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South AfricaThemba steals in order to provide for his younger brother; but crime affects everyone and his “sacrifice” leads to a devastating discovery.
SynopsisJohannesburg. A young teacher greets her class. The learners stare. Her face is mottled with bruises. Meanwhile, Themba endures another day as a security guard, stationed on a block in the posh Northern Suburbs, a coil of wasted energy. Just like the gargoyles that face him across the street, he is merely a symbolic deterrent. By day, he plays the role of protector; by night, he is the threat. Themba relies on crime to supplement his meagre income. He steals to give his younger brother the life he himself could never have. His transgressions enable him to provide the opportunities the child needs to be successful in the new South Africa. But crime affects everyone, and his “sacrifice” leads to a devastating discovery.
THE GARGOYLE
Throughout European history, Gargoyles have been silently watching. Symbolic guardians, built to perform both a practical task (water drainage) and a fantastical obligation (to frighten away potential intruders or evil spirits). A gargoyle in South Africa may seem novel, but the influence of colonialism is far reaching. As colonial relics, these Gargoyles serve as stoic reminders that while colonialism may have crumbled, the effects of colonialism still haunt South Africa, contributing to contemporary disempowerment. Such symbolism is lost on Themba. He feels affinity for the stone creature watching him from the other side of the street. They are both guards. They both represent a threat. They both invoke fear. They both spend their days stationary, watching. They are both limited. Just as the Gargoyle provides a face for the wall it adorns, Themba provides a face for the block on which he is stationed. And just as the Gargoyle is a symbolic protector, so Themba feels as though he is nothing more than an ornament.
CONTEMPORARY ROBIN HOOD
The human species is adept at justification. Ethically questionable behavior is often explained away. And yet there are a number of actions that mankind generally accepts as, well, unacceptable. The Ten Commandments provide an excellent summary. “Thou shalt not steal” is number eight; although the tale of Robin Hood introduces a context in which something ‘wrong’ can be justified as ‘right’. For many children, the story of Robin Hood may very well introduce the first streak of grey in an otherwise black and white moral code.
Today we have many Robin Hoods, but they are usually not celebrated. Regardless of the motivations behind a robbery, the act is illegal. For those who have never been driven to steal, it is very difficult to imagine a circumstance where the action could be justifiable. Surely the individual driven to such an act is lacking in some other area of life.
But what if there exists in society a subset of people who truly cannot find any other way. What if their decisions to commit crime are not evoked by any failure on their part – but a flaw in the societal framework? It is easy, even comforting, to believe that those who commit illegal acts are flawed or daft or morally bereft, because that’s the simplest answer. But as the Robin Hood tale suggests, life is never black and white. Our story proposes a circumstance in which the decision to partake in crime is based upon a ‘worthy’ aim. We do not intend to justify the action, but we do wish to call attention to the fact that such scenarios can – and do – exist. And there are heavy consequences.
A CITY OF CONTRASTS
Johannesburg is a city of contrasts: a forest rises above concrete, men sniffing glue guard fancy cars, a mother begs for change with a baby tied to her back, flowers bloom among spikes adorning the top of a gate. The red earth attracts and repels, it is red like a heart but also like blood, red like clay but also like rust. The threat of crime seeps into the pores of the city. In the suburbs, walls that surround each house and create forbidding blockades. They hide secret gardens, they warn and they beckon, they protect and they taunt. The city is besieged, as though the land strives to overthrow the pavement. The people are conquerors, beating back the wild, insistent that they will have their city. And yet the siege is also welcome: the vegetation is so vibrant, the foliage so rich. The jacaranda blossoms cover the broken bottles and cracks in the pavement. The beauty of the land contrasts with the electric fences, the barbed wire. It is hard to imagine that a place this beautiful can hold such danger.
ELSEWHERE
Why do so many young people go looking for ‘something’? What inspires the desire to experience ‘somewhere else’? The previously disadvantaged struggle to rise, and the privileged go seeking the dirt. Tara serves as the archetypal example of the girl who goes looking for the wolf, desperate to satiate a void she cannot fill, an emptiness she cannot explain. Tara cannot escape the nagging feeling that her life in the States is artificial: designed to satisfy, but meaningless. Danger, fear and hunger possess a romanticized intensity she finds lacking in a life where commercial images create false desires, and material objects provide false comfort. Strip away this mirage and the land is barren, the people numb. Tara’s own emptiness gnaws at her. And so she goes seeking the great ‘somewhere else’, to find a life that is vivid, different, full.
