BOOK PROJECT: THE FIRST 21 YEARS – AFDA, THE SCHOOL FOR THE CREATIVE ECONOMY

Client AFDA: South Africa’s world-renowned school for the creative economy, voted one of the top ten under-the-radar creative institutions by ID Magazine.

Goals:  The 480-page book is created as an asset to support owners’ exit strategy, surface prestige, and position the business as the continent’s out-and-out leader. Keys were to link and leverage alumni accomplishments locally and internationally as proof of concept.

THE THREE MUSKETEERS

It is hardly surprising that AFDA co-founders Garth Holmes, Bata Passchier and Deon Opperman collectively referred to themselves as ‘The Three Musketeers’.  After all, in genre, The Three Musketeers is primarily an adventure novel.  And the plot – into which Alexandre Dumas wove various injustices and absurdities of the old regime – gave the novel a political impact in the fierce debate that led to the French Revolution.

AFDA’S three musketeers shared a cavalier spirit and gallant obsession with transformation, and the overthrow of the old order. Their adopted motto, ‘all for one, one for all’ would prove well-chosen, considering the rigours they were to face in staging the revolution which AFDA brought about in the South African Film industry.

At the confluence of fear and optimism there lies opportunity

Like philosophy and art, friendship has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. Beyond friendship, a mutual trust, deep love for the film makers’ art and shared convictions brought a maverick, a visionary and a ringmaster together to form AFDA.  Against all odds, these peculiarly essential qualities – along with an absurd and gritty optimism – enabled them to tackle an industry head-on, and embark on the adventure that led AFDA to become one of the leading institutions of its kind in the world today.