TOMAS FILMS
Reconstructing South African history… and contributing to the renaissance of African culture
Tomas Films presents The Creative Process from Script to Screen Part 2: The Story of Stories at Isivivana Cinema Centre in Khayelitsha on 3 consecutive Saturdays: May 31st, June 7th and June 14th 2025
Applications open to scriptwriters or aspirant scriptwriters who want to deepen their short film writing craft.
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SUCCESSFUL APPLICANTS WILL BE INVITED TO ATTEND THE 3 DAY WORKSHOP
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WHERE TRANSPORT AND CATERING WILL BE PROVIDED
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AFTER THE WORKSHOP 4 WRITERS WILL BE CHOSEN TO DEVELOP A SHORT SHORT SCRIPT AND THESE 4 WILL BE MENTORED FOR A MONTH
Apply here: https://forms.gle/biEcsvWCxHbQG3pr6
Deadline: 5pm May 23rd
SCRIPT WRITING TRAINING
2023
Mentored Scriptwriting Internship with 8 Intermediate-level script writers - tasked with creating their first feature film script draft.
The laboratory is supported by script experts who are also experienced educationists. it is centred in supporting beginning mainly female scriptwriters to produce feature film scripts form story concepts. The theme of the concepts is women’s voices finding their own pitch. They are centred in women’s lives in well drawn contemporary social milieus of the last 30 years in SA. Collectively they create a multi-dimensional view of SA society and geography from women’s perspectives.
PATRONS OF TOMAS FILMS SCRIPT LABORATORY:
Zubeida Jaffer, a veteran South African journalist, author and activist who continues to gather prestigious awards for the quality of her work. Her three books on women cover the last 130 years of South African history. From Charlotte Maxeke:Beauty Of The Heart through Love in the Time of Treason to her own memoir Our Generation.
Ramadan Suleman is the director of two ground-breaking feature films, Fools and Zulu Loveletter and together with the late Prof Bheki Petersen, he is initiator of the successful Youth Filmmaker’s Project which in 2015 and again in 2017 saw 10 young directors produce their own short scripts and films which went on to win international prizes.
MEET THE MENTORS
MPOLOKENG CHABANE
Since graduating top of her performance class at AFDA in 2014 Mpolokeng has continued to do an honors in screenwriting and directing in 2019 and produced short prize-winning films She now tutors screenwriting at AFDA
ABDULCADIR AHMED SAID
After studying film in Moscow and Italy, Abdulcadir has taught film extensively.
He wrote the course and manual and ran the CREATIVE PROCESS FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN which has been delivered in 4 provinces in SA
ANDREW WORSDALE
Is the director of a number of well-regarded feature films. After graduating from UCLA in film, Worsdale has taught courses and participated in workshops in Screenwriting and Directing at numerous film festivals, as well as Film Schools and Universities locally and internationally.
ROBYN ARONSTAM
Has extensive experience over decades as a script supervisor having worked with many leading international directors, most notably Mira Nair, whose award winning Monsoon wedding she co-produced. Her experience in film education is also extensive and traverses from the 1980s until now where she is responsible for the Honours Course at AFDA, Johannesburg.
MEET THE WRITERS:
"I have developed a discerning eye. I am able to now watch films and breakdown the components of what makes it good: the characters, the structure, the rising stakes."
Mikayla J Brown
"The workshop has helped in making characters become 3 dimensional. It gave them breath in their lungs and feet to walk on. It created their quirks and dictated their behavior's and beliefs which was massively vital in creating their worlds, their dialogue, their persona, etc."
Valencia Joshua
"I can’t help but feel that Scriptlab was an outlier, an exception that proves the rule of the SA cinema landscape. It’s rare to come across this kind of brief in SA that isn’t mired by either political or social desires."
Taahir Sarguro
"I think the benefits of being an artist are that we always transcend worlds because we want to touch reality and so I think making it a human story means it can work past race and class and I hope cultures."
Lukho Witbooi
"Creating a premise gave my story a shape, my understanding is that it is like being a path that your story can travel on"
Sisanda Henda
"Research grounded my ideas in truth and gave my imagination parameters within which to play that would preserve the integrity and seriousness of the given brief."
Keitumetse Kasonkola
"It helped train us for visualing the story as well as seeing out strengths and weakness as writers. For example finding ways to cut down talking heads and finding unique stimulating ways to begin and end a scene."
Sibonele Yawa
"I learned a lot from my mentor, regarding pacing, build up and structure"
Pulane M Mpondo
THE CREATIVE PROCESS FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN 2023
The script laboratory also extends services to beginner filmmakers via a workshop training process which has been offered to 100s of aspirant filmmakers in 5 provinces. The course is not intended to teach technical skills but to make participants aware of the process of filmmaking and creative roles within it, allowing them to thereby imagine a role for themselves in the industry.
FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN
February 2023
Isivivana Centre
"From Script To Screen" Film Language training workshop.
FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN
March 2023
Battswood Arts Centre
"From Script To Screen" Film Language training workshop.
Denise Brink - Participant at Battswood workshop
“I learned how to write a precise and simple story that can move the audience”
Noah Mbonga - Participant at Battswood "From Idea To Screen" Workshop
“I learned the importance of communication when working in a team”
Glodi Mangonda - Participant at Battswood "From Idea to Screen" Workshop