Footage of South African Police

South African police putting men in the back of a police van, with violence. We could use footage like this when Ari talks about how the police arrived and arrested people when Ari was kidnapped and taken to the bank.or to demonstrate what the "fake policemen" would have been wearing.

Interview Set-ups & Reconstruction Shots Ideas

Taken from 'Exposure: Gaddafi & The IRA' on ITV1. Examples of how to set-up the interviews with the expert, using projected images and lighting techniques. And for reconstruction when Rita and Ari talk about his kidnapping; we can use extreme close-ups of guns, telephones, driving shots (steering wheel and the road), possibly a form with a dotted line and writing "help", and we could also made a map to illustrate where he went.

Using objects in the frame out of focus

A simpler lighting set-up

Questions To Ask

I've had a think of what questions we could ask our expert so that we get the information we want from her but at the same time let her be completely objective because we don't want our film to be considered racist.

1. What does apartheid mean and what was it?
2. How were people effect after and during apartheid?
3. How did apartheid effect the economy?
4. When and why was apartheid abolished?
5. Can you tell us anything you know about the diamond industry 

Visuals

I've been trying to think of visuals which will be interesting for the viewer to see and will fit in with the sound.
I think we should keep the opening as archive of Nelson Mandela being elected president and I think the end shot should be Ari and Rita leaving the house with the children and walking down the road so that we have a shot of them "Leaving Home".
I've thought of a few things we could film to cover edits:

• South African art/objects in the experts office or in Rita and Ari's house
• Family photos in frames from when they lived in South Africa
• Diamonds twinkling 

I've also had a think about what Rita and Ari could be doing in the shots so that they are not just sitting there having an interview:

• Feeding the baby
• Brushing child's hair
• Cooking
• Looking at diamonds
• Playing with the kids
• Looking at photos from when they lived back in South Africa
• Watching home videos

When the family leave South Africa and arrive in the UK there should be shots of an airplane taking off and the image of the South African flag and then a plane lading and the image of the United Jack.

I was trying to think of how we could show the trauma Ari went through and the only thing I could think of was having a blurry reconstruction of 2 men dressed as policemen being aggressive.

I also think that parts of the interviews need to be covered with archive so that the viewer can fully understand what the person is talking about.

Thats what i've come up with so far I will try and think of some more visuals which will be interesting to put in the documentary and full explain the point we are trying to make.

Images of Segregation

Some images we could use to overlay the expert sync when she talks about apartheid and what it was. 

 

Opening Sequence

Videos of Nelson Mandela becoming president, found via youtube. Includes shots of South Africans cheering.

update

I received a pleasant call this morning from Dr Lutz Marten, from the soas university re the message i had left him about our commision, he was quite agreeable to talking on camera, however i did discover his expertise is more in the African languages. Not quite sure how that will work. Renee Horn also contacted me re the commision and again seemed happy, however i need to ring her back tonight after six as she is teaching all day, so i can confirm filming dates etc. She is more ideal as she is an expert in south african politics...

De Beers Diamonds

There is some footage on De Beers Diamond's website of the mines in South Africa all the way to sorting and manufacturing, thought it would be useful for when we talk about the business.

http://www.debeersgroup.com/en/Media-centre/B-roll/

There is a contact regarding the footage and photos if we wanted to use them: mark.thomas@debeersgroup.co.uk

Script breakdown

Visuals	Sound
Video of Nelson  Mandella winning the election and becoming prime minsister.	V.O  of expert talking about the history of apartheid, with some music fading in/out at end of V.T
Leaving Home title comes up bottom left of screen, fading into expert still talking in her office.	Voice of expert, discussing abolishment of apartheid.
Video footage of white south africans currently in South Africa.  Youtube clip.	Sound from footage.
Expert talking in her office about the plight of black and white South Africans in South Africa currently andthe state of the economy.	Voice of expert, maybe some African music at end fading into next scene.
Youtube news reel  clip about whites living in slums.	Music , some voice over from the news reel clip.
Introduction to Rita and Ari kotsis, in their home.	Rita and Ari discussing life in S/A before apartheid ended.
Photos, and personal archive footage of Rita and Ari’s life in S/A.	Music, african? Plus atmospheric background noises.
News reel clip of Thabo Mbecki being elected as South African Prime Minister.	Sound from clip.
Expert talking about diamond business in S/A and crime associated with this industry.	Expert voice, and atmos.
Rita and Ari talking about the kidnapping of Ari. Shot at their home.	Dramatic music
Ari and Rita talking about why they left S/A, and coming to the U.K	Voices of Ari and Rita, and happy music in background.
Family shot either in the park or at home in the garden.	Ari talking about quality of life now for them in the U.K. Atmos in background, fading out to tribal music?

