- Cape Town:
- +27 (0)21 468 6000
- Johannesburg:
- +27 (0)11 788 9879
- E-mail us:
- contact us here
RUGBY WORD CUP DOC SHOOTS ALONGSIDE EASTWOOD FEATURE
Liani van Straaten
The recent production of a fictional feature about South Africa's 1995 Rugby World Cup victory brought two of the most respected Hollywood stars to Cape Town. Director Clint Eastwood and actor Morgan Freeman's participation in the film Invictus was covered extensively in the press, but few people know that another film about the same topic was being made right alongside it.
The Challenge of Reconciliation, a socio-political documentary that focuses' on the broader impact of the 1995 rugby victory, was being shot at the same time as Invictus. The five week production was facilitated in Cape Town by The Fabulous Boomtown Boys, who are best known for producing commercials. With several budget cuts - even as the crew was shooting - producer Murray Macdonald says of his role on the production: "the difficulty was in creating a schedule that was constantly changing due to various production scenarios, whilst keeping an eye on the eventual budget costs".
Film maker and film historian Michael Wilson (who, by the way, has a PhD) directed and produced the film for High Wire Productions in the USA. His most recent projects include A Personal Journey Through American Movies with Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood: A Life in Film. It was while making the latter documentary that Wilson became interested in doing something on the topic of Invictus. Of his motivation to tackle the South African story, Wilson says: "Our documentary will chronicle, with great care and passion, the encounter of Clint Eastwood with Nelson Mandela and South Africa . It is at once the diary of a production - that of the most ambitious project ever undertaken by Eastwood - and an investigation of historical events that have spawned the rebirth of a nation - the Rainbow Nation".
The Challenge of Reconciliation explores Madiba's use of the national euphoria generated by the '95 victory to unite the South African population, still fragmented after the first democratic elections in 1994. The sport vicotory played a massive part in creating a positive atmosphere for the fledgeling democracy to start developing. In an interview with Variety Lionel Uzan, SND director of international sales and acquisitions for High Wire Productions, said the aim of the film is to "show a great movie figure [Eastwood] and a great political and historical figure [Mandela] both care about the ideas of justice and reconciliation in their respective careers".
French cinematographer Dominique Gentil was a logical choice as DOP because of his award winning work on a variety of documentary and fictional films, including the Oscar nominated drama Les Choristes (The Chorus). He chose the Panasonic Varicam camera, provided by Visual Impact Magus, for the entire shoot because it could perform both as a digital capture device for Television release and as a primary capture device for blow up to 35mm print. Dominique Gentil is very impressed with the service backup and the technical advice given by the Visual Impact Magus team. According to Gentil " the gear check was most professional, the camera and components were in a top condition and the technicians were knowledgeable and friendly".
In addition to coverage of Eastwood on the set of his production, interviews were conducted with a diverse collection of local role players including Adrian Vlok, Khoisan X, M Lekota, FW de Klerk, Desmond Tutu and Minister Trevor Manuel. The Challenge of Reconciliation is currently in post-production in Los Angeles and will be released in 2010 to coincide with the Football World Cup. Producers are aiming for worldwide television broadcast as well as a limited cinematic release.