Film and television producers write to McKenzie about 'irregular appointment' of NFVF council

The Independent Producers Organisation (IPO) has written to minister of sports, arts and culture Gayton McKenzie to voice its concerns about the appointment of the new National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) council, listing discrepancies in the appointment process.

The IPO, the largest national film and television body that represents the majority of producers and black-owned production companies, said it was alarmed by the list of NFVF council members published recently.

One of the concerns regarding the process was the public’s inability to object to the candidates as outlined by the NFVF Act. Instead, the department advertised the names of 260 candidates but shared no link to their biographies, resulting in the public having to observe the interview process to know the candidates, the organisation said. 

In addition, the interview process continued even after the closing period for lodging objections had passed, meaning the interview panel would not be able to assess any of the objections received.

“Further, the [department] provided less than 24 hours’ notice to the public about the commencement of the interviews. From day four onwards of the interviews, the online links to the interviews were provided only on the morning of the interviews.

“There was thus no intention on behalf of officials to adhere with the act in a substantive and meaningful way that would have allowed the industry to elevate candidates and to make objections within the time allowed,” the IPO said.

In addition, the NFVF Act requires interviews to be held in public but the department instead chose an online live-streaming process.

The interview panel consisted of five candidates whose names and biographies were not advertised, therefore any conflict of interest that they may have could not be determined, the organisation wrote to McKenzie. 

It added that due to the inexperience of the interview panel in the industry, there were issues such as the absence of any questions about governance on day one of the interviews and inconsistencies in questions.

“Some candidates on the long list were able to enter the interview room and observe the interviews of candidates before their own interviews. At least two candidates were privy to questions read off prepared answers in the interviews.”

The panel also failed to fully interrogate conflicts of interests alluded to by the candidates.

“As a result, the council that you have selected is obviously lacking in industry knowledge, governance and policy. This will affect not only NFVF policy but other policies now in draft form that will radically affect our industry. The NFVF exists to develop and promote the industry, which it can’t do in a vacuum of understanding of the policy environment and how policy helps or hinders the sector. The NFVF needs a council that can [not] only provide proper oversight of the organisation but also conduct its own affairs in line with good governance.”

In addition, the organisation said requests to be included in the decision-making about grant strategy had been ignored.

“We have been saying this for many years to various NFVF councils and management, who have only moved the grant for feature film production from R1m to R1.8m in 24 years, despite inflation and the decline of the rand, when, at the same time, their own budgets have gone from R30m to R150m.

“The question we constantly ask is — how can we make great films and TV content, that are African-owned, if the majority of the R1bn from Treasury goes to awards, administration and marketing trips and thus filmmakers are never left with enough funding to properly develop or produce films or TV content that can win awards or create global box office success.”

The IPO said it was mostly concerned at the lack of industry participation in the council which has been a recurring problem for years. Instead, the NFVF has in the past given grants to itself internally and used it for marketing and travel costs by the council and management to attend international and national film festivals. This was counted as part of the 75% of the budgets supposed to be given to the industry, the IPO said.

The organisation had hoped McKenzie would have appointed a council with significant industry representation.

“We hope you will agree with us that any new five-year plan developed by the NFVF council and management should be something developed with industry leadership as we are the primary service users and stakeholders of the NFVF,” it said.

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