Steven Markovitz

Producer

Biography

Steven Markovitz has 30 years' experience in producing and distributing feature films and documentaries. He has worked with over 150 directors from 35 African countries on films, some of which have screened at festivals including Cannes, Sundance, Berlin, Toronto and Venice and many other festivals. Steven is the CEO and co-founder of Big World Cinema (established 1994). Films he has produced sold to platforms and broadcasters including Amazon, Netflix, Channel 4, BBC, arte, Vice, Showtime, Can…

Filmography

7.0

Rafiki

Kena and Ziki long for something more. Despite the political rivalry between their families, the girls resist and remain close friends, supporting each other to pursue their dreams in a conservative society. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety.

8.0

Love the One You Love

Across the city of Cape Town, a sex-line operator, a dog handler and a computer technician begin to suspect that their romantic relationships are the subject of a bizarre conspiracy, involving their family, friends, and possibly even greater forces. 'Love the One You Love's parallel stories question the ideals we hold too sacred: love, happiness, and the New South Africa; the pursuit of which makes truth impossible.

5.8

Proteus

An exquisite period piece that skillfully explores the intersections of sex, race and politics takes place in 18th century South Africa, telling the passionate (true) story of two men caught in an unjust system rife with racism, homophobia and cruelty.

5.7

Omen

After spending years in Belgium, a young Congolese man returns to his birthplace of Kinshasa to confront the intricacies of his family and culture.

6.6

Winnie

While her husband served a life sentence, paradoxically kept safe and morally uncontaminated, Winnie Mandela rode the raw violence of apartheid, fighting on the front line and underground. This is the untold story of the mysterious forces that combined to take her down, labeling him a saint, her, a sinner.

5.3

Viva Riva!

Riva is a small time operator who has just returned to his hometown of Kinshasa, Congo after a decade away with a major score: a fortune in hijacked gasoline. Wads of cash in hand and out for a good time, Riva is soon entranced by beautiful night club denizen Nora, the kept woman of a local gangster.

N/A

Tug of War

A coming-of-age political love story set in the final years of British colonial Zanzibar. Denge, a young freedom fighter meets Yasmin, an Indian-Zanzibari woman in the middle of the night as she is on her way to be married. Passion and revolution escalate.

7.9

High Fantasy

A group of young friends on a camping trip, deep in the South African countryside wake up to discover they have all swapped bodies.

N/A

The Colonel's Stray Dogs

In 1981, seven Libyan exiles formed the core opposition group to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Thirty years later, they are back to their country only to inherit the mess he left. The film is an intricate blend of rare first-hand accounts, propaganda archival material turned on its head, evocative cinematography and an untold history of a country.

4.8

Homecoming

Kenyan Jim Chuchu’s short film casts a voyeur’s obsession with the girl next door, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, science fiction and fiction.

0.5

Stories of Our Lives

Created by the members of a Nairobi-based arts collective — who have removed their names from the film for fear of reprisal — this anthology film that dramatizes true-life stories from Kenya’s oppressed LGBTQ community is both a labour of love and a bold act of militancy.

N/A

The Abyss Boys

A coming-of-age tale of two boys trying to survive amidst rampant corruption and gang violence.

5.0

aKasha

A Kasha is a universal offbeat love story set in a time of civil war - but the war is in Sudan and it is happening right now. We follow Adnan, an AK47-loving rebel, his long-suffering love interest, Lina, and the armydodging Absi, over a fateful 24 hours in a rebel-held area of Sudan.

3.0

Beats of the Antonov

The story of the people of the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains in Sudan, showing how they deal with civil war. Traditionally music has always been part of daily life in these areas, but now, it has a new role in a society challenge by war.

6.6

Pumzi

A sci-fi film about futuristic Africa, 35 years after World War III, 'The Water War'.

8.0

State of Mind: Healing Trauma

A layered, engrossing and intriguing look at a national collective trauma and the ambitious initiative to try and heal the wounds.

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