LOTTERY FUNDS SOUTH AFRICAN GAY MOVIE

The Out in Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is making a R6 million full length South African gay movie, and it’s being funded by the National Lottery.

In April 2011, the festival applied for a grant to the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF) to make the feature film.

On Tuesday, it announced that the application was successful, and that it had received funding to the value of R5,999,756 from the NLDTF to make the movie, which will be shot and completed in 2014.

“The intention is to develop and produce a three strand, interwoven script and film that relates and honours the lives of South African gays and lesbians and the multiplicity of their experience,” said the festival.

The first phase of this project will be the development of the script. OIA has called for screenwriters who have experience in the field but have never made a feature film to come forward.

Three scriptwriters will be selected to write the film. There will also be a future call for directors and producers.

In other good news, OIA also announced that, thanks to funding from the National Film & Video Foundation, it will be able to put on a festival in October in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

Following the withdrawal of one of its major funders from South Africa, OIA has faced an uncertain future. The latest development means that the festival will continue, at least for this year.

The festival pointed out that the R6 million from the NLDTF is for making the feature film and not for the running of the festival.

“So please, those of you who contribute, either through the 8333 or the MySchool initiative, we still need your continued support to keep the festival happening,” urged the festival’s Sharon Jackson.

For more information on OIA’s call for scriptwriters, click here.

For more information on contributing to the OIA Film Festival through the MySchool initiative, click here.