Represent Interview: Hanneke Schutte

Posted on May 24, 2009

Hanneke Schutte is a young South African film director and screen writer that recently got to direct her enchanting short film ‘Superhero‘, thanks to the shedding of much blood, sweat tears and the great fortune of being chosen for an NFVF funding program for women and Black film makers. Bursting out from the starting blocks, Superhero has already been on it’s first international jaunt – to Cannes of all must-be-seen places, Represent found out how she managed to get in the bag with so much panache. Great inspiration for any wannabe film makers… Tell us a bit about your background… what is your backstory? I’m 33 and live in Jo’burg with my husband Slim who’s a commercials director at Egg Films. I studied languages and eventually ended up as a Copywriter in the ad industry. A few years ago I did a post-graduate qualification in Drama and Film and fell in love it. I’ve been lecturing part-time at Vega and writing screenplays since. In a nutshell, what’s Superhero all about? An amnesiac finds himself stranded in the middle of an arid landscape dressed as a superhero. He’s assisted and spurred on by a young black boy who wholeheartedly believes that he is a superhero. But as the man’s memory returns he discovers that he’s been anything but a hero. How did you get to make the film? The screenplay won a competition run by the NFVF aimed at developing Female and Black filmmaking talent – they ended up giving the three winning scripts production funding – the only prerequisite was that the director had to be black or female. How did you find the actors? Anyone really special that you believe your film could change lives for? We went to casting agents and saw a great deal of people. I ended up working with two brilliant actors, Justin Strydom (Snitch, Stander) and Loyiso Gxwala (Red Dust, A reasonable man). The young boy Johannes de Bruyn didn’t have any acting experience, but did a great job. What about the soundtrack – what music do you use and how did you choose? I worked with two good friends Jonathan Beggs and Trevor Sacks who are both creative directors at ad agencies. Trevor plays the lead guitar in The Privates International Band and Jonathan is DJ Badly. They are two amazingly talented musos who brought a great deal to the project. Where did you shoot? We shot the whole film on and around a huge mine dump in Dobsonville, Johannesburg. (Nothing like arsenic rich mine dust to give you nice buzz.) What were the greatest challenges in making the film? We had...