Hot Docs 2019 – Scenes from a Dry City
Gripped by a fear of drought, Scenes From A Dry City uses the lens of water to reveal cracks in Cape Town’s complex social fabric.
Interview with Writers/Directors Francois Verster and Simon Wood
Watch Scenes from a Dry City here:
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
FRANCOIS: Simon and I both live in Cape Town. At the beginning of last year, the public was suddenly receiving warnings that the taps may be turned off - and predictions were being made ranging from exploding sewerage pipes to typhoid epidemics to social insurrection. Many wealthier Capetonians actually left the city for Johannesburg, the supermarkets ran out of bottled water after panic ensued and people started stockpiling, and there was a general sense of simply not knowing how life would proceed should there be no water. The government issued photos of water distribution points which would be controlled by the army and would mean queues of tens of thousands of people every day; the public was asked to befriend elderly neighbours and to assist them when the time comes; schools issued warnings of possible closure.
We were both intrigued by the way hidden social dynamics were coming to the fore in the process and we both saw a great opportunity for a film that looked at Cape Town through the vehicle of a crisis that went across the board. I had made a film called Sea Point Days that consisted of vignettes of life in a specific part of the city, and Simon had made a film called Orbis which uses powerful single visual scenes as a medium for storytelling - and we both felt that the situation presented a golden opportunity to deliver a highly creative insight into the bigger societal issues we have explored in our other films. I was in discussion with various people about doing something - and when the opportunity to do something for Field of Vision came up it totally made sense, both because of the urgent timeline and because of being able to contain a very big subject in a tight, limited form.
SIMON: Every man and his dog wanted to make a film about Cape Town being the first major city to run out of water last year. Most of these films were expository documentaries positioned around a sensationalist armageddon. I am not and never will be an environmental impact/social justice type of filmmaker, I saw an opportunity to use water as a lens to explore societal dynamics in a place which is rife with inequality. Thematically I was interested in natures indifference to man, which allows the film to use water a neutral device to travel through Cape Town’s surreal maddening at the hands of disinterested mother nature.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
FRANCOIS: The water crisis we experienced last year is by no means limited to Cape Town alone - all indications are that this is a sign of things to come around the world. What the viewer will hopefully experience is an insight into the social fragmentation - and perhaps also cohesion - that might occur in this kind of situation. Apart from that we also like to think that the film is beautiful and that it works on deeper emotional or perhaps more existential levels.
SIMON: Because it's beautiful and it has soul.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
FRANCOIS: The film is not strictly “personal" in the sense that it follows one or two characters or the obsessions of either one of ourselves as directors. In a sense, the main character in the film is water - it flows through the city, but is indifferent to what happens to it…. We thought this would be an interesting perspective on human life. As above, Cape Town had a unique set of factors leading up to the crisis - some environmental, some climatological, some political, some management-related - but water shortages are also becoming a universal concern.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
FRANCOIS: We started off hoping to do a long series of vignettes around Cape Town but in the end limited the number - we felt it worked better within the form. Originally, the film was also going to be more character-led - but in the edit, we found that the tonal development allowed by the short form was a more powerful linear device.
SIMON: Francois is South Africa’s greatest observational filmmaker so I was obviously really keen to work with him! My films have been driven primarily by a strong visual aesthetic and less concerned with narrative so I thought if we collaborated it would be an interesting clash of documentary personas. The film evolved to accommodate our different approaches and oddly I think the film works best when it intercuts between our separate styles: the golf scene in the empty canal (filmed by me) blends really well with Francois observation of the protest march. I hope these contrasting styles, opinions, ideas lead to something unsettling that connects with a broader idea around perception and reality.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
FRANCOIS: The festival response has been excellent - we premiered in competition at IDFA, won the Best Mini-Documentary at Big Sky, and are currently showing both in and out of competition in a ream of other festivals. The film was posted on The Atlantic site and has received close to a hundred thousand views. Judging from the comments, some Capetonians are concerned about the negative representation of our city since the water crisis is seen as reducing interest from tourists - but others, we felt, fully understood and appreciated what the film tries to do.
