SA Rocks

I blogged about the disturbing and gripping documentary SA, Murder Most Foul last week. It has proven to be a hot topic with a quite a few lengthy and rational comments. Thank you for those comments.

One of the people who commented was the director himself, Jon Blair. I emailed Mr Blair and I asked him if he would be interested in contributing in some way to this blog. What we decided on was an interview. Here is what he had to say:

Many people watched your documentary titled South Africa, Murder Most Foul. Why did you choose to create this documentary now?

Like most of what I do, it isn’t so much a question of choosing to do something at a particular time but about how things fall into place and when. As I think I have said elsewhere, Tony Sher approached me about trying to make a film about the murder of Brett Goldin and Richard Bloom less than a week after they were killed during Easter 2006. Once I had figured out what film I actually wanted to make, which involved using the Goldin Bloom murder as an entry point in order to examine South Africa’s current problem with violent crime and murder, then it was a question of getting the funding. As it happens that fell into place relatively quickly since Channel Four in the UK agreed to put up sufficient of the money to allow my company to deficit fund the balance. Just for the record though I will almost certainly never see that deficit back as films like Murder Most Foul only have a very limited worldwide market, but I am absolutely certain that it was completely worth doing even though it will show a financial loss.

The film was more or less completed by the end of 2006 but then, because we had been given privileged access to quite a lot of the sub judice material relating to the circumstances of the Goldin Bloom murder on the understanding that it would not be released until after the court case of the two accused had been completed in the Cape Town High Court, we had to sit on the film until that process saw its way through. The two accused pleaded guilty and were sentenced in May of this year, so that’s when we could finally complete the film and have it released.

Initially there was no interest from any South African broadcaster in showing the film but thanks to the Encounters Film Festival whom we approached at the very last minute, it had its first world premiere at their festival in Cape Town. Shortly after that, thanks in no small measure to the persistence of Brett’s mother, Denise Goldin, Mnet decided to acquire it for which I am extremely grateful.

Sir Antony Sher with posters featuring some of the 50 a day victims of murder in South Africa

Taking in to account what you created with regard to the documentary, will you ever live in SA again, or even return for that matter?

The documentary has nothing to do with any decision I might have made some time ago that I would be unlikely ever to permanently settle in South Africa. I have now spent well in excess of two thirds of my life living either in the UK or the US; my wife, children and grandchild are English and my home is London. That having been said I have this immense love for the country of my birth and early years. The crucial test of course is whom I support when South Africa plays England in cricket, rugby and my greatest sporting love, football. That answer I am going to keep to myself and it differs according to which sport you are talking about!
However, since 1991 I have been able to freely return to South Africa which is something I now do with great frequency and I have been lucky enough to be able to spend many very happy family holidays there with my children. Interestingly, immediately after returning to the UK after the main filming trip in 2006 for Murder Most Foul, my wife and I agreed that it would be great opportunity to combine our next family holiday in Cape Town and the Transkei with the scheduled dates for the Goldin Bloom court case, which is indeed what we ended up doing. So I certainly wasn’t put off by the terrible facts I was dealing with in the film and yes, I will definitely be back again.

Are you hoping that the documentary will win you another award or is your hope that it will mobilise some sort of change?

Awards are the last thing on my mind when doing my work. I have been fortunate to win a few in my time but I never set out on a project intending to win something. That would be absurd. However I am very clear that to get any sort of satisfaction from my work I need not only to entertain, but also hopefully to change at least a few peoples’ view of the world they live in, in a constructive and positive way. This is why I have always worked in what they called the mass media – sso that I can reach as many people as possible and not simply preach to the converted. Whether in comedy, drama or documentary, that is my personal mission statement.

At the same time I am completely realistic that films or television in and of themselves change nothing. It is people who change things. So, if I can change just one or two people, then maybe they will go on to change a few more, and so on until one sees real change in society.

Why do you think that our country is in such dire straights?

