News24.com – Wednesday 6th August, 2004

She has worked for more than 14 years to make her dream, of shooting her own film, come true – it took years of seeing doors shut in her face and donations falling away, hard work and cold calls to sponsors – but in the end, it was the support of friends and family that pulled her through.

Bonnie Rodini recently completed the film, The Story of an African farm, based on the book by Olive Shreiner, telling the story of life on a Karoo farm in 1870. The film is focused on the first half of the book.

“If we put the whole book in the script, it would have made the storyline incredibly thin, the characters would not have been able to develop satisfactory,” she says.

Bonnie is the speaker at the DistrictMail/Ster Kinekor’s first ever Art Film Festival launch on August 5. The film will be screened to invited guests.

She entered the film for the European Union Film Festival in June where it was screened around the country, to gauge the public’s response. She says, “They loved it, cheering and applauding at the end of every screening.”

The project started many summers ago when she packed her bags for New York, dreaming of a career as an actress after two years as a dancer at The Ballet Company. She studied acting, lived there for five years, but had bad luck with acting. “I did, however, have an amazing break on the production side”.

Bonnie says she worked as assistant to the British producer, James Dearden, who made A Kiss Before Dying, in 1991. She tried to convince him to write the script for Shreiner’s enticing book, but “I was short of about one million dollars – that is what he gets for writing a script!” He encouraged her to write it herself. She bought a book on scriptwriting, started writing and soon sent him the first draft. She says the feedback was very positive, she incorporated his suggestions and finished the script.

“I cooked dinner for my flat mates one night in exchange for their reading the script back to me and giving criticism and input.” Her long path to raise the money began.

“I had no real income, came back to South Africa with my flea market jacket and Woolies pants hoping to look like a businesswoman and searched for sponsors. I waitressed, cleaned apartments and knocked on every possible door.

But in the course of the eight years since I had started out, things had changed, companies shifted their focus and I found myself back at square one more than once.”

Eventually she raised enough money with the help of a group of investors and the Industrial Development Corporation, setting in motion the pre-production stage.

She needed a well-known actor to give the film the necessary credibility, she says, but a low budget didn’t give her much hope. She and James Dearden decided on Richard E. Grant, a South African-born actor who lives abroad, for the part of Bonaparte Blenkins.

Some time later, Grant happened to be visiting SA. Bonnie says, “I heard that he was staying in a hotel in Cape Town, left messages for him until he called back, he read my script and said he would star in it.”

Challenging task

Later, more hiccups followed though, even while they were already shooting things did not run smoothly, but she persevered. Finding the right location to shoot was a challenging task. With the help of Rose Willis – a woman from Beaufort West whom, Bonnie says, knows the Karoo like the back of her hand – they found a farm near Matjiesfontein similar to the one Shreiner describes in her book.

“Even the struggling sunflowers she described, were there,” says Bonnie. A quick word with her New York friends – the original script readers from 14 years ago – brought them out to help with the restoration of the farm buildings. The work went on for 10 weeks and they helped as unpaid volunteers.

A camp was set up close by for make-up, wardrobe and Richard was happy to ride an old bike between the camp and location. When the crew was not shooting, they lived in Matjiesfontein.

Six weeks later, the shooting was done, three months later the editing completed and the marketing of the film had to start.

As can be expected, there remain parts of the film she continues to rework in her mind. In retrospect she would have loved to change the film’s opening shot, mainly because strong wind made shooting difficult.

“I wanted it longer, but we had to edit a lot, as the helicopter was struggling in the wind.”

Bonnie says making this film was no easy task. The book is well-loved in this country and as her first attempt at a film was hugely intimidating. “I always kept people’s expectations in mind, trying to keep the balance and giving attention to the unsaid.

“Sometimes the stress takes over the feeling of accomplishment, but with the screening tonight (Thursday) and with the opening drawing closer, I am beginning to feel excited, but anxious too. I would like one million South Africans to see this film, to support South African films more.”

Bonnie and her brothers and friends launched a marketing strategy at the recent film festival in Cannes, France. No South African films had been selected for this year, but with determination, nearly 300 people saw the Story of an African Farm.

She now battles for funds to do the same in Venice and New York at other film festivals. As for the second installment of the book, Bonnie has already been examining it.

“It will be a different film, hectic, sad and dark. It would be beautiful and heart-wrenching, but very different and maybe not as commercially viable as the first part.”

The festival is on at the Mall until August 19. Readers can win tickets to the once-off screening on Thursday of “The story of an African farm”. Phone 853-3232 on August 5 between 15:00 -15:15 to stand a chance of winning. Winners will be notified.”