Script Editors approved by the NFVF are individuals who have successfully completed at least two years of training as script editors under the NFVF Sediba programs. They have not only demonstrated a deep fundamental understanding of the principles of story, but have worked with a variety of writers and writing teams to produce writing of the highest quality. Among the projects these editors can claim credit for developing with their knowledge, skills and guidance, are flagship, award winning television mini series for the SABC: Ugugu no Andile, Izingane Zobaba, Entabeni, Ntlorole under the Shakespeare in Mzanzi strand; and After Nine, Society, Umthunzi we Ntaba, When We Were Black, and Ubizo under the His and Her story strand.
They have also worked on a number of feature film projects, over the last 2 years on behalf of the NFVF, for which we have high hopes once the production of these projects are completed.
In alphabetical order, they are:
Thandi Brewer is an award winning writer, director, script editor and facilitator. She has a broad knowledge of all aspects of the Arts fields, having worked in nearly all of them since she was six months old as an actress, singer, dancer, musician, writer, producer and director. She won the Soundscapes competition in 1995 for Best South African play for her first play "Samuel's Fugue", She has written many TV series, the latest being "Usindiso/Redemption!!" which she produced in conjunction with Bridget Pickering. It was a regional semi regional finalist for best drama series for the International Emmy's in 2008, won 4 SAFTAs and was hugely successful playing to 4.3 million viewers a night on SABC 1. She has written International film scripts, like "Paris Le Cap", "Cheap Lives", "The Weatherman", "12 Dancing Princesses" "Story of An African Farm" , "Corner Pocket" and "The Chemo Club". Her second play "Please Hold I'm Coming" ran to great critical and audience acclaim at the Civic Theatre as well as Rockatutu" for the South African Ballet Theatre last year, which sequed into "Music and Mayhem" in 2005, "Jump 4 Joy" in 2006, "the Heart is Round" in 2007 and Gunslingers. She is enormously honoured to have been one of the twelve South African writers selected for the Sediba writer's workshop of 2005 - run by Alby James, which lead to being a senior script editor for the SABC/Sediba workshop, which in it's turn has lead to heading up the Spark writers programme with Julie Hall for the NFVF and Sediba, and working with new writers in Kenya for MNet.. She's has her LTCL and Fellowship from Trinity College, London. She is currently Chairman of The Writer's Guild of South Africa.
Margaret is an experienced TV-drama Producer, Script Editor and Screenwriting Lecturer. Margaret joined the SABC as Senior Script Editor in 1988 and was then appointed Commissioning Editor and eventually as Head of Afrikaans Drama in 1994. During her tenure at the SABC she either script edited or executive produced many award-winning TV Drama series. She left the SABC in 1997 to pursue her passion for filmmaking in a more hands-on and creatively involved manner by joining husband Peter as Producer in his production company, Southern Exposure. Southern Exposure has produced four seasons of a courtroom drama series, Justice for All, a sitcom, Gabriël and a mini-series, Riemvasmaak, up to date; all of these for SABC 2. These series were collectively nominated for 37 industry awards and won 11 of them, the latest being the 2009 SAFTA Golden Horn awards for best mini-series, Best Script and Best Director in a Drama series for Riemvasmaak. Since 2007 she has been working with the NFVF as Script Editor on several Feature Films and as Mentor on the Masters’ Screenwriting course. In addition to the above, she has storylined on Sewende Laan as well as taught short courses in Screenwriting at AFDA and Monash University.
Julie started her career as a child performer, and worked as an actress, broadcaster and advertising copywriter before moving into TV scriptwriting in the late nineties, spending five years on the scriptwriting team of Generations. In 2003/2004 Julie worked as a Script Editor for Kagiso Educational TV before moving on to work as Script Editor on Backstage. In 2005 she was invited to train with the Sediba programme and now works with Sediba as a story editor and co-facilitator of the NFVF Sediba-Spark Screenwriters Course. Further professional development includes an Advanced Facilitation Skills Programme (Unit Std 117871) and travelling to London to attend the internationally acclaimed Robert McKee Story Seminar and Genre Days on Comedy, Masterpiece and Thriller. Julie guest lectures for various training institutions and was headwriter and trainer for APTI, an animation development initiative. Writing credits include: soaps Generations and Scandal, dramedy For Sale, dramas Borderline and Hillside II, III & IV, sitcoms City Ses’la, Nomzamo, Skwizas and My Perfect Family. She created and wrote the HIV edutainment series, This Life and was Headwriter on the mini series Yesteryears and the 26-part drama Isithunzi Siyalandela (The Shadow That Walks With You). Script editing credits include Backstage, Muvhango, Ubizo – The Calling and Umthunzi We Ntaba as well as various feature film projects. Julie is currently writing a romantic comedy feature film.