In many senses, South Africa is not in “such dire straights” as you put it. I am told by people who know more about these things than I that the economy has never been healthier for example, though that is not to say that it could not be in even better shape. In addition, as Albie Sachs says in my film, people are not cowed or persecuted because of institutionalised and legal racism. That having been said there are obviously issues which are helping to undermine all the many achievements of the last 13 years. AIDS and crime are obviously right up there at the top of that list.

As regards the latter, it doesn’t take a genius to give at least some of the reasons behind this, though what I think is obvious might seem to others to be controversial or difficult to accept. So my list of some of the causes of South Africa’s problem with violent crime is as follows, though in no particular order or priority:

• the legacy of apartheid.
• great wealth alongside of great poverty.
• the history of violence in the society.
• an undervalued, under-trained and under-resourced police force.
• the demographic bulge which means that a disproportionately large group within the population are also at the moment the most likely to be perpetrators of crime, ie 16-30 year olds
• the fact that many of this same group are also the sons of the so-called “lost generation” from the 70’s and 80’s, and have consequently grown up with little or no concept of the meaning or value of “society”, family, or even their own lives.
• a government that keeps looking to short term solutions and targets alongside of an element of denial, all of which is bound to lead to failure, rather than applying joined-up thinking to creating and implementing policies that are based on an acceptance that public perception that all sectors of the population are victims of a massive crime wave, and that this represents something that must be incorporated into government action rather than being sneered at.

Do you think education and empowerment can help to fix the problems, starting with our youth?

If you accept my list above, then it is self evident that both education and empowerment can contribute to solving the problem, but in and of themselves they are not the sole solution. As I said, this needs joined-up thinking and a willingness to really engage with all groups in society to seek out solutions.

You are South African born, but left a fair while ago. Would you credit your success and your skills to SA in any way?

Sir Antony Sher interviews former gangster general Thomas Nqolobe for Murder Most Foul

This is an impossible question to answer. Both myself as an individual, and my work, are products of my entire world experience, both before and after leaving South Africa when I was drafted into the apartheid army, as well as the opportunities I have either chosen or been given at one time or another. However if you are asking whether my support and sympathy for the underdog, the little guy who has no voice for themselves, and my strong revulsion at injustice, is in some way related to my origins in apartheid South Africa, of course they are. I came from a relatively privileged background as a white middle class South African but I chose a different course for myself. So yes, South Africa is in my blood and in my belief system.

You have won an Oscar an Emmy and a Grammy award. This is incredible. What motivates you to make award-winning media?

I hope I have answered that in my earlier reply. At the risk of repeating myself, I am not motivated by the desire to win awards but they are a fortunate by-product of the work I do….fortunate at least in terms of my bottomless need for reassurance and my insecurity that the work is never good enough.

Do you have any hopes to promote, inspire, mentor or educate young South African film makers?

Absolutely. But how to do it and in what forum I have no idea. Much of what laughably passes for my “career” has come about as a result of accidents and chance circumstance so who knows, someone out there reading this may have a brilliant idea as to how that could be facilitated and I will respond accordingly.

Have you seen any great South African films or documentaries lately?

Tsotsi of course was a fantastic achievement. It was also shot by my friend and colleague Lance Gewer and I think he did a brilliant job with it. I won’t pretend that I am up to date or knowledgeable about the South African movie making scene so I feel very ill equipped to answer this.

What are you favourite films of all time?

That’s a hard one. Recently I thought “Lives of Others” was a brilliantly executed piece of story telling. But on a completely different note I also loved “Pulp Fiction” and “The Shawshank Redemption”. In documentaries I can tell you I hated “Fahrenheit 9/11” as I thought it was a fundamentally dishonest piece of film making while I thought Michael Moore’s earlier “Roger and Me” was terrific. Ultimately I find it impossible when comparing unlike with unlike to draw up a definitive list of favourites I am afraid. Sorry to chicken out!

I would like to thank Mr Blair for his support of SA and his contribution to SA Rocks. Please feel free to contact me if you have any ideas regarding promoting of SA documentary makers. I will try my best to relay the contact to Mr Blair.

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• South Africa, Murder Most Foul
• Crime is on the rise – a comparative look
• SAPS Journal Online
• Million Man March – We weren’t a million but we were strong
• A post from a reader – get involved

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