The awards won by the film 'The Great Dance' are all the more impressive considering that the film was made without a major broadcaster attached. Producer Ellen Windemuth (Off The Fence - The Netherlands) reveals the background: "The Great Dance and its three-Panda-win have sparked a lot of thought and discussion among producers and commissioning editors about what natural history really is. Clearly, the film marks a departure from the pure behavioural animal film, not only because there are people in it: the story itself ties man and animal together with the social circumstances both find themselves in today. The film is a real matter of the heart. Originally, a team of four people united to make a film about tracking. The directors, brothers Craig and Damon Foster, are fascinated with the ability of the San people to seemingly merge their minds with animals and thus predict where to find them. This means an ability higher than reason and empirical knowledge, comparable to a top physicist devising a theory and reasoning his way backward. Craig and Damon asked our Executive Producer James Hersov, and me to join them in their quest to get to the bottom of this. The tracking film turned into a respectable documentary about tracking and conservation. However, we were not satisfied. On location, Craig and Damon had witnessed a chasing hunt -- a ritual hunt where a San hunter runs down a Kudu until it collapses -- which made us feel we needed to go deeper. We decided to raise extra funding, use our credit cards and make a second film about the issue that interested us most: the depth and nature of the San's relationship with animals, and man and animal's social circumstances today. Our German co-financier Kirch Media backed our idea, and we began the extra shooting. We chose an editing process where we placed layer upon layer of imagery, with constructed minicam sequences to get as close as we could to the subject matter. Writer Jeremy Evans joined us, instrumental in putting the experience into words. As we had not managed to attach any major broadcaster to the project, we made the film without the input of a commissioning editor. While the film took shape, we roamed the marketplace for the completion funding -- each time we asked for funding, we had more to show, which made reappearances after initial rejections possible. Simultaneously, to raising the funding from Primedia/Ster Kinekor, Coca Cola and eTV (South Africa's new broadcaster), we lobbied for the film with WIMSA (Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa), who came back with more than we had hoped for: they pronounced the film to be truly representative of the San people and their situation, and accepted our offer to be attached to the project as equity partners in exchange for expert advice and guidance on the subject. Coca Cola's funding and a very cost-conscious strategy enabled us to create a longer 35mm version of the film, which made it possible for us to show the film in the art-house cinema circuit in the States and South Africa. Interestingly, our theatrical audience is very general, with no heavy emphasis on natural history enthusiasts. To date, the Great Dance has become the highest grossing theatrical documentary in South Africa. Hopefully, its unusual path to a larger range of viewers will continue."

Questions Raised

 

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