The movie ‘Bay of Plenty’ walked off with no less than four awards at the prestigious South African Film & Television Awards (SAFTA) held recently in Pretoria. The production scooped the Best Ensemble, Best Full-length Drama, Best Art Direction (Anita van Hermert) and Best Actor (Thomas Gumede) awards.

“Durban can be extremely proud of this achievement,” says Toni Monty, head of the Durban Film Office (DFO). “Not only because it was made locally but because it utilised the skills of a number of local professionals, such as line producer Laurette Marais and assistant director Thabani Gigaba, under the leadership of executive producer Sara Blecher and award-winning director of photography, Mike Downie.”

“The Ethekwini Municipality has shown its commitment to the support of the city’s film industry by putting all the resources at their disposal, behind the efforts of the DFO and industry role-players,” Monty continues.

‘Bay of Plenty’ was filmed in and around Durban over a period of just over five months in 2007 and is based on the real-life experiences of a group of lifeguards based at South Beach, Durban. During the struggle years, when most municipal swimming pools were closed, the pool in Lamontville was the only exception. It was managed by a ‘tough’ man who pulled children off the streets, taught them to swim and put them through a strict training regimen. Years later, when the Ethekwini Municipality were looking for black lifeguards to work on Durban’s beaches, a large number of the recruits came from the Lamontville pool.

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