BOTSWOOD: A dream deferred?

Source : Kutlwano

Author : Ndingililo Gaoswediwe

Location : GABORONE

Event : Interview

Article: Ndingililo Gaoswediwe

Photos: Ogopoleng Kgomoethata and Thompson Keobaletswe

I struggled to get sleep but then just when I thought I would drift into dreamland my eyes snap open. It is the chill from the sweat that is beginning to dry that wakes me up. I look at the clock. It is just past midnight.

While circadian rhythm sleep disorders are not part of “The worry list,” it is the poor body complaining from a negative reaction to excessive amounts of stress hormones that had been floating about in the week past.

It is the bad blood between me and my stepfather that is causing all this and I just thought to myself may be going to court will relieve me from this stress. Still struggling with insomnia, I develop the urge to take the legal route. –

Phew! Five minutes was just enough to go under the shower and get dressed. I lace up my sneakers and in the next 30 minutes I am dropping off a combi at a bus stop opposite Gaborone Technical College.

My destination is the foot of Kgale Hill where the The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency is located. I try to ask for directions from a Zimbabwean woman who ignores me as she continues with her search for piece jobs. Finally a teenage boy directs me to follow the tarred road that leads me to what was once a double mash wire security gate.

I am shocked to be welcomed by vandalized structures and bold graffiti on walls. Multi coloured broken beer bottles, cigarettes studs and dilapidated cardboard structures are a common sight as some people have turned this location into a dumping site. Abandoned mats woven from mealie meal sacks, an old duvet inner and jackets are a sign that Treadswell Shoe was once a temporary haven for some strangers. The hair salon has long been gutted by fire.

This is but a sure sign that The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency brand has faded due to harsh weather conditions so are Monate Garden Bar, Patel`s Emporium and Treadswell Shoes which completed the jigsaw. A spit away from the gate lies an open green power supply box, an indication that indeed there is no life here. Cattle dodge the city`s noise and pollution for a gasp of fresh air here.

When a film crew invaded this place some time between 2007 and 2008 to shoot The No 1 Ladies Detective movie, a dream was born. Government also sponsored the movie to a tune of five million US dollars. A lot was anticipated about the location especially for future local film makers. The hype then was that finally Botswana`s film industry has received a major boost and ready for a major take off.

But alas! That seems to have been just a dream that one might argue has since vanished like fart in the wind. What is now left of the location is perhaps symbolic of the harsh environment that the country`s film industry has to endure.  However, Botswood producer, Afentse Lekolwane, remains optimistic as she shares with Kutlwano her views on the industry.

“Film industry e a gola, go goleng gateng we have resources, people want to be actors, bana ba a rutiwa ko dikolong, government grants, we have places - awesome tourism destinations that can lure stars here,” she explains as Kutlwano photographer, Phenyo Moalosi, exposes her shy demeanor.

The producer of the popular comedy Beauty, explains that the local film industry is still at infancy stage. Consequently, there are numerous challenges that she chronicles and among them lack of interest by stakeholders, thus leading to a snail`s pace growth.

Poor quality remains another challenge. Accordingly, the youthful producer laments that the local film industry as one of the fields lagging behind though she sees light at the end of the tunnel. Lekolwane says in almost all its aspect the industry is not yet there - there are no trained actors, theatre arts schools that specialise in specific courses, script editors, to cite but a few.

“For now we will work with what we have until we get there because graduates cannot produce or edit something that you can sell,”  she reckons also decrying the lack of a distribution agency despite that one can on a good day produce a product that can penetrate markets.

Lekolwane, who in 2003 ditched her computer science carrier for the love of television productions and storytelling, says consumers expect high quality products but they must equally understand that there is always a starting point.

Though she has been lucky with her productions enjoying play on Btv, African Magic and Mzansi Magic, piracy continues to hit producers below the belt. “Go locker DVD is very expensive that`s why even stars music wa bone o piratiwa,” laments Lekolwane.

As such she adds that a proposal was made to Btv to promote homemade productions because, “even if you can write a good article as long as it hasn`t been published it is like you haven`t written anything. You have produced until it is broadcast”.

Obstacles, difficulties or challenges are part and parcel of Botswood, which leaves one wondering whether this “wood” would be a dead one or a log that can be carved and live longer.

Teaser:

“For now we will work with what we have until we get there because graduates cannot produce or edit something that you can sell.”