The South African

International

Film festival to return for the fourth installment in 2019.

RapidLion, the brand behind the festival, has called up on the assist of German- born film maker, Jan Harlan.

Harlan is a film educator and a renowned film maker particularly known for his work as an executive producer for Stanley Kubrick classics such as The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut, as well as the Steven Spielberg - Kubrick collaboration A.I. Artificial Intelligence,

Festival director, Eric Miyeni tells us via email that Rapid Lion will, in the coming year, be celebrating five years of existence and the uptake of the fourth installment of the festival.

A milestone that, according to Miyeni cannot be taken lightly. He advises that to see the real impact of their work, you’d have to look at each edition, from launching and promoting Kalushi before it hit local cinemas, hosting premieres for Catching Feelings, Five Fingers for Marseilles and An Act of defiance.

‘Think of us as the Cannes for local cinema. We have the biggest red carpet of all film events in the country, and we push local films just before they hit the box-office with their stars and directors coming out to shine.’

He expands that, bringing Harlan to host masterclasses here in SA is a big deal for any film maker anywhere in the world.

‘Attending any of the three lectures he is delivering at RapidLion 2019 will immediately make the attendee a one in a billion, at the very least, of all humans on the planet. Jan Harlan worked closely with probably the greatest filmmaker that ever lived, Stanley Kubrick. I say this because there is not a single film, I think, that Kubrick has made, that is not in the top ten of its genre.’

Harlan brings three lectures to the festival, namely;

The Scripting with Music –

A possible pillar of the film structure

, where he will be teaching deeper nuances about the use of music in cinema.

The short – A calling card

, this is a lecture that will show film makers how to approach a short film so that it guarantees the participants work in the real film world.

It’s all in the writing – How to make a film on a low budget

, a very important lecture for anybody who is in the film business where budgets are small and hard to come by.

Miyeni wants us to remember that Full Metal jacket was a low budget film, which went on to be considered as one of the best war films of all time.

Harlan's Master classes will take place on the 2nd and 3rd of March 2019, starting off with It's All in the Writing, which takes place on 2 March from 10am to 2pm. The SHORT will follow in an afternoon session from 3pm to 6pm, while the final class, Music as a Scripting Tool will take place on 3 March from 10am to 2pm.

Tickets are available through Webtickets.