Thandi Brewer
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Thandi Brewer | |
|---|---|
| Died | 12 June 2019 |
| Nationality | South African |
| Occupation(s) | Showrunner, screenwriter, film producer, director, script editor |
Thandi Brewer (died 12 June 2019), was a South African showrunner, screenwriter, film producer, director, and script editor.
Biography
[edit]Brewer was born in South Africa and lived in Lower Houghton—north of Upper Houghton and adjacent to Hillbrow—before relocating to the rural Hennops River region. She traveled extensively across China, Russia, Europe, the Americas, and other parts of Africa.
Many generations of the Brewer family were involved in the South African film/TV and theatre industry — and the young Thandi started early. At six months old she was cast in a commercial for diapers (known in South Africa as nappies). Brewer's grandfather was Jimmy Hunter (stand-up comic and producer of Jimmy Hunter's Brighton Follies).[1][2] Her father, Bill Brewer, worked as a comic, actor, musician, composer, writer, and critic for the Sunday Times (South Africa).[3][4][5] Her mother, British-born Fiona Fraser, was an actress, director, writer, and mentor who was given the Lifetime Achiever Award at the Naledi Theatre Awards in 2005.[6][7][8][9]
Brewer performed at various times throughout her childhood as a child actor in South Africa. She acted in films such as Majuba and Escape Route Cape Town. At age 5, she starred in the eponymous radio show, Thandi Time.
Her stage work as a writer and director included My Mother, Myself, Two Singers - Khuluma, The History of Sex, Letters of Love, Lust and Living, Alice in Africa, Azanyan Fairytales, The Will to Die, and Alternatives Anonymous.
In 1995, she won the Soundscapes competition for Best South African Play for her first play, Samuel's Fugue. This was broadcast the same year and resulted in her being nominated for an Artes Award for Best Script in 1996. She then went on to write Dynamite Diepkloof Dudes on SABC 3 for Bobby Heaney Productions; Nodedancing, which was a finalist in the Xencat/Channel 4 script writing competition; and Balls Up, a film script awarded a development grant by the Department of Arts and Culture. She was one of the young directors chosen for "Entsha/Nuwe Talente" on SABC 2 and produced the thirteen-part action/adventure series Venture Out There for SABC 3. Additionally, she wrote 37 Honey Street, a 26-part drama series for SABC 2, which she also directed.
Brewer wrote the international film scripts for Story of An African Farm, De Gerrie and The Chemo Club. Her second play, Please Hold I'm Coming, ran to critical and audience acclaim at the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg.
A long-standing friendship with Ian von Memerty became a working relationship. Together they produced Rockatutu for the South African Ballet Theatre in 2004, which segued into Music and Mayhem in 2005, Jump 4 Joy in 2006, The Heart is Round in 2007 and Gunslingers.
She was one of 12 South African writers selected for the Sediba writer's workshop of 2005, run by Alby James. This led to her becoming a senior script editor for the SABC/Sediba workshop.
Brewer was also a screenwriting mentor of the NFVF Spark writers programme with Julie Hall, Mmabatho Kau, and Loyiso Maquoba. She wrote Usindiso/Redemption!! which she produced in conjunction with Bridget Pickering (Co-producer of Hotel Rwanda).[10] This was a regional semi-finalist for best drama series at the International Emmys in 2008. It won 4 SAFTAs, and played to 4.3 million viewers a night on SABC 1.
She created and was the showrunner on Sticks and Stones[11] and End Game which aired on SABC 1 and received critical and audience acclaim.[12][13] Shortly before her death, she completed her directorial debut with her script “The Chemo Club,” which was nominated in the 2015 WGSA Muse Awards Feature film category.[14]
She was one of the founders and the first Chair of the Writers' Guild of South Africa, as well as screenwriting Chair for AFDA. She was also involved in the South African Screen Federation (SASFED) Executive Committee as Co-Secretaries with Khalid Shamis in 2009.[15] The following year, she held the Executive Position of Communications.[16]
Brewer's ongoing cancer battle and double mastectomy were said to have made her more determined to write, produce and direct more South African content.[17]
She died on 12 June 2019 after losing her third battle against the disease.[18]
Career
[edit]Brewer produced about 300 hours of film during her lifetime.[19] Her capital had produced over 97 million rands worth of products.[citation needed]
Her productions included children's series Dynamite Diepkloof Dudes; 37 Honey Street which made countrywide headlines with the first-ever lesbian kiss on South African television;[20] the 7 SAFTA Award-winning and International Emmy-nominated Usindiso; Sticks and Stones, the first series in the history of South African television to have an audiovisual description for the blind; Bahati Close, the first series produced by M-Net East Africa; and End Game. She had been show-running Keeping Score, a 156-part telenovela she created. Keeping Score is the first telenovela that SABC 2 has done.
