COVID-19 and Independent Filmmakers

Before Netflix and COVID-19, going to the movies had a certain ritual: get a haircut, take a shower, floss teeth, clean clothes, pick up your in-house date or the few-blocks-down-the-road date, buy movie tickets and popcorn, watch ads that threaten to rip out your eardrums and finally, the featured movie.

The fascination with movies led to men and women who felt they could craft alternative stories not accommodated by the Bollywood, Hollywood and the Nollywood format. Nollywood is the term used for Nigerian cinema: movies in Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa and English. Nigeria is the second biggest movie producing country in the world, after India, the undisputed number one.

COVID-19 restrictions and their emphasis on less-contact-the-better, might result in less alternative cinema or, independent movies (indie). Why? Because most independent directors rely on smaller film festivals dotted all over the world, to showcase their first attempt at making a movie. 

Buzz is the word. Movies that create a buzz end up being picked up by even bigger film festivals like the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Movie executives that decide what we see in cinemas, also feel the buzz and ask movie directors out for coffee or dinner.

Therefore, independent film festivals are about making contact, human contact from screening movies, meeting other directors, workshops, media briefings to cocktail parties. COVID-19 has changed that. It had such an impact that indie festivals such as the Munich Film Festival, which should be on right now, did not happen.

Less contact. That seems to be the message for COVID-19 prevention. Less contact between human beings is a death knell for cinema, because physical contact drives movies, from setting up lights, make-up, feeding cast and crew to the director calling ACTION.

Independent filmmakers sacrifice family and money to make their first films. What keeps them going is the hope that they will attract attention at film festivals, leading to coffee invitations, dinner and cutting deals that will lead to wide distribution of their work.

That was before COVID-19. Wishful thinking is that the virus will be contained at some stage. Even if it is, restrictions such as six feet apart will be mandatory, such as fire alarms in your building and where you work.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.