A music video starring performers from Delft, Belhar, Eerste River, Elsies River, Parow and Kuils River won two awards at a recent award ceremony.
Touched by Style, a community performing arts project, received the awards for the hit musical short film Wally Wages, The Smooth Criminal.
Director and choreographer Nic Matthee, who also directed Dancers in Time, said the young people played a big part in the success of the film.
“The young people were outstanding and I praised them for their contribution. They had big dreams and their effort played a big part in the making of the film and winning the awards.
“Because our communities are fractured by crime it has become normal for youth not to look forward to anything uplifting. I get more than 50 hopeful actors and dancers for various short films and its difficult to cast huge numbers in short films,” says Matthee.
According to Matthee he started the project to open doors of opportunity for kids.
“I want them to experience things like flying and having superpowers, wild action to dance and unbelievable things they never thought they could do. My hope is to see a radical change in our communities,” he says. Matthee, who was a six-time international world dance champion and successful solo dance entertainer, is working on the next short film, Dear Swart.
“The film will star familiar faces such as Nadia Gouws as the gun slinging vigilante Nadine Swart. Production for this short film will start in the beginning of May in different locations around Cape Town,” he says.
Matthee’s dream is to eventually open a drama and dance school where he can assist the kids by giving them training and casting them in more films. Because of funding this might not take off soon, but he is still positive to continue reaching a few goals.
