WITSIES WITH THE EDGE

[BA FT 2017]

MARIAN DE PONTES

2021 Horizon Award Winner

Marian de Pontes is the recipient of the 7th annual Horizon Award. The award is given to emerging female and non-binary filmmakers by a mentorship team, which includes Cassian Elwes (Dallas Buyers Club/ Mudbound), Lynette Howell Taylor (A Star is Born/ Captain Fantastic), Christine Vachon (Boys Don't Cry/ Vox Lux), and Sundance Feature Film Programme director Michelle Satter. The award is in partnership with the Sundance Institute and will be presented at the Toronto International Film Festival later this year.

De Pontes is a recent graduate of Chapman University in California, earning an MFA in film production. She graduated top of her class at Wits and earned the Dean’s Award and an award for Best Cinematographer in 2015. “Wits contributed hugely towards where I am now, and it has an incredible Film and TV Department focused on the intellectual approach of art in our world. It helped me lay the groundwork with thoughtful courses ranging from the female gaze in cinema to representation and semiotics in society - these are concepts that have distinctly helped me in my approach to filmmaking,” says De Pontes, who is living and working in Los Angeles.

She says her idea for her winning film Etana was sparked by a news article three years ago about female child soldiers who were freed from rebel armies in South Sudan. “It was a story that stuck with me for years until I decided to tell parts of it for my MFA thesis film.”

De Pontes has had to learn to adjust to Hollywood in lockdown. “I was lucky, I had just wrapped on filming Etana just as lockdown started in California. We managed to edit, sound design and create the special effects remotely with the help of a remarkably talented and hardworking team.

“The beginning of lockdown here was an unsure time for the industry and I had just graduated into a world that was coming to a standstill. An incredible TV director, Tucker Gates, known most for his work on the original 21 Jump Street, Lost, Bates Motel, House of Cards, and Homeland, offered me a mentorship opportunity where I could shadow him on set and learn the ropes of the television world. It has been a wonderful rollercoaster ride since then, and I’m very grateful to those who have helped me thus far in a time that has been tough on everybody.”