Started in 2007 in partnership with the Encounters Film Festival and the Tri Continental Film Festival, the second People To People International Documentary Conference nearly didn’t happen at all because of the loss of the Johannesburg leg of Encounters - just one manifestation of the troubled times experienced by the South African film industry. This year, the event was paired with the Tri-Continental Film Festival and benefited from the presence of international directors who were guests of the Festival.

Tri-Continental’s Arya Lalloo said, “People to People was smaller this year and of course one was aware of some depression among local filmmakers.” She added that there was, however, a positive aspect to the conference in that, “Interaction with international documentary makers taught our filmmakers that they are not alone in facing difficult times arising from budget cuts, media convergence, prescriptive commissioning procedures and obstacles to freedom of expression.”

The conference was held at the Goethe - Institute in Parkwood, Johannesburg in September 2009. The keynote address was delivered by Harriet Gavshon, producer of Ordinary People, a pioneering independently produced current affairs documentary series transmitted in 1993. In her address, A Vision for Public Broadcasting, Harriet traced the history of public broadcasting over the past sixteen years and tackled uncomfortable truths about the actions of government in the new South Africa - and the inaction of filmmakers - which have led to the present situation. Her succinct conclusion is that: “Public broadcasting is making programmes for citizens - not consumers.”

The importance of the address lies in her insight to the relevance of the documentary genre for democracy and how it has been stifled in this country. To attempt to summarise the address would do it an injustice. You are urged to read the entire document here.

An early session titled Regional Filmmakers Respond to South Africa’s National Chauvinism dealt with a theme which has been bubbling under general discussion of filmmaking on the African continent for a while. The 2008 outbreak of xenophobic violence in South Africa exacerbated the perception that our status as a regional power has led to arrogance. The situation has not been helped during the past year by our preoccupation with a dysfunctional national broadcaster. Later, at the final session of the conference, a Zimbabwean delegate and active member of the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI) pointed out that, “South Africans tend to look at their institutions and problems as if they are not part of the African continent. The problems facing South Africa today are the same problems that the other 53 countries have encountered before.”

In many ways, filmmakers here are (or perhaps, have been?) better off than in many other African countries. Simon Wilkie points out that the “crisis situation” in South Africa is the norm for him as a Namibian filmmaker. “Our national broadcaster never pays for films anyway, and doesn’t commission, so we don’t have that safety net.” The result is that he and other African filmmakers are probably more resourceful and outward looking. Simon adds: “Things have certainly become more hand to mouth, but I’ve had to adapt. I take more stills photographs, I do small corporate type films for a variety of organisations at the lower end of the scale, then at the other end I was lucky to do a five week shoot in Angola for a UNESCO annual report. If I hadn’t got that, I’d be in real trouble now, but that’s just the way it is.”

The TVIEC opened the final session of the conference by presenting a draft declaration for comment and input. The full document can be viewed here.

A certain amount of “crisis fatigue” was evident from remarks by several delegates. On the other hand, their increased enthusiasm after experiencing interaction at nuts and bolts level with visiting filmmakers was encouraging.

Many realised that this element of interaction between filmmakers is exactly what is missing from the local industry. As a delegate pointed out during the feedback session on Saturday afternoon: “I think that it is a shame that we only have one forum a year where filmmakers can get together; We need a forum where we can join a group, have screenings and discuss things as filmmakers on a regular basis.” Chair Rehad Desai responded by saying, “Well, you get it started among yourselves as filmmakers, and we’ll help you organise it.”

Unless broadcasting as a whole in South Africa is overhauled, many filmmakers may well have enough time on their hands – unless they head off to discover the rest of their own continent and learn to make films for new markets.

Digby Young