STRIKING and disturbing images of war-torn Africa during the apartheid filled newspapers around the world during the early 90s; bringing global awareness to the chaos and brutality.
It is the photographers behind the cameras which make up the subject of The Bang Bang Club - the first feature film by Emmy award-winning documentarian Steven Silver.
Set in 1994, the film follows four young South African men, Greg Marinovich (Ryan Phillippe), Kevin Carter (Taylor Kitsch), Ken Oosterbroek (Frank Rautenbach) and João Silva (Neels Van Jaarsveld), as they set out to capture some of the best, yet horrific pictures of their lives.
But as the fighting intensifies so do the pictures, with Greg winning a Pulitzer Prize for an image of a Zulu man on fire but only to be used as propaganda by the Government.
With tension and violence increasing between Government and Rebels, the four men have to decide how much they are willing to sacrifice in pursuit of the perfect shot?
The Entertainer caught up with South African film-maker Steven to find out more about his debut feature.
You're a prolific documentarian. What drew you to this film?
It's quite a personal one to me. I was a student actor during that time. I was at a number of events described at that time - not in the film but in the book. I have a strong personal connection with that period.
You wear a lot of hats - writer, director, producer. Was that a challenge?
It's an independent film - nothing ever falls into place. It took a long time to get that film financed. There were many moments we came close and it collapsed. But I stuck with the film for a period of years trying to get it made. Making it was much easier than trying to get it made.
Did the level of autonomy over the production outweigh any burden of responsibility?
It was much more effective. [But] if the budget is smaller I have less time - I'm at the mercy of father time. The larger the budget the more time for errors, but the more people who have a say in the process of making a film. That's just part of this peculiar commercial machine.
The film is based on a true story. Did your documentary background make you stay faithful to the source material? Or was there a temptation to inject a little artistic license?
There wasn't a temptation, but sometimes we felt compelled to. If I had my way I would have stayed closer to [the source material].
My background as a documentary film maker offered an insurance of its authenticity. The large action scenes in the film feel very real.
I think my documentary background was surprisingly useful in making my first dramatic feature. In other ways it did not help at all. It was quite an intense learning curve.
The film features an enviable cast of young Hollywood names. How was the process of directing these actors?
The actors for me was by far the easiest part. It's something I enjoy. A lot of the time my job was to just get out of their way.
What was difficult for me as a first time film maker was shooting in 30 days on a 4.5 million budget. I could have done with more time to get things right. Often we would shoot two takes and move on. Having a larger budget to give me the chance to have time to make a few
mistakes would have been nice.
It's a biopic, it's political, it's a war film, it's a love story, it's about friendship, it's dramatic - how do you categorize The Bang Bang Club?
I suppose when I was pitching the film it was as a coming of age story. It's a rite of passage film - that age men go through in their mid/late twenties, at that age where young men in particular are learning what it means to become in the world.
These four men are finding their place in the game, in a place which is difficult and violent and they are putting themselves in harm's way for that perfect picture. It's interesting. I'm interesting in them and what motivates them.
There is lots of shooting on locations - how did local people react to the filming?
One of the areas the film is successful is in these scenes. The reason why it is authentic and so powerful is all the extras are not actors - they
are people from the communities.
One of the early decision was to set it in exact locations. When you say that, it's not just the town or the city, I mean the exact street.
All these extras are people that come from the houses in these streets. They are not acting, they are remembering, because they lived through these events.
Most of the time people were very impressed and very happy with what we were doing.
You use different methods of translating the horrors of war - action-filled events and also emotionally charged first person accounts. Was that a conscious decision?
It was important for me there was no real villains in the piece. That everybody had a narrative and a voice.
Clearly there are sympathies to the ANC. But at the same time I didn't want to cast the Zulu warriors as crude villains. It was important they
had a voice.
Amidst the chaos and carnage, there are scenes of Africa's beauty. Were you keen to juxtapose a war torn country with beauty?
Africa is a beautiful place bathed in blood - there's nothing especially new about that. I had the scenes because these four photographers were white and didn't have to do this work. Like many if not most white South Africans, they could have a life and a job and a family and never step foot into danger.
The photographs and their context are pivotal to the film - the same photos we see over the closing credits. Eerily accurate. How important was it to accurately capture these images?
It was very important. I wanted to try to recreate what happened up to these exact moment, to really answer what lies behind the photograph.
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The Bang Bang Club is out on DVD on October 3.