30 Nov IEFTA Supports South African Filmmakers at CIRCLE Fiction Orbit Workshop 2024
The International Emerging Film Talent Association (IEFTA) is proud to announce its support for the participation of a talented filmmaking team from South Africa at the prestigious CIRCLE Fiction Orbit Workshop, taking place from November 24th to December 1st, 2024, in Herceg Novi, Montenegro.
IEFTA’s Supported Filmmakers
We are delighted to have supported the dynamic South African filmmaking team of:
- Kanya Viljoen, from the writing and directing duo Unusual Bones
- Casey Diepeveen, Producer
This exceptional team first caught our attention as IEFTA Connect Award winners at the Durban FilmMart earlier this year. Their talent, passion, and commitment to storytelling make them a perfect fit for the CIRCLE Fiction Orbit workshop, where they will have the opportunity to further develop their upcoming feature project, Baptism of Silence.
CIRCLE Fiction Orbit is an intensive, one-week program designed to empower directors and producers as they develop their second or third fiction feature films. During the workshop, a carefully selected group of filmmakers will work with leading experts to advance their projects and identify their needs based on solidarity, knowledge exchange and a hands-on mentality.
Kanya Viljoen & Emilie Badenhorst
WRITER/DIRECTOR DUO
The writer-director duo, Kanya Viljoen and Emilie Badenhorst, is known under the name, Unusual Bones. Their first short, ekstasis, won a Silver Screen at the Cannes
YDAs for Best Direction. They also won Best Direction at the New Renaissance Film Festival and the Best Upcoming Director Award at Jozi Film Festival (2021). The film was awarded Best Existing Work at Silwerskerm Film Festival in 2022. The film has also been touring, with official selections including Flicker’s Rhode Island (2020; Semi-Finalists), Berlin Lift-Off Festival (2021), Big Apple Film Festival, OUTshine, and WorldFest- Houston Film Festival. Their most recent short film, ‘n Doop om Stilte (2023), premiered at Silwerkserm Film Festival where the duo was awarded Best Director, as well as Best Short Film of the festival.
Casey Diepeveen
PRODUCER
Casey Diepeveen is a multi-arts producer known for her creative collaboration on projects such as ekstasis (short, Cannes YDAs for Best Direction), reaching (experimental, Infecting the City), Eurydice (site-specific theatre piece), Ma Lina (short), and most recently, Trifole (feature) distributed by Officine UBU across Italy. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Psychology and Political Science, an honors degree in Strategic Brand Communications, and completed a one-year film conservatory at New York Film Academy. Casey is the Development Director at Bond Street Theatre NGO based in New York, and facilitates arts programs with local partners in South Africa (Rape Crisis Trust), South Sudan (Likikiri Collective), Egypt (Noon Creative Enterprise), and Palestine (Fragments Theatre). Casey’s work has been supported by public and private funding internationally.
Baptism of Silence
It’s the end of December vacation and Joshua (13) is about to attend his high school initiation, which starts with a sleepover at the school grounds. During initiation, Joshua becomes a target when a Matric, Ossie, humiliates him by mocking his sister for being a slut, having slept around with Ossie’s friend. Joshua, isolated from his peers, befriends Clifton (13) and they decide to stick the weekend out together. As the sleepover continues the Grade 8s continue to face harrowing initiation games, many of whom have a sexual and abusive undertone to it. Joshua considers leaving, but keeps being reassured that those who have come before him have survived it, and so will he. Yet, when Joshua is forced to assault Clifton by Ossie, everything changes and Joshua is determined to prove that he won’t be broken by the system. He learns that in order to belong to the brotherhood, violence has to be done to others, and silence has to be kept.