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South Africa’s Screen Industries Face ‘Beautiful,’ ‘Chaotic’ Period of Transformation, Reinvention Three Decades After End of Apartheid


Buoyed by a streaming-backed surge in production, South Africa's film and TV industry is having an identity crisis as it strives for transformation.

It’s booming,” says Layla Swart of Yellowbone Entertainment, whose credits include the Canal Plus- Showmax epic fantasy drama series “Blood Psalms,” co-created by producing partner Jahmil X.T. of Trade and Industry (DTI), which administers South Africa’s struggling rebate system, has only recently begun to address a backlog of payments that has seen some producers waiting as long as two years to be reimbursed for expenditures covered by the cashback scheme. The foundation has launched a number of financing slates meant to jumpstart the careers of young, Black and female directors, while also implementing a COVID relief fund that helped keep the industry afloat amid the widespread havoc wrought by the pandemic.

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