Windhoek, Namibia. Release date: 2 March 2021. For Immediate Release.
Newly founded Namibian film company, Bosman Films, is proud to announce that pre-production has started for their first film, Woestynpsalm, a feature-length Afrikaans film set in Namibia.
Bosman Films was founded in 2020 by 22-year-old Namibian filmmaker, Ben van der Walt, currently a student at the Kanbar Institute for Film and Television of New York University’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts. Van der Walt, who is also Writer and Director of Woestynpsalm, returned to Namibia in March of 2020, just in time before the USA closed its borders due to COVID-19. He will likely only be able to return to New York to continue his studies in September 2021 or later. But COVID-19 has not managed to put his passion for filmmaking on idle, as his time in partial isolation at his family home in Windhoek has given him the opportunity to start conceptualizing his very first feature-length film.
“Woestynpsalm is a homage to my family and my beautiful Namibia. Loosely based on a true story, it tells us about the physical and emotional challenges of keeping something you love alive in a desert,” says Van der Walt.
The narrative follows The Woman in the Desert – Nadia, a young Protestant reverend who drives extreme distances through Namibia’s deserts every weekend to preach to a dying congregation. Set in an ambiguous time frame – sometime between the 1980’s and today – Nadia is increasingly faced with growing pressure from neighbouring churches and family to reconsider her life path as a female reverend. As a result, she is forced to juggle traditional and modern views on religion, religious leadership and the ‘acceptable’ roles of a woman in our society.
According to Van der Walt, Woestynpsalm cameras will start rolling around mid-April 2021, with an all-Namibian cast and a cosmopolitan crew*, consisting of members from Namibia, South Africa, the USA and the Netherlands. Filming will primarily take place in Windhoek and in the southern parts of Namibia, possibly as far as Lüderitz.
Moveover, Van der Walt says, “The initial plan was that I would self-fund Woestynpsalm through my freelance film projects. But once we dove into pre-production, our vision for Woestynpsalm grew as we realised the enormous filmmaking opportunities that Namibia has on offer. With this, of course, the project’s scope and budget has had to expand beyond my own funding capabilities. We are now actively looking for local partners to help us bring this film to life. We would like to urge any Namibians who are in a position to contribute to reach out to us.”
The premiere and release for Woestynpsalm is planned for October 2021. Exact dates are to be announced. For information on this film, visit our website: www.woestynfilm.com. To keep up to date with developments, please follow our social media: www.instagram.com/woestyn_film and www.facebook.com/woestynpsalm.film. To make a donation, contact Ben van der Walt (contact details below) or visit our Indiegogo campaign page: https://igg.me/at/woestyn-film/x#/.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Ben van der Walt
Director – Woestynpsalm
+1 917 459 9154 (WhatsApp only)
+264 81 333 1111 (SMS and phone calls)
*Crew list:
Namibia
- Ben van der Walt (Director and Writer, student at New York University, New York)
- Benjamin Jacobs (Sound Operator and Designer, honours student at AFDA, Cape Town)
- F.C. Smith (Camera Operator and Lighting Technician, honours student at AFDA, Cape Town)
- Anika Henning (Campaign Manager and Casting Director, student at Aleit Academy, Somerset West)
- Ester van der Walt (Media Advisor, graduate of the University of Cape Town, Cape Town)
- Alida van der Walt (Administrative Coordinator, honours student at Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch)
South Africa
- Janay Coetzee (Production Designer, honours student at AFDA, Cape Town)
- Danielle Jansen (Visual Creator, honours graduate at Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography, Stellenbosch)
USA
- Rex Sang (Cinematographer and Co-producer, student at New York University, New York)
The Netherlands
- Anna Lee (Producer, student at New York University, New York)
- Maxim Velli (Web Developer and Graphic Designer, Amsterdam)