SIMON: I loved a review Eva Hong posted in Duke University’s The Chronicle she wrote: “The ending reveals two common fates in the drought – a yacht parked by some happily flowing water, and a small fish, caught by human greed, barely breathing and surviving”.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
SIMON: The critical feedback perhaps made us more aware of the sensitivities people have towards the potential practical impact of films. Neither of us is primarily “impact”-style filmmakers, and our aim with films is usually to provide a human or aesthetic experience of, or philosophical or social insight into, a situation. So while the film definitely aimed in the broader sense to raise awareness of the impact (and dangers) of coming water shortages, we did not think it through at the level of “marketing” of a city… Some comments on the website also criticized the lack of factual information - but that was not unexpected.
FRANCOIS: What has been surprising for me, at least, is how many opportunities there are for short documentaries both online and at festivals. It is not really a form I have worked in much before.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
We are hoping to increase viewership and, of course, interest in the issue.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
It would be great for the film to have further exposure at festivals, in the media, or on television.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
Firstly, we would, of course, like to draw attention to the crisis itself - and to the social issues that are brought to the fore by it, and to show what is happening here might be a harbinger of future situations elsewhere in the world. Cape Town does have a specific set of circumstances - but it does seem as if what we experienced last year is going to become commonplace around the world. The debates around political responsibility, alternative water sources (such as desalination plants), socio-economic rights, privatization and so on are by no means resolved - and it would be good for different centres to engage on how problems are or are not being resolved.
But the film also aims to work at a more existential level. One guiding idea we had was to try to think through what it would mean to see things from the perspective of water itself, one that is indifferent yet central to existence and binding everything together. The hope was that this would then also open up a different kind of look - one that is visual, emotional, perhaps at some level philosophical - at the very tough debates on race and economics raging in the country over the past few years - in a way, both the harsh divisions as well as the connectedness of Cape Town’s human population are revealed.
And then, of course, we wanted all of this to function partly through the cinematic qualities of the film - so that people have an experience of aesthetic beauty (or at least power) which allows a different (and possibly, at a push, deeper) kind of political engagement with reality at hand.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
“What happens to an already divided society when hit by a water shortage?”
Would you like to add anything else?
We would like to thank Field of Vision for the opportunity to make a creative film in a free manner, and also for their support.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
FRANCOIS: Simon and I are hoping to enter production together soon on a film entitled Zephany: The Hidden One, which tells the story of a baby that was stolen two days after birth and was miraculously rediscovered 17 years later. I am also working on a partly fictionalized documentary on Nobel-prize winning author JM Coetzee, and am part producing a film by Shameela Seedat on the African Human Rights Court’s yearly student moot competition.
SIMON: I am about finish my feature documentary Untamed which was selected for the Venice Films Festivals Final Cut in 2018. I have recently started production on my first Virtual Reality piece Container which I am making with Meghna Singh, the project was recently selected for National Geographic Grant so we are hoping to finish before the Sundance deadline!
Interview: April 2019
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Scenes from a Dry City
Gripped by a fear of drought, Scenes From A Dry City uses the lens of water to reveal cracks in Cape Town’s complex social fabric.
Length: 12:46
Director: Simon Wood, Francois Verster
Producer: Laura Poitras, Charlotte Cook
Writer: Francois Verster, Simon Wood
About the writer, director and producer:
FRANCOIS VERSTER is an Emmy-award winning documentary filmmaker and lecturer based in Cape Town, South Africa. His films include The Dream of Shahrazad (2014), Sea Point Day (2009), The Mothers' House (2006), A Lion's Trail (2002) and When The War is Over (2002).
SIMON WOOD's Untamed (2019) is in post-production was recently selected for the FINAL CUT in Venice 2018, Scenes From A Dry City World Premiere in competition at IDFA 2018, The Silent Form World Premiere Hot Docs 2016, Winner of four South African Film and Television Awards, Orbis International Premiere Hot Docs 2015, Forerunners - IDFA 2011 (Best of the Fests).
LAURA POITRAS has received numerous awards for her work, including the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for Citizenfour, about Edward Snowden.
CHARLOTTE COOK is a producer, known for Risk (2016), The Gospel of Eureka (2018) and Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018).
Looking for: film festival directors
Facebook: Field of Vision
Twitter: @fieldofvision
Website: fieldofvision.org
Other: IMDb
Made in association with: Field of Vision
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Vimeo