Quicksummer Entertainment LLC

South Africa's Parallel to Gavin Hood's Oscar win of Tsotsi

In the year 2000, Sam Bhembes, a young economist who had been at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) for seven years in various capacities was promoted to head the media & motion picture: strategic business unit in South Africa. It was towards the end of his MBA studies in Holland that he began to think about what to do when he returned home. Start a new unit from scratch ... A unit whose concept was believed to be: "We have tried that and know it does not work." These were the notorious "Section 24F" times when film financing's main attraction was tax rebates, not Oscars. They formulated their financing principles and then went around the world to benchmark. They found their principles to be in line with those of Barclays in the UK and Imperial and City Bank in the US. They found that southern Africa was almost made for moviemaking. At its roots, Tsotsi is a coproduction. That the producer, Peter Fudakowski, CEO of The UK Film & TV Production Company and the man who together with his wife bought the rights to Athol Fugard�s novel, found director Gavin Hood in LA ... Fudakowski. Sam has since left the IDC for a corporate banking job but not before he built a team that is recognised worldwide in the film-funding trade... led by Basil Ford. Without Sam Bhembes, supported by the Basil Fords and with the backing of the Dave Lewises, there would be no Tsotsis, Oscars or export successes for SA. Full story: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A180071
2006-04-09 02:35:35