For those who are raised to believe that they are the lucky ones, it is easy to expect the outside world to be chaos. Initial forays often find travelers more surprised by the similarities they encounter than the differences. On the other side of the ocean, cultural barriers, threats, strangeness are all expected. It is the similarities that shock. They bring sharply into focus just how easily ‘the other’ could be you. For those who are visited, these explorations can seem ludicrous, even insulting. What motivates someone who seems to have everything to risk their security? And yet these voyeurs are so often trying to escape their own conceptions of what it is to be trapped. Trapped in a life with no meaning, no substance.
When Tara is robbed, she pays the price for her willingness to venture ‘elsewhere’. She must accept that her choices – to be displaced, to find ‘meaning’ – have led her to this moment. And she is changed. Only with experience has danger become real. For the first time, she is able to understand motives and choices influenced by fear, and efforts made to avoid such fear at all costs. For the first time, she can understand why some people may view her other life – her false comforts, her commercially prescribed desires,
her warm, bland artifice – as a luxury. Every type of life has its price.
COMMUNITY
On the chalkboard behind Tara, the word ‘community’ fades into black, the subdued remains of an earlier conversation with her class. Community. A difficult thing to define when so many of a city’s inhabitants do not know their neighbors. What makes a community a desirable place to live? A sense of togetherness. Of sharing something. Block parties. Neighbors who help carry groceries. What is a neighbor? Someone who says hello when you pull into your driveway. Or who trims your hedges without you asking. Or plays music too loud and keeps you awake. Or feeds your cat. Except when the leafiest suburbs, the most idealic neighborhood blocks, are characterized by impenetrable walls rather than manicured lawns, the definition of neighbor morphs. Neighbor is the person you glimpse disappearing behind a closing garage door, the person with the rooster windchime on the roof, the person who might feed your cat, the person who decorates the top of their wall with shards of glass rather than electric fencing. Little clues. But not an identity. Not someone you can say you know. The walls of Johannesburg shut out such meetings, such sharing. Community is lost.
Crime in South Africa is a harsh reality. Fear, suspicion, distrust – all consequences. In a culture of fear, community is beaten. If given substantial evidence that the world wants to hurt you, it seems only logical to invest in stronger locks, louder alarms, higher walls. People create their own worlds behind these walls – worlds defined by those individuals ‘they let in’. Family. Close friends. The occassional plumber or electrician, hired from ‘a company that you can trust.’ What do these walls teach to the children who grow up behind them, or to those children who grow up on the outside?
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Directed by
Kelsey Egan -
Written by
Kelsey Egan -
Produced by
Kelsey Egan, Teboho Pietersen & Jessica Kaye - Gargoyle Website
Written by: Kelsey Egan
Produced by: Kelsey Egan, Teboho Pietersen & Jessica Kaye
Cast
Crew
Palm Springs International ShortFest
Rhode Island International Film Festival
Strasbourg Film Festival
Lucas - International Festival of Films for Children and Young People
Ourense Independent Film Festival
New Orleans Film Festival
LA Femme Film Festival
Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival
Bahamas International Film Festival
Beloit International Film Festival
The story . . .
Gargoyle showcases the raw beauty of Johannesburg while simultaneously providing insight into the poverty and crime that plague the city. The film exposes the lengths a young man will go to see his younger brother succeed. Barely able to provide for his own basic needs, he will stop at nothing to afford his brother with the opportunities he needs to be competitive in the ‘new’ South Africa. The story explores the reality of those who depend on crime to sustain their livelihoods, and the complexity of crime in South Africa.
The executive producer . . .
Gargoyle is executive produced by NICRO, the National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders (www.nicro.org.za). As an act of support for NICRO’s programmes, the Gargoyle team has also produced a direct response segment to share NICRO’s admirable anti-crime and reintegration efforts with both local and international audiences.
