6 January 2008
Broadcast Dates for Ikon on SABC2

 

Episode 1: Sunday 20 January 2008, 21h00, SABC 2

Featuring: Biko's Children, Spoon 1, Grumpies, Lowrider, A Woman's Place

 

Episode 2: Sunday 27 January 2008, 21h00, SABC 2

Featuring: Amina my Daughter, Spoon 2, The Zone, Russell Tribunal, Brush

 

Episode 3: Sunday 3 February 2008, 21H00, SABC 2

Featuring: Pam & Ashraf, Spoon 3, Sitting on the Fence, Hidden, Boogie Woogie Pappa

 

Episode 4: Sunday 10 February 2008, 21H00, SABC 2

Featuring: Blakbox Suite, Galamsey, For the People, Clyde, See Me Hear Me

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2 January 2008
SABC screens Ikon films

From the January 20th 2008, SABC2 will be screening Ikon Documentaries. Watch this space for details.
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23 December 2007

Ikon Filmmakers traveling the world

 


Makela Pululu











Vuyisa Breeze Yoko

Filmmakers Vuyisa Breeze Yoko and Makela Pululu have been selected for the Berlinale Talent Campus six-day creative summit for up-and-coming filmmakers in February 2008.  Makela Pululu's most recent film proposal, Forgotten Gold, was one of the 12 chosen projects for the 2008 Doc Station! The Doc Station will take place during the Berlinale Talent Campus. More information is available at www.berlinale-talentcampus.de

 

Biko's Children, Pam & Ashraf, Brush and Blakbox Suite have been selected for the 10th International Film Festival, Mumbai organized by the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI).  Congratulations to these Ikon filmmakers. For more details visit www.iff-mumbai.org

 

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28 October 2007

Ikon on SABC

 

The first Ikon Series was presented to the SABC commissioning editor on Friday, 28th September 2007 way ahead of the TX date set for January.

 

Ikon SA was discussed as a production model for training and development at the People to People Documentary Conference in Johannesburg during September 2007.  What was of particular interest to the delegates is the mentoring component of the project. The project was commended for allowing filmmakers to retain substantial rights to their film including adaptation and distribution rights.
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29 September 2007

Ikon films are a hit at the Tri Continental Film Festival

 

BIKO'S CHILDREN, the lead film directed by Breeze Yoko, in the Ikon South Africa short documentary series was given the Tri Continental Film Festival Audience Award for BEST SHORTDOCUMENTARY.

 

The Festival Directors said this about the film:

"The timely screening in Jo'burg of Vuyisa "Breeze" Yoko's film coincided with the 30th anniversary of the death of Steve Biko. In the film, Yoko questions whether people who use the name of Biko today actually understand his message. Inevitably this led to some serious debate in the cinemas, and resounding appreciation of this film."

 

MR DEVIOUS, MY LIFE, an excerpt of which features in the Ikon South Africa documentary series, has won the Tri Continental Film Festival Audience Award for BEST SOUTH AFRICAN DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM.

 

The excerpt included in the Ikon series is titled For the People.  

The Festival Directors said this about the film:

"John Fredericks' deep felt tribute to a lyrical legend, Mario van Rooy, otherwise known as Mr Devious, won the accolade for best local film, among a selection that was hard to beat.  Perhaps it is John Fredericks' searching POV throughout the movie that makes us wonder why the best have to die young. In a sense, as the communities come out to mourn the death of a hero and Fredericks' revisits van Rooy's eternal message, an answer emerges. He's a legend because in life, as well as death."

MR DEVIOUS, MY LIFE has also won in the category for Best Feature Documentary at the Hip-Hop Odyssey Awards Ceremony at the 5th annual H20 (Hip-Hop Odyssey) International Film Festival awards on June 16, 2007 in New York City. Mr Devious, My Life was selected as the opening film at the Rialto: Cinema South Africa in Amsterdam in November 2007.  This was its European premiere.

