Local South African film Just Now Jeffrey has already received positive responses from critics and audiences alike, and for Hylton Tannenbaum, director and co-writer of Just Now Jeffrey, having 20 years of experience in advertising and commercials has prepared him to direct his debut feature film.
Also read: District Six Museum marks 30th anniversary with VR experience
While the movie was an independent film that gave Tannenbaum and the film crew ‘complete creative freedom’, there were also challenges that came with the production of the film, ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic, to not having ‘infrastructure and back-up of a studio’.
As the movie is about the teenage protagonist, Jeffrey Greenbaum, wanting to lose his virginity, it is juxtaposed with the backdrop of political change in 1980s Apartheid South Africa.
‘The country is going up in flames [and] all Jeffrey cares about is getting laid,’ said Tannenbaum in an interview with Cape {town} Etc.
‘That’s a typical kind of adolescent thing,’ he added.
‘[Jeffrey] starts off very much in his own bubble, in his own head, and he just gets exposed to things that are happening in South Africa that he can’t ignore anymore,’ said Tannenbaum.
Even though the film is set in a different era, Tannenbaum has noted that it has been popular with young audiences, as teenagers of today ‘deal with the same kind of issues’.
Citing Quentin Tarantino as one of his many inspirations, both Tannenbaum and Brett Morris, fellow co-writer, ‘co-creator’, co-director and co-producer wanted to make a film that the world has never seen.
‘[The South African film industry] hasn’t done this kind of comedy or this sort of story before. We wanted the world to see all the spectrum of what South Africa was like: the good, the bad, the left, the right, everything in-between,’ said Tannenbaum.
‘We wanted it to have a very distinct South African feel to it. […] We didn’t want this to look like an American film. We’re not trying to copy the very glossy, plastic, primary colours of American 80s films. We want this to have a distinct South African texture,’ he added.
This included that details of that era being portrayed in the film were not sanitised, but rather brought to the forefront.
‘It’s a little bit grimy, it’s a bit dirty. The country was broken,’ said Tannenbaum.
‘On a subliminal level, we were very conscious about the cracks […] We didn’t want this ‘sugary pop’ 80s American style [and] not the sort of cliched 80s; it’s South Africa’s own 80s,’ he added.
Just Now Jeffrey has also been screened at a few international film festivals, such as the Beverly Hills Film Festival in the US, where it has been well-received, according to Tannenbaum.
‘We’ve entered into a lot of other festivals, and hopefully we’ll get to spread it around the world,’ said Tannenbaum.
Just Now Jeffrey is currently playing in theaters, with a running time of two hours. The film is rated 16, and contains language, nudity and sex.
Also read:
Picture: Just Now Jeffrey / Facebook