In addition to providing a substantial portion of Gargoyle’s production funding, NICRO was enthusiastically involved in the development process. Working with NICRO, the Gargoyle creative team organized a final script workshop with actual rehabilitated offenders who have completed NICRO’s programmes. On 25 October 2008, they spent the day working intimately with these former offenders, exchanging stories and working through the shooting script. The feedback received was invaluable, assisting the Gargoyle creative team to create a portrait of Johannesburg that truly speaks for its inhabitants.
The Gargoyle film has been donated to NICRO for use in their crime prevention and rehabilitation programmes. The film will be used to incite dialogue and debate surrounding the effects of crime – not only on the victims – but also on the perpetrators and their communities. It is hoped that the film might encourage possible perpetrators to consider the effects of such violence not only on their victims, but also on their own communities and more intimate relationships. By submitting the film to international festivals, the Gargoyle team hopes to share contemporary South African realities with the rest of the world.
The cast . . .
Tongayi Chirisa. Jessica Kaye. Lillian Dube. Jackie Pickering. Quanita Adams. And introducing Vuyo Mathani. It’s unusual for a short film to gather such a strong ensemble cast, but the Gargoyle film managed to do just that – and boasts some impressive performances. “We were so lucky to get Lillian, Jackie and Quanita, Andreas and Cobus. All the cameo parts. We called and explained what we were doing, what the project was for, and they all just said yes. It’s amazing how giving everyone was.”
Kelsey and Tongayi became friendly on the set of Mr. Bones II, and when the approximate shoot dates for Gargoyle were confirmed, she asked him if he would be interested in playing the part of Themba. “I remember the exact moment I first looked at Tongayi and saw him as Themba. I hadn’t seen him since the Bones shoot, where I was used to seeing him in costume. This time he was in street clothes, and it just clicked. I’d been trying to think of who would be the right actor – who would have both the skill and intense presence – that I needed for this character, and there he was, standing right in front me.”
Vuyo was a much more difficult part to cast. Kelsey searched high and low, auditioning countless child actors and even auditioning the members of various youth theatre groups in Soweto and Alexandra. Yet none of the children she auditioned felt right for the part. “The problem was that I’d written the part for a specific child – a boy I’d met by chance on Gleneagles Road – and I couldn’t get him out of my head. He has a quality about him, a spunk, that grabbed me. Except then he disappeared. I hadn’t seen him for nine months, and had no idea what had happened to him.” As she still had not managed to find a child that seemed right for the part she had written, Kelsey decided to renew her efforts to track Vuyo down. On her way home from a casting one day, Kelsey happened to spot some boys around Vuyo’s age hanging out near her house. She decided to take a chance, and asked if perhaps they knew a child named Vuyo. For the first time in months, the answer was yes. With the help of these boys, she managed to hunt Vuyo down. He had moved to Brixton – another neighborhood about fifteen minutes away – which explained his disappearance. Kelsey phoned Vuyo’s mother – explaining to her that her son had inspired a role in a short film – and that she was hoping she might be able to audition him for the part. Vuyo’s mother arranged for Kelsey and Teboho to come over the very next evening to audition Vuyo. “And that was that. He wasn’t an actor, but he was the part. We couldn’t deny it. So even though we knew we’d need to work with him a lot, we felt like it was worth it. We were lucky to be able to rehearse with him for about two weeks prior to the shoot. We went through all the basics, the difference between ‘trying to show’ an emotion or a reaction and actually allowing yourself to exist in a moment and experience these emotions or reactions naturally. It was amazing to watch him as he began to understand the difference.”
The sponsors . . .
The Johannesburg film community were incredibly supportive of the Gargoyle film. Many companies sponsored the project with their time, expertise and equipment. Panavision was so generous as to fully sponsor an Arri SR3 camera, and the Movie Camera Company (MCC) agreed to partially sponsor all of the lighting and grips equipment in a phenomenal package deal. Visual Impact sponsored VT equipment and an HD Deck for post production, and A2Z Radios fully sponsored walkies. Kodak sponsored 7 rolls of film stock, and Refinery VFX (previously known as Video Lab) and the Film Lab were able to offer unbelievable discounted rates. The Gauteng Film Commission also assisted as much as they could by financing a portion of the post-production budget.
