New film brings sexual violence into focus
Rickards obtained obtained three degrees from UCT: a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art (1995); a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree (1997) and a PhD in Film Studies in 2007. During her doctoral studies, Rickards received the prestigious Research Associateship Award (2004), designed to support top researchers in the University. She has directed three films including “1994: The Bloody Miracle” for which she won the documentary audience award in 2014. In 2008, she directed the Television movie ‘Land of Thirst’. Her latest film confronts the issues of race, gender and sexual violence and how these impact women living on the margins of South African society. In a country that has one the highest incidences of sexual violence in the world, this is not an insignificant story to tell. When interviewed by Variety earlier this month, Rickards was asked what she anticipated the reception to be from South African audiences. She had this to say:
“The industry is in some respects a tolerant space. It is very different sending a film out to the broad public: I am certain some viewers will find the film overly explicit. For this story, in this society, I was compelled to chuck the kid gloves away. I wanted watching “Tess” to be a visceral and emotional experience. The cinematographer Bert Haitsma and I talked long and hard about how to film the rape scene in particular, and we worked carefully with the actors, to ensure that the audience remains very much ‘with Tess. ’Christia Visser so courageously embodies the character of Tess; her performance is so explosive — I think that many viewers will be drawn in. Brendon Daniels opposite her is also astoundingly brave. Still, no doubt some people will hate the film and I’ll come under fire for being so direct. So be it. Rather that than an insipid “it was OK” kind of reaction.”
One of the biggest challenges for filmmakers is securing the all-important seed capital for the project. Rickards turned to crowd-funding to raise money for the film and then, staged a ‘Petticoat protest’ to raise awareness about the film and about sexual violence in South Africa. Dressed in a torn petticoat and covered in artificial bruises, she walked 26km along the main road from the centre of Cape Town to Muizenberg, where the film is set. Along the way, she encountered various reactions ranging from pity and empathy to those who simply took photos of her with their camera phones. Commenting on this experience in her interview with Variety, she said:
“I didn’t know yet what a crucial part of my filmmaking journey the walk would become. The money we raised via crowd-funding was a small portion of the final budget, but it made it possible for us to carry on. I do think the support points to the fact that South Africans have had enough of what is now being called a “rape culture,” and that that there is a groundswell to change things…. Of course none of us suppose the film will solve issues of gender-based violence and child abuse. But I do believe that films can be good at promoting empathy, sometimes even shifting cultural attitudes.”
At the 37th edition of The Durban International Film Festival (held at athe end of June) Tess was awarded the top prize in the category of Best SA Film and, top award for the Best Actress to Christia Visser for her role as Tess. In addition, the film secured the top award for Best Editing (Linda Man). Tess will be in South African theatres from February 2017. Watch the movie trailer.
*(Meg Rickards comments were sourced from an interview with Variety: http://variety.com/2016/film/festivals/durban-tess-meg-rickards-whiplash-1201797564/)