By Siyasanga Tyali
This year the Rhodes School of Journalism and Media studies (JMS) will collaborate with a cultural institution, deBuren in the production of 24 one-minute documentaries.
“DeBuren is a Dutch-Flemish House in Brussels, and we take some initiatives in making better journalism possible” says Dorian van der Brempt about their projects.
Titled “Grahamstown Front Stage and Back Stage, With or Without Make Up”, this project will see 14 JMS 4th year television students filming these documentaries during the South Africa National Arts Festival for the deBuren, City-Books project.
The City-Books is a portrait of a city, made by the artists. One can read different stories in which a city will play a role. Among other things, one can look at 24 photos that give an impression of the city and you watch 24 video films of one minute each that give an impression of the dynamics of the city.
“The school is very excited to be involved in such a huge collaboration,” said Rhodes TV lecturer Alette Schoon about the new partnership.
When asked why they chose Grahamstown for such a project Dorian said: “I was in Grahamstown during last year's Festival [2009]. We had a first collaboration making five Radiobooks with South African authors. I was impressed by the energy of the National Arts Festival and wanted to come back to the Festival with a new project. Radiobooks was very successful. We had over 2.000.000 downloads but we wanted to stop the project while successful and starting something new, the City-Books”.
Annually, the JMS students take part in the National Arts Festival by contributing to various projects, known collectively as Cue Media. But this year’s partnership will give an opportunity for the students’ work to feature on an international scale, explained Alette.
“I think your education is very strong and the department of Journalism is outstanding,” was Dorian’s response about their decision to collaborate with the Rhodes School of Journalism and Media studies.
Brink Scholtz, of Ubom! Productions at the Rhodes Drama department will feature in this CityBooks project as one of the five script writers.
The work of these 14 JMS television students will be screened on the 1st and 2nd of July 2010 at the Hands On! Masks Off, annual National Arts Festival series.