The Ikon South Africa production team is proud to feature an excerpt of the Mr Devious, My Life film in the final episode of the series.  The excerpt was arranged by Associate Producer and Devious' wife, Natalie Van Rooy and is entitled, For the People. For the People features some of Devious' best music videos and Devious' characteristic strong social commentary. View the Mr Devious website at www.mr-devious.com


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26 July 2007 

Post Production Phase

 

We have finalized a contract to license the film, Sitting on the Fence by Rhodes University graduate Janelle Scrimgeour for the Ikon series and the Tri Continental Film Festival will be including locally produced Ikon films in their screenings. The website for the Tri Continental Film Festival is www.3continentsfestival.co.za

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30 March 2007
Ikon Films into Preproduction

 

March was the start of the Pre Production phase of Ikon. Ikon filmmakers and Executive Producers had two Update & Planning Sessions in Johannesburg and Cape Town.  Each filmmaker was then scheduled for a One on One session with the Executive Producers to discuss treatments, production logistics and scheduling. Our Swedish partners from Story AB, Goran Olsson and David Aronowitsch arrived in Cape Town during this month and met with all the filmmakers and engaged with them about their story ideas and treatments. We made contact with Film schools and other organizations asking them to submit completed short documentaries for licensing for the series.

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27 February 2007
Shortlisted Film going into production

Filmmakers who have been shortlisted for the Ikon season 2007 have received letters of interest, and we are looking forward to commencing production in March 2007.

The shortlisted films will be published on the website as soon as filmmakers have submitted revised treatments.  If you have not been contacted and would like feedback on the proposal you submitted please contact Esley Philander, the new Ikon co-ordinator at Tel: 021-9331514 or email: info@ikonsouthafrica.com

Please note that the new broadcast date for Ikon is scheduled for September / October 2007.

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15 December 2006
Ikon South Africa - The first season confirmed for 2007

Dear filmmakers,
Finally, after much ado, we have a deal with the SABC - one which we believe is a win win win for all the stakeholders. It is a license deal, and we are now preparing for the first 4 x 48 series scheduled for TX in June 2007. 

The deal is interesting because all the ikon filmmakers will retain substantial rights to their film - including adaptation and distribution rights.  As filmmakers we need to continue to leverage our intellectual property, our stories, our craft.  As the curators of the series, we intend to distribute the series on the internet, on dvd and through broadcasters - the ikon south africa series.   

And about the films.  A shortlist was developed after the workshops held in 2005.  The selection panel, included swedish, south african series curators, and the sabc.  As it has been over a year since we last spoke about the films we will be contacting the filmmakers for an update on the films. 

We also will be issueing a call for finished short documentaries from South Africa and Africa.  If you have a non-fiction short film you would like to submit for license to the Ikon documentary programme - please post or courier it to the Cape Town office before the 23rd of January 2006.  If you are submitting a film from outside of South Africa please ensure that your film reaches us before the end of January.  VHS, DVD, accepted.

More updates to follow.

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8 March 2006
Ikon South Africa Update

Dear filmmakers,
As you all know the Ikon process has taken long to finalise and we are happy to report progress in the project. One of the films that started out as an Ikon short documentary film in 2004 has now blossomed into a feature documentary film - Mr Devious - my life (www.mr-devious.com). This film was partly funded by the Swedish South African Culture Partnership fund.

We are this month finalising the arrangements for the SABC platform after which we will be contacting everyone about the status of their films, and feedback on the next round of ikon workshops which will focus on pre-production. We expect the swedes back in April, to attend the Pan African Film summit and begin pre-production work on the Ikon short film project. In the meantime keep on networking and building stronger films and film regions. For more information you can contact Vaughan or Martina on 021-9331514 in Cape Town, or Eugene on 0835042089 in Jozi, or visit the website www.rainbowcirclefilms.co.za

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10 August 2005
Reportback to Filmmakers

ABOUT THE IKON SOUTH AFRICA DOCUMENTARY PROJECT
Ikon South Africa is a collection of short documentary films packaged for broadcast and distribution that includes a selection of short documentary films from a diverse range of independent filmmakers in South Africa.

Rainbow Circle Films have taken the concept (originally IKON, produced by Story AB for SVT in Sweden) and piloted a South African version to create a platform for short documentary films screened to a national and international public television audience.

 

 The aim is to allow as diverse a range of filmmakers as ossible to make the films they have always wanted to make - from the young filmmakers to the highly experienced, from artists wanting to explore the video medium to activists wanting to raise issues they are passionate about.

After three years of developing the Ikon South Africa Short Documentary Showcase nine short documentaries have been completed, with 5 of them having being broadcast by SABC 1 in 2003 and in 2004 as well as the Ten Years of Freedom Film Festival in New York in 2004, Film festival Afrika in Belgium also in 2004.