Interview with Rita an Ari

Aristidis, 41 and Rita Kotsis 33.They have been together 17 yrs.
Had lived in Benoni near Guateng (Johannesburg) most of their lives. Rita is 3rd generation South African, and Ari is 1st gen South African.Ari S/A born but family are Greek orthodox from Greece.
They got married in 2001 26th Oct they then moved in together in Kessington. 
They left in 2002 due to endless thefts and lived with in laws in Brackpan for a year.
They then looked at buying a house in Benoni, Ari was an accountant and Rita was looking after their children.
After they had purchased their home they found out that the previous owners had all been executed with the exception of the daughter.
Despite this though life was good, Ari was still running his accountancy business and was also in the mobile phone,properties and diamond business selling rough diamonds to cut.
They were living a fairly good life and were earning well, living a standard South African life.

Apartheid had been abolished in 1994 with Nelson Mandella's rise to prime minister of the A.N.C party, and 8 yrs later Thabo Mbecki took over. Thabo a radicalist introduced new laws about Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (B.B.B.E.E)  which meant that white owned businesses had to have black partners and the black partners had to be GIVEN 26% of the company shares, as a direct result large companies left South Africa moving their head quarters to places like London only leaving subsidiary branches in S/A in order to avoid giving away their shares, companies like De beers diamonds, Investec, Sasol,Anglo American and Old Mutual.

The economy of South Africa was suffering, and affirmative action( businesses had to be 93%black to better represent the African populace) meant that whites were loosing jobs, and the immigration of white South Africans to the U.K was a common place thing.
Meanwhile in 2006/7 Ari and Rita were doing ok, life was still good and Ari was bringing in enough money to provide for his family, however life did get bad.

In the yr of 2006/7 (he is unsure which) Ari and his business partner Willi (white,German friend) had to travel to Kimberly from Johannesburg, this was a 4 hour trip, to go and make a deal with some diamond dealers. They packed the boot with the money as diamond dealers don't deal with card, and fueled up and left. When they arrived they went to the house at the mine where the deal was due to take place. After a few minutes police officers blasted in shouting it wasn't a legal deal, Ari was telling them he had a licence to deal, the guys they were dealing with were forced into a corner(3 black men)and Ari was taken out to his car to fetch the money whilst his partner was being beaten in the house by the other "officers" once inside the officers separated Ari and Willi into 2 rooms and beat them to within an inch of their lives interrogating them about the deal and the money, after 4 hours they took Ari and said he was going with them to a local village to empty his bank accounts and give the "officers" all of his money, it become clear by this point that they were fake police men and he was being kidnapped held to ransom.

They took Ari's car leaving his partner at the house with officers and the dealers. Once they they arrived at the bank Ari held at gunpoint was made to go into the bank and start first emptying his private account, when the teller asked him to sign the slip he wrote help on the dotted line.
The teller then asked to speak to him privately stating there was a problem with his account so that the gunman wouldn't get suspicious. Once he was the private room where the gunman couldn't follow he explained his predicament to the teller, explaining that they were due to travel to 2 other banks to empty his business accounts. She told him she would inform the banks and the police.
Leaving the bank with the entire contents of his private account, he and the gunmen travelled to the next bank. Luckily the bank had been informed and managed to stall Ari, upon which the police turned up and arrested everyone including Ari, who resisted, being unsure of the validity of the police credentials.
After 2 more days at the station the ordeal was over having only lost a small percentage of money due to an escaped gunman. However mentally Ari was scarred, the first week after the ordeal Ari was in chronic pain due to being smashed in the head with a butt of a gun. After the first week Ari had lost interest in work and had become nervous and depressed.

 Unable to continue with work for almost a year due to the psychological impact of the kidnapping, this resulted in Rita and Ari selling everything and they moved back in with Ari's parents, Rita was working in the catering business and Ari had manged to find work in a school, however the school was robbed several times with one occasion Ari in the building, Rita was mugged on the way to the bank, then their daughter was being threatened.

They decided enough was enough.  Applying for visas to the U.K for the children and Rita,Ari has a E.U passport, they started selling what they had left, packed up, wrote off debts they were owed, just 2 days before they left the visas arrived and they travelled to the U.K at the end of 2008.


Rita is still in her job, whilst Ari has since moved to a company in London as an accountant. They and their children are happy and safe now. Ari told me that he is sure that had they not left S/A they would all or some be either dead or raped and he is thankful to the U.K and has no intention of ever returning to South Africa, the place he called home for so many years.

update

Hi all, im off now to go and interview Rita and Arry, aswell as organise a time for filming...Im hoping this goes well...

See you all Monday morn...

South African Timeline 1999-2011

1999 

• ANC wins general elections, Thabo Mbeki takes over as president. 

2001   

• May - An official panel considers allegations of corruption surrounding a 1999 arms deal involving British, French, German, Italian, Swedish and South African firms. In November the panel clears the government of unlawful conduct. 

2002  

• October - Bomb explosions in Soweto and a blast near Pretoria are thought to be the work of right-wing extremists. Separately, police charge 17 right-wingers with plotting against the state. 
• Land Distribution and Agricultural Development Programme - 20,000-100,000 rand is given to help black entrepreneurs set up commercially viable farms, they have to first contribute 5,000 rand of their own money. 
• Economy ranked 23rd largest in the world.

