’d only tried before on the stage. It’s such a powerful tool. You write in isolation and you’re not necessarily writing for that specific person – I didn’t know it would be Carl. If you know before you can really guide what you write to a specific person. But if you’re not, you’d be foolish not to allow a certain amount of leeway to make the script their own and to go one step further and to have the opportunity to play – which is always something you have to fight for on a movie.  It’s like jazz; people need to know the script but feel free to work within that. I love it when there’s stuff in the film that I didn’t write; if I wanted complete respect for my  words, I’d be better off writing novels.”  One of the subplots the local industry will relate to revolves around a sitcom called Jozi Jives. “It’s a satirical take on a certain mentality you find in South Africa, where we think we can adopt a weird format from overseas and think it will work here while we ignore the reality of our world.” Despite Sorted’s success, Craig’s disillusioned with the local television industry. “Sorted was great, but no one cared about it or wanted it afterwards. The SABC is like a bank – every time you go in there, you’re dealing with a different person.” Craig acknowledges that the film’s depiction of white insecurity in the new South Africa is a minority experience. “It’s a funny thing about this country – you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. If I wrote a township story, people would say: ‘What do you know about it?’ But if I write about myself, I have to fight for that too. The only thing that I can do is try and be specific and hope that it translates to other people.  That’s going to be the test of the release.” Kevin Kriedemann

Tags:  la story  jozi  gums 'n roses  sorted  manhattan  sabc  videovision  kevin kriedemann  lance gewer  craig freimond  lionel newton  carl beukes