Namibia Film Commission invests N$1,9m in local film

The Namibia Film Commission (NFC) recently made history by awarding N$750 000 towards a government sponsored feature film, ‘Land of the Brave’ by Tim Huebschule, to go into production soon.

• NDAPEWOSHALI

SHAPWANALE

The financing forms part of a film project by the commission for this financial year.

The commission spent a further N$1 million on short films and documentary projects.

Oshosheni Hiveluah and Virginia Witts of Clever Cogs Production, with their short film ‘Himba Girl’ and Miranda Stein and Sophie Mukenge Kabongo of Red Hot Productions with their film, ‘Soul Taker’, each received N$200 000 towards the development of their respective film projects.

Africa Productions, Aron Karirao and Brian Kanambunga as well as Andrew Botelle and Nocky Kaapehi were the proud recipients of N$300 000 each for their respective projects, ‘Game On’ and ‘Waterberg to Waterberg – Namibia’s Ovaherero in South Africa’.

NFC Chairperson, Roselia Penda, said the commission was pleased to hand over the funds to the winners of the competition. She added that she was also pleased with the interest shown by the film makers.

“Call outs were made in the newspapers a while back and we have received many entries, especially for the documentaries, for which 19 entries where received and nine entries for feature film projects. We then had to go through them and set up a time frame where each of the applicants had been given an opportunity to pitch,” Penda said.

She added that the N$1,9 million investment is likely to be pushed to N$3 million. Huebschule said that he is very grateful for the support the NFC is giving to film producers in the country, especially because film makers find it difficult to obtain funds to develop their films.

“I am very honoured to make the first feature film with government funding, when I submitted the film, I was not certain but hoped it would be selected. The feature is a film we can all relate to and after working on its fourth draft, I can’t wait to entertain and at the same time deliver a message to the audience,” he said about the social drama and crime story.

Nocky Kaapehi said that he sees the opportunity as a platform for the indigenous people to tell their own history. “I thank the Film Commission for giving our people the opportunity to tell our own history, the people who were part of the history are dying and leaving us with half baked stories,” Kaapehi said.

Although some of the filming is set to start soon, the feature film may only start filming in a year.

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