This week our Editor wanted us to compile a list of top African movie directors. This is aimed at inspiring budding directors. This should ideally be those with worldwide appeal.
Our researchers came back with the news that there is only one African at the moment who has directed a big budget movie- Mr Gavin Wood. This was disappointing. Hence the decision was made to do a write up on Gavin Wood. We hope this inspires budding movie directors.
Gavin Wood is from Johannesburg, South Africa. He learnt his trade at the film school of the University of California. In 2000, Variety magazine named him as one of its "Ten Directors to Watch".
His break came when he was hired to make a number of educational dramas for the South African Department of Health; his first commercial short movie was called The Storekeeper.
His first full length movie was called A Reasonable Man. The film depicts the accidental killing of a young child who is mistaken for a tokoloshe- an evil spirit. Wood then went on to direct the Polish language 2001 movie called In Desert and Wilderness when the original director fell ill. This was followed by Tsotsi in 2005. Tsotsi is about a small time criminal, who has no feelings and has been hardened by his tough life. In the movie Tsotsi hijacks a car and discovers that there is a baby in the back seat, he takes the baby to his house in the slum and becomes attached to him.
Gavin Wood is also the director of the Hollywood Blockbuster X-Men Origins: Wolverine, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, with Hugh Jackman playing his role from the X-Men films. He directed Rendition (2007), his first Hollywood feature movie.
For any aspiring movie directors, check out New York Film Academy, they run degrees and short courses on Movie and Video directing www.nyfa.com they have locations all over the world from Universal Studios in California to London and Spain.