Justine Loots is a writer and independent filmmaker. She teaches a Masters’ Course in screenwriting at the National Film and Video Foundation, emphasising both the theory of screenwriting and its practical application. She is currently writing a mini-series for television and co-writing an adaptation of the play Green Man Flashing for the big screen. Other writing work includes writing and story-lining on the second season of Erfsondes; co-writing the Namibian production The 3 and a half lives of Philip Wetu and writing on various local series. Justine is busy script editing two feature films in conjunction with the NFVF, and enjoyed a year-long contract as Head of Script Development for Videovision Entertainment. Before this, Justine worked as a documentary maker. Amongst other programmes, she produced, directed and wrote for Carte Blanche and Carte Blanche Africa, which took her through Africa as far as Europe. Some of her stories include covering dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson; The Calendar Girls, who she met in London; travelling to Kenya to film a story about how butterflies saved a coastal forest, and to Tanzania where she and her film crew spent a week with a flying doctor on his travels to remote and medically challenged corners of Africa.
Brent is first and foremost a storyteller. He has over twenty years writing experience in most genres and in particular, managing diverse writing and creative teams. Brent is considered an expert in bringing socially relevant issues onto television screens. His company, Quintet, has produced over 160 productions (from children’s animation, comedy, documentary, political satire, sitcom, to drama series.) Brent has directed and produced much of the work he has written. His work has garnered numerous international awards including a Peabody (07). He has hosted story workshops across Africa and worked with writers and directors from around the world. He has also pitched and presented his own work at various international forums and markets. Brent is also an accomplished public speaker, MC and stand-up comedian. His style of working with or story editing fellow writers is marked by a tough, no-nonsense and intuitive approach. Brent demands honesty in terms of who is writing a story before tackling what story is being written.
Philip Roberts has written a number of produced feature films. Flame, was selected for the 1996 Director's Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival and received a variety of prizes at international film festivals. The Flyer was selected for the Locarno, Rio and London Film Festivals amongst others and won a prize in Rome. The Bird Can't Fly debuted at the San Sebastian Film Festival and starred Barbara Hershey. Current projects include his original feature screenplays One Last Look, Atlantis from an idea by Revel Fox and De Jong and the Rustlers, a comedy/western feature set on the Free State Lesotho border which takes a fresh look at a conflict which has endured since the time of Moshesh. In addition to teaching screenwriting for film and television and developing curricula for the UNESCO Regional Film and Video Project, Philip Roberts has facilitated screen-writing programmes for the African Script Development Fund and the Zimbabwe Open University as well as heading several regional workshops for the Southern Africa Communications for Development (SACOD) organisation . Philip was the co project leader with Alby James and Clarence Hamilton for the inaugural year of the SEDIBA project in 2005 and continued in 2006 and beyond, during which period he supervised and mentored a variety of script editors now working in the industry and numerous feature film and television projects which came to fruition, including the award-winning GUGU AND ANDILE series based on Romea and Juliet and Death of a Queen, based on Macbeth, for SABC’s Shakespeare in Mzanzi series. Death of a Queen was the winner of the 2010 SAFTA for best Drama Mini Series. Philip has worked as Script Editor for various NFVF feature film scripts and SABC funded television scripts by first-time South African writers including Black South-Easter by Carey McKenzie, The Joyous, by Robyn Aronstam, Surviving the Fifties a series for SABC and many others. He is currently script editing three NFVF funded feature film scripts in development Westdene, One Day and Do Unto Others.
