Film-Makers Hustle Through Lockdown

THE Namibian film industry was affected greatly by the state of emergency declared by the Namibian government in March this year.

According to veteran actor and movie producer David Ndjavera, the slowness of the industry was caused partly by the regulations set by the government that limited crowds to 50 people, and social distancing.

Ndjavera, who starred in ‘Taste of Rain’ (2012), ‘Katutura’ (2015) and ‘Hairareb’ (2019), says only three film-makers – Oshoveli Shipoh, Senga Brockerhoff and Vickson Hangula – worked throughout the lockdown period this year.

“People involved in the making of a film will always exceed the allowed number of people gathered at one place during the lockdown period. Nonetheless, a small number of film-makers thrived as they managed to put together small-scale films.

“This was definitely not a good year for the film industry, and a large number of actors and actresses, not forgetting the many directors and producers, were also left out in the cold. It’s sad because some of the people in the film industry survive solely on making films,” Ndjavera says.

He has been in the game for over 30 years, won awards and acted locally and internationally.

Vickson Hangula, another veteran in the Namibian film industry, echoes Njavera’s words, saying the bigger part of the industry this year came to a complete standstill.

“The lockdown and regulations that came with it was not well received by the film industry, because a lot of people were left without jobs. But the slump cannot all be blamed on the lockdown [. . .] people with money just refused to fund the industry.

“I think people thought they have to save their money in case something more serious comes from the lockdown [. . .] A lot of businesses also retrenched their workers,” Hangula says.

A screenwriter, playwright, producer and director with his own production company, Hangula’s talent is bringing words to life.

Meanwhile, producer Senga Brockerhoff was lucky to have finished three short films during the lockdown.

Says Brockerhoff: “We were fortunate to have finished shooting just a day before the state of emergency was declared. Otherwise, I could not have imagined what could have happened to my production team and myself. We were only left editing during the lockdown and it was very challenging because we were not allowed to sit together to do the editing [. . .] we had to communicate through our cellphones.”

Brockerhoff, who owns Pegasus Entertainment Productions, says the fact that she had to do the editing with three different directors of three different short films by phone made life very interesting.

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