Join Port Elizabeth and MyPE in congratulating Mover and Shaker, David Lister from The Media Workshop:
After 30 years in Johannesburg and directing films all over the world, David Lister chose to settle in Port Elizabeth in his Blue Horizon Bay home that he built 16 years ago. Okay, technically Blue Horizon Bay is Uitenhage ….
David has a wealth of experience in the television and film industry both locally and internationally and is the supervising director and mentor of an internship programme at The Media Workshop in Newton Park, Port Elizabeth. He is also the lecturer in the NQF 4 and NQF 5 certificate Film Directing modules.
David will be intimately involved in the production of South Africa’s first comedy series for community television, which will be produced in Port Elizabeth as part of a ground-breaking training project, which will create a foundation for the development of a local film industry.
The sitcom, with the working title of ‘The Grand Hotel Shongololo’ will consist of 13 episodes, each 26 minutes in length featuring a ‘Friends’ type collection of madcap trilingual characters. Lister remarked that comedies are probably the hardest productions but pointed out; “The talent is here in the Eastern Cape”.
Acknowledging the huge technological strides in film-making, Lister also that; “You must have a vision and a passion for story telling and that a good production consists of three vital elements – the script, the script and the script”.
5 young film-makers from the Media Workshop will be producing the comedy series, ‘The Grand Hotel Shongololo’, for Bay TV as part of a film and television production training project being run by The Media Workshop of Port Elizabeth in association with Urban Brew Studios.
40 unemployed learners and graduates are currently being trained by The Media Workshop with funding from the Media, Information and Communication Technology (MICT) Seta, according to Denise Roodt, award-winning founder and owner of The Media Workshop, which has its headquarters in Newton Park.
David Lister has directed local and international actors which include Leon Schuster (Panic Mechanic and Oh Shucks, Here Comes UNTAG!); Dr John Kani and Casper de Vries (Soweto Green); Tolla van der Merwe & Frank Opperman (Tough Luck); Frank Opperman and Peter Se Puma (The Big Time); Antoinette Kellermann, Sandra Prinsloo and Neels Van Jaarsveld (Known Gods); Anna Mart van der Merwe and Dawid Minaar (Konings) Sean Taylor & Graham Hopkins (Barney Barnato), Ken Gampu and Treasure Shabalala (John Ross an African Adventure) Martin Sheen and Corbin Bernsen (Guns of Honor) Richard E. Grant and Armin Mueller-Stahl (Story of an African Farm) Oscar winner Marlee Matlin and Menzi Ngubane (Askari).
He has been nominated for 13 directing awards and has won 6 Artes (the South African equivalent of the “Emmy”) and 2 Star Tonight! (South African national critics) directing awards for the television dramas “Riding High”, “John Ross”, “Barney Barnato”, “The Big Time”, “Konings” a Fespaco jury directing award for “Soweto Green” and a finalist award at the New York Film and TV festival.
His two Leon Schuster feature film comedies “Oh Shucks, Here Comes UNTAG!” and “Panic Mechanic” broke South African cinema box office records.
Submitted by: Ed Richardson on behalf of The Media Workshop.
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Alan Straton
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