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Speaker 1: The safteras the South African Film and Television Awards took

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Speaker 1: place this weekend at Gallagher Estate in johannes Beg celebrating

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Speaker 1: the very best in local film and television, and one

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Speaker 1: production house that had a particularly strong night was Quizzical Pictures,

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Speaker 1: whose productions racked up. I gathered nineteen nominations across four

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Speaker 1: shows and walked away with six awards, including Best TV

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Speaker 1: Drama Series for Raker season two. Joining us now, I'm

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Speaker 1: delighted to say, is the executive producer of Quisical Pictures,

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Speaker 1: Harriet Gavshan, widely regarded as really one of the industry's powerhouses,

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Speaker 1: and it's been quite a week for Harriet, who also

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Speaker 1: received a Lifetime Achievement awards at the Johannesburg Film Festival

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Speaker 1: just days ago. So Harriett, welcome to the show, Welcome

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Speaker 1: to the weekend breakfast, and congratulations. Quite a double celebration

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Speaker 1: for you. Good to have you with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Thanks, good morning.

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Speaker 1: Let's start then with the safters Raykier season two taking

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Speaker 1: a Best TV Drama and several other awards. How are

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Speaker 1: you and the team feeling after such a great night?

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Speaker 2: Great? I mean, it's always wonderful to be written azzed

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Speaker 2: by one's peers, and you know, it's always hit and myths.

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Speaker 2: You know, you never know, you can never bangcrum it,

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Speaker 2: and so when it arrived you have to regard it

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Speaker 2: as lack a very sweet gift that not rely on.

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Speaker 2: It's because it could go either way. There are lots

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Speaker 2: and there were lots of very good productions of them,

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Speaker 2: including another one of our own in fact, which we

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Speaker 2: are competing against them.

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Speaker 1: I really the productions. I mean ray Can obviously people know,

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Speaker 1: which did incredibly well the first season as well, White

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Speaker 1: Lives Savage Beauty have managed to attract both local audiences

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Speaker 1: and international attention, and we're noticing. I think with the

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Speaker 1: streaming services, particularly the broader reach, what do you think

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Speaker 1: it takes for a local show to travel successfully internationally?

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Speaker 2: You know, I think that kind of a deep authenticity

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Speaker 2: is important. I think a strong voice, a strong authorial voice,

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Speaker 2: so that it's something it's not run of the mill,

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Speaker 2: it's as it has to stand out above the noise.

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Speaker 2: And I think Racer particularly did that extremely well. And

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Speaker 2: Rayka has been seen in at least one hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty countries around the world. So it just shows that

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Speaker 2: it can happen.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. And White Lies of course, brilliant actor

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Speaker 1: Brendan Daniels who has been in studio with us, and

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Speaker 1: also the British actres Natalie Dormer who we know from

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Speaker 1: Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games. How in terms

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Speaker 1: of securing international talent, I mean, there's certainly no lack

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Speaker 1: of talent on our own shores. But in terms of

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Speaker 1: securing international talent to take part in local productions, well.

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Speaker 2: You know, we work sometimes we work for international casting

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Speaker 2: agents and that's their job, that's what they do, so

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Speaker 2: that's very helpful. And you know sometimes in our in

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Speaker 2: the terms of Raker, you know, I had a British

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Speaker 2: co producer, Serena Callen, and so that also helped for that,

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Speaker 2: so you know, and also as the world, you know,

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Speaker 2: I mean, I think actually television is under enormous stress

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Speaker 2: all over the world. So in fact, people people, you know,

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Speaker 2: people are happy to do it, particularly to come to

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Speaker 2: and that it's expensive, you know, because of our because

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Speaker 2: of the said of our rand. You know, it is

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Speaker 2: something that's very expensive.

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Speaker 1: There has been a lot of concern in the industry

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Speaker 1: recently about really the state of the industry, delays in

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Speaker 1: government film and TV remates, the knock on effect on jobs.

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Speaker 1: How how serious is the situation right now for for

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Speaker 1: the local production sector.

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Speaker 2: It's been I think it's been dire. It's been dire

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Speaker 2: because you know that the the it's really only neft

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Speaker 2: because that's been commissioning over the last you know, good

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Speaker 2: few months because of you know, the merger with Canna

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Speaker 2: plus Magetars and Cannot PLUSBC is under normous stress. E

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Speaker 2: TV has been scaling back, so it's I think it's

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Speaker 2: been terribly hard on cruise and you know an actors.

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Speaker 2: It's but and you know, all all governments, well many

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Speaker 2: many governments do give subsidies and rebates and it's not charity,

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Speaker 2: but they do it because it's very good for the economy.

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Speaker 2: You know, there's such a huge multiply effect if some

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Speaker 2: if a film or a TV series comes to town,

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Speaker 2: there's so many jobs created, so much interested in the

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Speaker 2: country itself. So you know, it's been a huge strain,

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Speaker 2: it really has.

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Speaker 1: I was listening to an interview on our sister station

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Speaker 1: on seven and two the other day and talking about

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Speaker 1: this situation with with multi choice and canal and the

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Speaker 1: situation of being sort of just hundreds of contracts sitting

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Speaker 1: on desks in Paris not being able to be signed

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Speaker 1: here because to slash the budgets to the extent that

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Speaker 1: they're being asked to just means that production becomes becomes impossible.

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Speaker 1: What is the way forward? Do you think? Do we

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Speaker 1: find ourselves in a stalemate?

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Speaker 2: No? I think it's just taking a little time for

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Speaker 2: everybody to orientate themselves and just had on this strategy

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Speaker 2: and what to do. So you know, I hope that

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Speaker 2: actually that will start changing quite soon, right right? Yeah.

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Speaker 1: For you receiving a Lifetime Achievement award, congratulations on that.

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Speaker 1: Looking back over your career, what are you most proud

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Speaker 1: of when you think about the contribution that you in

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Speaker 1: Quizical has made to South African storytelling?

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Speaker 2: Harriett, Well, when I received the award, it's actually just

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Speaker 2: called a special recognition. But when I received it, the

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Speaker 2: person who did the citation was another producer called Bongie Solani,

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Speaker 2: who is a very successful produced so produced the Happiness series,

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Speaker 2: the Happiness Films and things like that, and she was

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Speaker 2: the very first intern I ever had. Wow, And actually

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Speaker 2: that was extremely emotional and meaningful to me. And and

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Speaker 2: I think the fact is that the legacy is really

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Speaker 2: leave you know, those people who you've opened some doors for.

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Speaker 2: You haven't been able to do it for everybody, but

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Speaker 2: over the years, just opening doors, getting you know, letting

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Speaker 2: people in, giving people their first break. I think that's

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Speaker 2: what I'm most proud of.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's wonderful to have you on the show, Harriett.

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Speaker 1: Congratulations on your individual and collective success and here's too

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Speaker 1: many more and a hopeful and prosperous remainder of twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty six despite it being quite a difficult time in

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Speaker 1: the industry. We appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, and thanks for this