Making ‘Katutura’ Happen

In the darkest timeline, ‘Katutura’ premieres in 2008 as a made for television musical shot on location in the NBC parking lot, starring a yet unknown singer eager to make her filmic debut sometime after the news, some MTC breaks and the latest tragedy from Telemundo.

Through what can only be described as seven years of hardcore hustle, lauded local screenwriter, producer and lead actor, Obed Emvula, premiered his first feature film on the most esteemed movie theatre screens the continent has to offer amidst the biggest national cinematic hype the country has ever seen.

Though Namibia has been on varying levels of the ‘Katutura’ bandwagon for the last two years, Emvula’s journey began in 2008 when he had completed the film’s concept, a proposal as well as a business plan that highlighted the film’s commercial value and Emvula’s aim to take the film where the subject of Africa is most relevant and attractive. Places like Germany, the USA and China with hopes to push the film in Brazil.

“In 2008, ‘Katutura’ was meant to be a TV movie for NBC but it became more than that,” says Emvula. “At the time it could have been made and it would have been mediocre but I realised that this could be something with substance and the whole game changed because you create scripts for different platforms – television, arthouse or commercial. I wanted to take a Namibian story with international appeal all over the world. My idea was to start with Africa and move on to the rest of the world through the film festival and commercial circuit.”

With this vision articulated in his business plan since 2008, Emvula emphasises that one of the most important aspects of producing a film is knowing who you are making your film for and where you are going.

Once it had its new vision, the film’s first significant stop was the First National Bank Foundation who gave ‘Katutura’ its initial injection of N$500 000 in 2012. With a sizeable vote of confidence with which to entice potential investors, Emvula hit the pavement and pitched his script to businesses, individuals and foundations in various economic spheres.

This while securing his core crew including newcomer director Florian Schott who joined the project in early 2013 après beating out a long list of filmmakers interested in directing the project.

“We went door to door, we saw every ministry, every investor and even though we were often rejected, we never gave up. That’s the nature of the business, where one door closes another one opens,” says Emvula.

History will tell you that the doors that opened belonged to the Ministry of Trade, First National Bank, Offshore Development Corporation, the Namibia Film Commission, the City of Windhoek, Media Film Service (SA), Omaruru Beverages, Namibia Breweries, Ohlthaver and List and DB Audio, whose combined investment amounted to around N$8 000 000.

That’s the money they used to make the film but before that, Emvula spent all extra money on gearing up to find money.

“When you’re producing a movie, you know you’re gonna attach your savings because when developing a script, you need to hire script doctors, storyboard artists and line producers,” says Emvula. “This all goes towards planning the required infrastructure and putting a budget together for investors. One also has to consider buying laptops, writing software and affording oneself the time to write.”

Identifying a strong element of entrepreneurship in the pre-financing process, both Emvula and Schott make it clear that making a film requires personal and financial sacrifice, often for years.

“Whatever you make from other revenue streams is always plowed into your project,” says Emvula. “You pre-finance out of your savings and you have to sacrifice time and effort which you could have used to make money through something else to work on your film.”

His willingness to put his all into the project and forego holidays, nights out and tirelessly scout for locations in between listening to potential music is why Emvula chose to work with Schott, despite Schott having no real film credit to his name at the time of appointment.

“As a producer, you have to spread risk, you have to find partners because the very nature of the film industry is that it’s a collective,” says Emvula. “When making a film you can’t go over budget or time because that’s when it starts costing excess. This is why you have to have the right people in place from the beginning. Your editor, line producer, director of photography and production designer all work to finish the film expertly and on time.”

For ‘Katutura’ these roles were fulfilled by Haiko Boldt, Daphne Williams, Trevor A Brown and Bobby Cardoso respectively, alongside associate producers Mutaleni Nadimi, Ed Ehrenberg and Florian Schott. All of whom were on board by January 2013.

Just before Schott became a familiar face in Katutura, known for driving around in his white BMW in between storyboarding scenes and snooping around promising locations.

“At this stage I was driving around almost every day for three months, stopping to talk to residents and listen to music,” says Schott. “When not in Katutura, I was gathering or looking for film references while thinking about how we can make the film look and feel completely Namibian but with international production values and appeal.”

While this went on, the script, which at the time of shooting had been drafted over 40 times since 2008, was read by industry fellows such as Joel Haikali, Bridget Pickering, Thandi Brewer, Oshosheni Hiveluah, Tanya Detering, Tim Huebschle and Andrew Botelle.

“Everybody wanted this thing to be as good as possible,” says Emvula. “And when you open yourself up to criticism at this stage, your script can only get better. It wasn’t about ego, it was about what was best for the film and we got fantastic script input. The film got better through this process and we got to work in an inclusive and encouraging environment.”

This spirit followed through to pre-production and right through to the premiere which occurred almost two years after auditions in 2013.

The film then went on to secure financing until 2014 and began pre-production on 3 May 2014, followed by full script rehearsal at the Goethe Centre for 10 days, production on 24 May replete with 27 days of shooting followed by editing in July, sound, colour, music and all other post-production between September and November with the film ready to go by the end of November 2014.

“Our biggest blessing was that everyone participated because filmmaking is a military structure all going towards one vision,” says Emvula.

“Once people understand who the voice is, everything starts falling into place. When on set, the only person that matters is the director, not producer. After they can have a word, but it is really about discipline. Some actors want to be famous and that’s great but they have to realise that you need to be on set at 05h00 and leave at 21h00 and do things over and over again while dealing with the reality that you can still be making less than a waiter. But with the benefit of carrying your Namibian face internationally and helping other people who are coming up.”

As grateful as Emvula is to his cast and crew, he is also grateful to the government.

“The people who helped us are brave souls who said: We believe in what you’re gonna do and we’re putting our necks out,” says Emvula.

With 13 000 likes on their Facebook page and over 30 000 trailer views on YouTube as well as the recent ticket demand and call for more screenings, it’s clear that Namibians are eager to see themselves in a big and world class way.

“Everyone involved, on the sidelines and in the community gave so much,” says Schott. “Everyone knew there was no real money in being involved but we all wanted to change something and everybody made it their own. We couldn’t pay everyone well but our reward has been doing something Namibia hasn’t done before, something which we can truly be proud of and which will encourage film investment.”

Having premiered to a little less than 1000 Namibians at Ster-Kinekor last week to largely rave reviews, it is clear that quality local cinema has been lacking and deserves true and targeted development with the likes of Emvula and Schott leading the way.

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