As a script editor, she worked with writers to produce Society on SABC 1, Tiger on SABC 2, Love Mzanzi Style (etc), and SAFTA-winning Borderliners S2. As an approved NFVF script editor and story analyst, she assisted writers with their wording on Jimmy in Pink for UK/NFVF 25 Words or less, Mama Africa and Hear Me Move for NFVF.
Her work as a script doctor includes Hillside on SABC 2, One Way on SABC 1, 102 Paradise Lane SABC 2, and Glory Boys M-Net. She script-doctored four international features, including a film by Luc Jacquet, Oscar-winning director of March of the Penguins, and Cheap Lives by Antony Sher.
As the head of development for an international film company, she oversaw the development of 8 international features and 24 documentaries.
She was a founding member and the first chairman of the South African Writers Guild. Brewer was passionate about Africa, African literature, and African writers. She trained more than 500 South African and African writers as a screenwriting mentor through the NFVF screenwriting programme Spark, M-Net's East African skills transfer programme in Kenya, the Namibian film commission's short film slate, screenwriting mentor on the NFVF/Blingola female filmmakers slate, and as a former AFDA screenwriting chair.
Her feature film screenplays included Story of an African Farm, starring Richard E. Grant, De Gerrie for Hugh Masekela and the NFVF, and The Chemo Club, which was her directorial debut.
Filmography
[edit]Writer
[edit]- 1998: Otelo Burning, by Sara Blecher – script doctor
- 2004: The Story of an African Farm, by David Lister – writer[21]
- 2011: 37 Honey Street (TV series), by Alwyn Swart – writer
- 2013: End Game (TV series), by Akin Omotoso – writer
Actress
[edit]- 1968: Majuba: Heuwel van Duiwe, by David Millin – Klein Johanna
- 1993: African Skies (TV series) – Donna
References
[edit]- ^ "Articles, Images, and Programme for Music Hall at The Palace Pier Theatre, Brighton". www.arthurlloyd.co.uk.
- ^ "Regional Programme London - 5 August 1937 - BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
- ^ "Bill Brewer - ESAT". esat.sun.ac.za.
- ^ "Bill Brewer". IMDb.
- ^ Jani Allan [@JaniAllan] (7 November 2014). "Bill Brewer, theatre critic and actor once said I'm not an atheist – I believe in Taubie Kushlick! @PalluSA" (Tweet) – via Twitter./photo/1
- ^ Ismail, Sumayya (22 December 2006). "Theatre personality Fiona Fraser-Brewer dies at 77". mg.co.za.
- ^ "Fiona Fraser". IMDb.
- ^ "Fiona Fraser - ESAT". esat.sun.ac.za.
- ^ Ward, Sheila (30 May 2013). Starting Again in Egoli. AuthorHouse. ISBN 9781481796521 – via Google Books.
- ^ "SABC1's drama series that speaks to the heart". mediaupdate.co.za.
- ^ "Series inspires women to take control of their fate". dispatchlive.co.za.
- ^ Kaplan, Gia (2014). "NEW POLITICAL THRILLER TO HIT SA SCREENS". EyeWithness News. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
- ^ "South African political thriller, End Game, a thought-provoking series. - The Public News Hub". www.publicnewshub.com. 28 November 2013.
- ^ "The Writers' Guild of South Africa". The Writers' Guild of South Africa. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
- ^ The South African Screen Federation. "SASFED Board positions for 2009/10-year announced". SASFED.
- ^ The South African Screen Federation. "SASFED Executive Positions Decided". SASFED.
- ^ "THAT DRESS". timeslive.co.za.
- ^ Local TV and film legend Thandi Brewer dies
- ^ admin (24 March 2022). "Thandi Brewer – Biography, Age, & Career". JOBS.INFOPPORTUNITY. Archived from the original on 20 September 2022. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
- ^ Gallagher, Angie (18 April 2019). "A look back at homosexuality on South African TV screens". MambaOnline - Gay South Africa online. Retrieved 4 January 2025.
- ^ Willis, John; Monush, Barry (1 November 2006). Screen World: 2006 Film Annual. Applause Theatre & Cinema Book Publishers. p. 315. ISBN 9781557837073.