The crew…
“I wanted a first AD that knew how to handle a first time director, but who I also had a personal relationship with – someone I knew I could trust when she told me I was out of time. That’s why I asked Inna to come out. I couldn’t imagine shooting my first film without her.” With the exception of Inna, Mike & Kelsey, the Gargoyle crew was entirely South African. Inna and Mike worked for free, and most of the South African crew agreed to work for reduced rates. They believed in the project, and so were willing to accommodate the tight budget. In addition to professional crew, approximately 1/3 of the crew was composed of trainees. These trainees were able to gain experience working alongside some of the most reputable and experienced HODs in Johannesburg.
The kids . . .
The shoot also provided the exciting opportunity to engage South African primary students in the filmmaking process. Gargoyle contains school scenes that required the use of Grade 7 students. As part of the location agreement with Parkview Senior, Kelsey Egan and Jessica Kaye held a film master class for the Grade 7 learners. They received an overwhelming response from the students and subsequently – working closely with the school – organized approximately forty learners to participate as featured extras and background cast in Gargoyle’s school scenes. The students selected for the classroom scenes even participated in an Acting for the Camera master class a week prior to the shoot. Kelsey was thrilled to be able to provide these learners with the opportunity to gain acting experience on a professional film set, “Such engagements are extremely rewarding, as they enable the community to actively contribute to the art.” Ironically, Jess later discovered that her own father had attended Parkview Senior as a boy growing up in Johannesburg. She was able to connect with her own past as she portrayed a teacher at the very school her father had attended as a boy.
The music . . .
The music found in Gargoyle is an essential element of the story, reflecting both the flavors of the city, as well as the eclectic blend of traditional and contemporary culture found in contemporary Johannesburg. In an effort to share the talent and diversity of local South African artists, Kelsey invited both aspiring and established musicians to compose original music for the film. As many as twenty artists contributed to an impressive total of 15 songs. Wounded Buffalo Studios – who generously donated their producers’ time and their immaculate facilities – both recorded and fully mastered many of these compositions. Then, working with Emmy Award winning composer Kevin McDaniels, Kelsey began the difficult process of selecting compositions for the film. “All the tracks were so strong, we had to make some very difficult choices. We did our best to select the pieces that most effectively contributed to the themes and tone of the film.” Kevin then interwove these pieces with his own score. While Kelsey always wanted local music in the film, she also felt it was incredibly important to have a skilled Composer put all the pieces together. “Kevin was recommended by one of Jess’ friends. I approached him three months before we started shooting, and just from reading the script he had the most amazing understanding of what the score required – he put down on paper the ideas which I’d only just begun to formulate in my mind. I was impressed by how present and accessible he was from the very beginning – even before we’d started shooting. And then, once we had the final cut and he was able to really get started, it was such a pleasure to work with him. He has the most amazing instincts for where to place a piece of music, and his compositions fit seamlessly with the local tracks we provided. We were incredibly lucky to have him on board.”
Post Production . . .
Post production on Gargoyle took place over an incredibly compact three month period: December thru February. The film was mastered in early March. Kelsey remembers, “At first we had toyed with the idea of waiting to do post in NYC, but we were getting such incredible deals and it was really such a South African project, we decided to keep everything in the country. Besides, by December I realized that there was no way I would have been able to let it sit. I wouldn’t be able to bear the wait.”
Kelsey worked closely with her editors and sound designer. “I was incredibly lucky to learn from such a talented post production team. Tanja Hagen waded through all the footage and my equally dense notes to assemble the strongest material, and together we put together a rough cut. Unfortunately she was in the process of a move to Cape Town, so wasn’t available to continue work on the film. It was Christmas at that point, and I was thinking ‘How the hell am I gonna find someone to take this film where it needs to go at this time of year?” But then a personal friend of mine mentioned an editor named Bridgette Fahey-Goldsmith. She agreed to watch the cut and had the most fantastic, intelligent advice about where to tighten, what to cut, etc. She had just finished working on a film called “White Lion”. Her assistant on that project was an extremely talented young editor named Bronwyn. Bridgette recommended that Bron come on board, and that she would supervise. It was an amazing combination, they are the main people responsible for enabling the film to be as strong as it could possibly be. And then of course Jim Petrak got to work on the sound design, and filled in all the missing pieces. You don’t realize how much sound really contributes to the emotional content and beats of a film – and it was amazing to sit back and watch him bring together all these elements. It’s truly amazing the extent to which even the smallest sounds can intensify the visual impact of a film.
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Director
Kelsey Egan
