movement

Hello blog! Back to the grindstone now - since last week all the buses came along at once (Clapham omnibus - see that's a cultural reference - which few here are familiar with & reminds me why I blog)

Anyway I signed a contract and received funds in my account all in the same week (plus it was my birthday - yeehaa!) Remarkable - since the contract was not for the big non-film jazz thing which will now take another couple of months to come through - but for a back burner script commission which has been under protracted discussion for nearly 18 months. In fact I'd rather lost faith that negotiations would ever get anywhere. Now I have to get on with it - hammer out a treatment in a week and a (brilliant) script plus revisions in a month (plus or minus) - just in time for Cannes. So after two months of faffing (well 'gentle contemplation') and tweaking my A5 booky thing, now have to get down to some real mental graft.

What else - was reading the Guardian tv blog to see how the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency 2 hour TV movie was received in the UK and perhaps predictably the audience was completely split - loving or hating it - with little middle ground - and most criticism levelled at the representation of Africa. Here's one comment from 'unclephaester' directed at reviewer Sam Wollaston; "when Sam says that there aren't enough black people on TV, he means "his sort" of black people. Blacks who conform to Sam's stereotypes and not those of other people." Ha.

Still I hope the series is flighted here soon. Since my daughter was born, I've tended to favour light reads - stuff that takes only a day or two and the No 1 series certainly fits. I'm finishing the 2 most recent books now. Few people point out how funny the stories are. I'm drawn to the way women bamboozle folk (mainly naive men)- maybe it is recognition. When I first came to live in Cape Town, I was probably a bit green and would stand by, uncomplaining when one or other of my hub's 3 sisters arrived, marched into the kitchen, tasted the food cooking on the stove before pronouncing disparagingly on the flavour. In the early days, in Montana, imposing neighbours invited themselves in just to comment on the shape and colour of washing on the line. Some even demanded old newspapers or bottles from the domestic worker (without my knowledge)! Now I put my foot down.

I must be grown up.

Anthony Minghella dies at 54

Oscar-Winning Director Anthony Minghella, who turned such literary works as "The English Patient," "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cold Mountain" into acclaimed movies, has died. He was 54.

His adaptation of McCall Smith's 'No 1 Ladies Detective Agency' is due to be screened shortly on BBC and 13 more episodes were recently ordered by HBO/BBC. (Photo: Jill Scott, Anika Noni Rose in a scene from the TV film)

More here: Daily Mail.
and Guardian

Bandwagon

Last couple of days been getting loads of hits from people searching for info on the forthcoming No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency movie (which I mentioned last year). Several hits from Botswana - possibly from disgruntled 'large sized' Motswana women who apparently aren't 'experienced' enough for the role of Mma Ramotswe - see this article here

Final update - Jill Scott to play Mma Ramotswe

Anyhow whattagoarrnhereso?

Finished the all-important 1 page outline (after first thrashing out a detailed treatment). Feedback is very positive - and after I've made further tweaks to the page (I seem to have short-changed POV for chronology just now) Mr friend-in-scripts has offered to put it forward. How's that for jumping on the bandwagon? There's also a couple of avenues I'll pursue direct.

Later

Africa Lite

Painting by Owusu-Ankomah

Ok so on to Africa Lite posited as a new genre - so this will probably be a long meandering ramble over several posts...

Over the last 7 years we've seen a slew of good to brilliant award-winning films coming from these shores - all of them skewing towards 'darker' subjects. No matter, there's still huge antipathy (in South African audiences) towards 'worthy' or 'political' local films. It's well known that only Schuster's fairly un-exportable brand of slapstick and MTV style youth comedies pull SA audiences in their droves. A cry oft repeated (at Sithengi and on moviezone discussion groups) is 'we need lighter films'. Less drear, more cheer. But can we do light? And do we really want to? Or is Africa Lite a Hollywood skewed economic imperative at odds with Africa's complex history and even more complicated present? Hmmm maybe you can answer that...? (ha)

I'm going to talk about Minghella's forthcoming No1 Ladies Detective Agency movie (or will it be the 'Tears of The Giraffe' adaptation now?) The book has already inspired several productions at the Beeb - see article here: You can probably listen to it on the 'Listen Again ' service - but I haven't managed to find it yet.

Minghella's film is due to shoot in these parts sometime next year. In many ways McCall Smith's detective series typifies Africa Lite - with pleasant African settings and colourful characters and 'small town' outlook with an accent on traditional values and virtues. The mood is kept light - moments of sadness are quickly overtaken by cheerful humour or comic oddity. Nasty stuff (AIDS, poverty, domestic violence etc) is pushed firmly into the background. This is 'feel good Africa' for Western audiences.

And maybe this is why folk seem peculiarly polarised in their opinions of the Lady Detective series - either loving or hating it. I'm even going to suggest that these opinions are polarised around race. The novels certainly hold an appeal for middle England (even middle America) - gentile, travelled white ladies of a certain age - Archers listeners perhaps? Go on now, punch me madam. Whereas black women seem to hate them - just talk to Facety about McCall Smith (and outsider's perspective and authorship and cultural authenticity!) But this is only a straw poll - and not very reliable. Just to prove it - I admit I'm a fan. Though I have to claim more than a passing interest here, since a few years back (one of SA's producers has/had the rights) I lobbied to do the adaptation (and received a pleasant enough reply alluding to re-decorating issues..hmmm).

Anyway, Mma Ramotswe has all the potential to be as magnificent on the screen as on the page. But please no Joan Armatrading, Oprah, Queen Latifah or Whoopie Goldberg! And there you have it - casting famous black Americans (or Brits) as African characters - the first of many pitfalls...

..to be continued...