With the international award season rife with celebrations of arts, artists and talent, a Claremont fledgling film producer, Santi Naidoo, has soared over the City of Angels with her Oscar-considered short film, Jerome, which is said to light up the Hollywood cinema circuit.
Cape Town-raised Naidoo, who has been based in Los Angeles for the past two and a half years, is a recent graduate of the American Film Institute Conservatory producing programme. She holds a triple major Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Cape Town (UCT) and graduated cum laude with a postgraduate degree in Film and Television Studies.
Currently working in development and production at Submarine Entertainment abroad, the 25-year-old remembers finishing graduate school just as the big writers and actors strike continued in Hollywood last year, “so the reassurance that I had a job to go to was an absolute miracle”.
“At Submarine I have the opportunity to do what I enjoy and be in the thick of the filmmaking process, while still having a stable income.”
In the pursuit of her dream, she was uprooted to now being nestled in West Hollywood, colloquially known as ‘WeHo’, an area of Los Angeles. “It’s a very progressive area of LA – where you can find a niche restaurant or dog groomers on almost every block.”
Naidoo experiences it being a little quieter than the hustle and bustle of Claremont, “but also a similar melting pot of different industries and people, much like the Southern Suburbs are – and because of that it also feels a lot like home.”
However, Naidoo recognised there always seems to be this assumption that “America is better”. “People always hold it to a really high esteem, and what being here as a South African has taught me is that all the issues we have, they have too . . . and in some ways, it’s even worse because it’s hidden and runs so deep.”
As to her daily role as a producer in the film world, she explained there’s a lot of time spent with things like logistics, schedules, and finances.
“But the truth is that most of the work involves people management – it’s problem-solving and dealing with personalities. I can start a day writing up a budget and on-boarding crew, and end the day on an hour-long phone call with an upset department head, trying to mediate the situation.”
Looking back at her studies at UCT now in practice, she recognises a baseline of “film studies” that one encounters in most film programmes around the world. “You’ll study big names and famous films, but I will forever be grateful for the African and South African film studies courses at UCT because that opened up a world of perspectives and techniques that I continuously call back to on the projects I work on.”
Her AFI Thesis film, Mis-Alignment, is currently doing the festival circuit, along with her short film, Jerome – which was recently up for consideration for the 96th Academy Awards.
Several of her films have been featured in festivals worldwide, including the Pan African Film & Arts Festival (USA) and Fixion Fest (Chile).
As a rising producer with several years of experience in film, commercial, and stage production, Naidoo is passionate about creating spaces for underrepresented and marginalized filmmakers in the industry:
“Being able to collaborate with people from different walks of life and vastly different cultures highlights how much we can learn from other people and how different perspectives enrich the work that we do. What I find beautiful about this is when you’re able to connect the right people and watch them make magic together. It’s been a real joy to be able to do that but to specifically do so in a manner that connects underrepresented creatives with like-minded people who can help take them further in their journey.”
To any of South Africa’s aspiring film-makers looking to follow in her footsteps, Naidoo shared heart-warming motivation:
“Make things and find your people! Whilst you can’t expect the short film you shoot on your phone to be picked up by Showmax and turned into a show or every collaboration to be easy, you must bear in mind that the fear of being bad at something often stops you from even trying in the first place. Get together with friends or fellow creatives, don’t take yourself too seriously, and just make stuff. Eventually, you might make something half-decent and find a team of filmmakers that you don’t want to murder after years of working on a project together.”
For now, her plans boast nothing in particular, as she added: “But I will always encourage people to go to the cinema, and support local filmmakers.”
As to her next homecoming, Naidoo tries to do an annual trip to South Africa and plans to be in Cape Town at the end of next month.
“I’m really hoping the weather stays warm because there’s nothing like watching a Cape Town sunset outdoors anywhere around the city. I’m always reminded how far LA is, despite modern technology, nothing beats hugging your friends and family when you’ve been away for so long.”
