South African Biz Reinvents Itself Three Decades After Apartheid’s End

As South Africa marks three decades since its first democratic elections, a historic moment that dismantled the apartheid system and ushered in Black-majority rule, the country is at a crossroads. Inequality is rife. Crippling blackouts have pushed the economy to a tipping point. The ruling African National Congress — the party of Nelson Mandela — is in crisis, at peril of losing nationwide elections this year for the first time since it swept to power. For many South Africans, the heady promises of that democratic transition have largely been left unfulfilled.

It is a moment of reflection and uncertainty, too, for the country’s film and TV industry, which amid the broader soul-searching is still striving to find its identity. “In many ways, you can say the industry is growing. It’s booming,” says Layla Swart of Yellowbone Entertainment, whose credits include the Canal Plus-Showmax epic fantasy drama series “Blood Psalms,” co-created by producing partner Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, as well as Qubeka’s Toronto premieres “Knuckle City” and “Sew the Winter to My Skin.” “But then, in many ways…I think it’s been unstable and chaotic.”

On the surface, there is much reason to cheer. No country on the continent has benefited as much from the disruption of global streaming platforms as South Africa, where competition between Netflix and homegrown rival Showmax has fueled a surge in production. The Los Gatos-based streamer — which entered the South African market in 2016 and released its first African original, the Pearl Thusi-starring spy thriller “Queen Sono,” in 2020 — continues to make South Africa a focal point of its pan-African expansion, inking deals with many of the country’s top creators and production houses.

Showmax, meanwhile, has continued parent company MultiChoice’s three-decade investment in boosting the local industry, raising the bar for domestic commissioning with a slate of high-end shows including the anticipated 10-part crime series “Catch Me a Killer,” starring “Game of Thrones’” Charlotte Hope, which has sold wide for Abacus Media Rights ahead of its competition berth at Series Mania later this month.

The upsides for local producers are clear. “It’s completely changed the options for the independent producing sector. Budgets have gotten better. You’re finally able to pay people a decent wage. You’re not asking for favors,” says Stan Joseph, whose Ochre Moving Pictures has a multi-title deal with Netflix to adapt multiple books for the streaming service alongside filmmaker Akin Omotoso (“Rise”).

“There isn’t a pressure to turn a 10-part series around in three months,” he continues. “You have the time to develop stuff, you have the budgets to add skills to the value chain. You can have script editors, you can have consultants. Suddenly, you’re able to do the kinds of things that most people take for granted anywhere else in the world.”

The lure of deep-pocketed streaming services, however, has shifted the priorities for many in the industry. “We have to lean more towards making a certain type of fare for the streamers. We’re pushed even more into the commercialization space,” says Swart. Fewer filmmakers are taking big creative swings on the kinds of movies that have global reach not because of streaming platforms, but due to prestigious festival berths and critical buzz. “In the last decade, there’s been fewer and fewer titles made that are high arthouse, partly just because it’s so difficult to get them funded,” says Helen Kuun, of indie distributor Indigenous Film. “There’s certainly a motivation to make commercial content, or that can have wide appeal.”

“Cash flow-wise, immediacy-wise, there is no way to sustain oneself without making these major deals with the streamers,” says Swart. “In terms of creating an authentic auteur or authentic directorial voice, it’s not going to happen. I can’t finance something like that.”

She adds: “It’s dire. I think we’re a bit directionless at the moment.”

COVID, economic crisis stunting industry’s growth

The coronavirus pandemic escalated the move to streaming platforms for audiences in South Africa, where authorities implemented one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in 2020, and cinemas were shuttered for six months. In the four years since, the theatrical market has hardly made up any ground. After total box office approached close to $100 million in 2019, according to Box Office Mojo…