2003 

• Government transfer 300,000 hectares of land to 140,000 people.
• Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Act - Affirmative Action.
• Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act.

2004  

• April - Ruling ANC wins landslide election victory, gaining nearly 70% of votes. Thabo Mbeki begins a second term as president. 
• Budget deficit falls to 1.5%.

2005  

• June - President Mbeki sacks his deputy, Jacob Zuma, in the aftermath of a corruption case. 
• August - Around 100,000 gold miners strike over pay, bringing the industry to a standstill. 

2006  

• May - Former deputy president Jacob Zuma is acquitted of rape charges by the High Court in Johannesburg. He is reinstated as deputy leader of the governing African National Congress.  
• September - Corruption charges against former deputy president Zuma are dismissed, boosting his bid for the presidency.   
• December - South Africa becomes the first African country, and the fifth in the world, to allow same-sex unions. 

2007  

• April - President Mbeki, often accused of turning a blind eye to crime, urges South Africans to join forces to bring rapists, drug dealers and corrupt officials to justice. 
• June - Hundreds of thousands of public-sector workers take part in the biggest strike since the end of apartheid. The strike lasts for four weeks and causes widespread disruption to schools, hospitals and public transport.    
• December - Zuma is elected chairman of the ANC, placing him in a strong position to become the next president. Prosecutors bring new corruption charges against him.

2008 

• May - Wave of violence directed at foreigners hits townships across the country. Dozens of people die and thousands of Zimbabweans, Malawians and Mozambicans return home.  
• September - A judge throws out a corruption case against ruling ANC party chief Jacob Zuma, opening the way for him to stand as the country's president in 2009.
• President Mbeki resigns over allegations that he interfered in the corruption case against Mr Zuma. ANC deputy leader Kgalema Motlanthe is chosen by parliament as president.  
• December - A new political party is launched in Bloemfontein, in the first real challenge to the governing ANC. The Congress of the People - or Cope - is made up largely of defectors from the ANC and is headed by former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota. 

2009 

• January - Appeals court rules that state prosecutors can resurrect their corruption case against ANC leader Jacob Zuma, opening the way for Mr Zuma's trial to be resumed, just months before general election.  
• April - Public prosecutors drop corruption case against Jacob Zuma.
• ANC wins general election. 
• May - Parliament elects Jacob Zuma as president.
• Economy goes into recession for first time in 17 years.  
• July - Township residents complaining about poor living conditions mount violent protests. 

2010 

• June - South Africa hosts the World Cup football tournament.  
• August - Civil servants stage nation-wide strike. 

2011 

• May - Local elections, with opposition Democratic Alliance nearly doubling its share of the vote since the last poll.
• President Zuma mediates in Libyan conflict.

History of Apartheid

I've began to research South Africa and Apartheid as much as I can so that I can gain a greater understanding of it and can then present the information in our documentary. I'm finding it very hard to find information on how apartheid effected white people but I have found a few things which relate to what we want to talk about in the documentary.

The link below shows information one Africa in the 1990's
http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch34-sa.htm
The link below contains a video about what has happened to South Africa in the 15 years apartheid has been abolished.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/04/19/66232/fifteen-years-after-apartheid.html

This link shows the effects of apartheid and explains how many blacks were forced to leave their homes and land as the government had decided they should be white areas. This was part of the Group Areas Act.
http://library.thinkquest.org/C002739/AfricaSite/LMSouthaffects.htm

"There are various reports and statistics on poverty, but very few on white poverty, which is growing at an alarming rate," says Mr. Mulder. "There are more than 70 white informal settlements around Pretoria and Johannesburg, and they're now appearing in Cape Town. It's a problem."
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2010/1014/More-white-South-Africans-struggle-in-post-apartheid-economy

South African economy

South Africa is a middle-income, emerging market with an abundant supply of natural resources; well-developed financial, legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors; a stock exchange that ranks among the 10 largest in the world; and a modern infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution of goods to major urban centers throughout the region. However, growth has not been strong enough to lower South Africa's high unemployment rate, and daunting economic problems remain from the apartheid era - especially poverty and lack of economic empowerment among the disadvantaged groups. South African economic policy is fiscally conservative but pragmatic focusing on targeting inflation and liberalizing trade as means to increase job growth and household income.

BBC South Africa Articles

An article from a white commercial farmer's point of view on losing his farm and the damage this is causing to the South African economy. Here is a quote:

"Farmers have spent 60 million rand on private security firms to protect their farms. 1,600 farmers were murdered in 8,000 farm attacks in the ten years between 1994 and 2004. Many have abandoned their land at a loss to the Government of 100 million rand a year in tax revenues. Since 1994, the number of commercial farms has declined from 70,000 to 55,000."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/ms/southafrica/social_economic/land/story.shtml?story=storyc

Another article on affirmative action. A brief quote from the article on what it means:

"The transfer of power and economic status to black South Africans so they too can take up leadership roles in the New South Africa."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/ms/southafrica/social_economic/economics/story.shtml?story=storyc