By Darren Gilbert

“In my culture, there are doctors, lawyers and accountants,” says EL-Jelailati. “If you tell someone you want to be a musician, an artist or a filmmaker, they look at you and say that's a nice hobby but you have to find something that's valuable that you can do with your time.” You’d need a good, solid career. So he planned on becoming a lawyer. He even got so far as the registration line at TUKS. However, a conversation with a close friend made him realise it wasn’t a career he wanted.

He explains: “About a week before I was to register to study law, a really good friend of mine who is now my co-producer and works on all my films with me – Charles Khuzwayo – told me he was going to film school.” To AFDA. “I was amazed because here I was not really knowing there was such a thing as film school.” The conversation also left him debating his foreseeable future. Did he want a career in law or did he want to pursue film?

Of course, he had already made a decision. At least subconsciously. And within that week, after telling his father that he wanted to drop law, EL-Jelailati signed up to study film at AFDA.

It was a disappointing moment for both of his parents. He even admits that. They thought their son would make a great lawyer. He probably would have. Fortunately for him, they didn’t stand in his way and today, 11 years later, he runs two companies. His first, a production company called The Visual Architects funds his second, an indie film company, which goes by the name of Sycorax Media. And while this self-reliance brings with it challenges – film isn’t the easiest of careers to begin with – he couldn’t be happier.

“The financial aspect of [funding my own films] is obviously a big challenge,” he says. “My corporate company essentially funds my small budget, independent, maximum 10-day-shoot films.” This means that EL-Jelailati can’t necessarily do everything he wants. It limits the stories that he can tell and the way he can tell them.

However, it doesn’t stop him.

“Until a couple of years ago, I thought I needed funding in order to do something,” he says. “I felt like taking on a film was such a massive undertaking that there was no way I could do it by myself. I’ve since realised though that that’s not true.” If you want to make a small film, you can do it right now. All you need is a few friends and a free weekend. Even two days in the week will do. Of course, you do have to be realistic; you won’t make the next Avengers blockbuster. But you can shoot a decent short film if you have a story.

It’s all about expectations versus reality, points out EL-Jelailati. “When I am making a film, I know who I’m selling it to. And I know that maybe around 10 000 people in total will watch it. But I’m happy and comfortable with that because I’m telling the stories that I want to tell.” While funding is a challenge, on the opposite side of the scale is the benefit of not being forced to tell a particular story.

It’s the ultimate freedom that any filmmaker would want; creativity without conceptual limitations.

“I don’t want to use the phrase ‘answer to no one’ but that’s essentially what it is,” he says. “By funding my own films, I don’t have to limit my idea to a South Africa story.” Take his film, Alexia, for example. It’s a story about a woman who falls in love with a married man who, in turn, discovers she is transgender. He plans to screen it early next year.

At its heart, Alexia is a story about people falling in love. It’s a global story rather than a South African one that local funders would expect you to make. “I have had issues in the past when approaching funders” he says. “They want to regurgitate the same old ‘South African’ story that’s either about crime, Apartheid or racism.” It’s the same story told over and over again. “But I want to tell a different story.”

Unfortunately, there is a downside to going the indie film route, he admits. And especially so in South Africa. While there are hundreds of millions of dollars in the indie film industry worldwide, locally it’s a different reality. “There is currently no indie structure in South Africa,” he points out. “At the moment, I get more interest from my films overseas than I do locally.” It’s not the distributors fault, mind you but rather that of exhibitors, he believes.

“As a local guy, you get two to three weeks maximum in circuit before they pull you out and replace you with a blockbuster or whatever the case may be,” he says. Even if you wanted to screen your film on your own dime, you can’t because you need to approach Ster-Kinekor or Nu Metro. For someone who makes a film with R100 000, that’s not feasible.

But EL-Jelailati hopes to change that.

He’s currently in talks with a British distributor to screen Alexia in Europe early next year. After that, he plans to screen it independently across South Africa. He also aims to build a feasible model that can be applied to the distribution of his future films as well as any other indie film in the market.

“I believe that there is a problem with distribution in South Africa, and that is because there is a lack of exhibitors in South Africa,” he says. His solution, in the long run, is to build a creative hub dedicated to stories and storytelling. “It will be a facility made up of a cinema, coffee shop, writer’s corner, gathering hall and book story,” he adds, “which will act as a first-of-its-kind prototype to be implemented in other areas.”

“I want to help grow and develop the local indie film industry,” he notes. “I want to find those young kids like myself who don’t know anything about filmmaking but love films, and show them that they can make a film right here, right now.”

For more information, visit www.sycoraxmedia.com. Alternatively, connect with him on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram. You can also find Sycorax Media on Vimeo.