Jenna Bass
{{Short description|South African film director}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Jenna Bass
| image = Interview with Jenna Bass and cast about the film 'High Fantasy' 3-42 screenshot.png
| caption = Bass in 2018
| birth_name = Jenna Cato Bass
| birth_date = 1986
| birth_place = Camden, London, England
| nationality = South African
| alma_mater = AFDA
| years_active = 2010–present
}}
Jenna Cato Bass (born 1986) is a South African film director, screenwriter, and author. She has written short stories under the pseudonym Constance Myburgh, one of which was shortlisted for the 2012 Caine Prize.Alison Flood, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/may/01/african-booker-caine-prize-shortlist 'African Booker' shortlist offers an alternative view of continent], The Guardian, 1 May 2012.{{cite book|author=Caine Prize|title=The Caine Prize for African Writing 2012|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V8j0AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA108|year=2012|publisher=New Internationalist|isbn=978-1-78026-075-4|page=108}}
Early life
Bass was born in London, England and grew up in South Africa.{{Cite web|url=http://moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff43/eng/director/?id=1773|title=Jenna Cato Bass|website=Moscow Film Festival|accessdate=9 March 2022}} She practiced magic at the College of Magic. She went onto graduate from the Cape Town campus of AFDA, The School for the Creative Economy.
Career
In 2011 Bass founded Jungle Jim, a genre fiction magazine. Issue 6 featured her noir detective story 'Hunter Emmanuel', featuring an investigation into a dismembered prostitute. The story was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2012.
Bass's first feature film, Love the One You Love, was shot on a 'nano-budget' using hand-held consumer cameras and a partly improvised script. The film told the story of a sex phone operator negotiating her relationship with her boyfriend and considering a move to Korea.Tymon Smith, [https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2015-09-18-movie-review-love-the-one-you-love-is-a-cinematic-treat/ Movie Review: 'Love the One You Love' is a cinematic treat], The Sunday Times, 18 September 2015. The film won Best South African Feature Film at the 2014 Durban International Film Festival.{{cite book|author1=Baldwin Ndaba|author2=Therese Owen|author3=Masego Panyane|title=The Black Consciousness Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dqSkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT341|year=2019|publisher=OR Books|isbn=978-1-68219-172-9|page=341}}
High Fantasy (2017) was a satirical thriller about a group of young travellers who mysteriously exchange their bodies on a camping trip. Shot on iPhones, using improvisation, the film explored "the messy tangle of race, class and gender identity in modern-day South Africa."Christopher Vourlias, [https://variety.com/2018/film/news/south-africa-jenna-bass-race-class-gender-high-fantasy-1202696614/ South Africa’s Jenna Bass Explores Race, Class and Gender in ‘High Fantasy’], Variety, July 21, 2019.
Flatland (2019), an all-female "South African kitsch-western genre mashup", was shot on a larger budget.Andrew Gutman, [https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-recommendations/flatland-jenna-bass-kitsch-south-african-western Berlinale first look: Flatland is an intriguingly kitsch South African western], Sight & Sound, 27 August 2019. It was chosen as the opening film in the 2019 Berlinale Panorama.Sophie Mayer, [http://berlinfilmjournal.com/2019/02/berlinale-panorama-review-flatland/ Berlinale 2019 Review: Flatland], Berlin Film Journal, February 2019.
Works
=Short stories=
Bass first started using a pseudonym, Constance Myburgh, in 2011 when publishing stories in her literary magazine, Jungle Jim, to keep her author's profile separate from her role as a screenwriter in the film industry. {{Cite web |last=Town |first=Geoff Ryman Issue: 100 African Writers of SFF-Part Three: Cape |date=2017-03-03 |title=Constance Myburgh a.k.a. Jenna Bass |url=http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/100african/constance-myburgh-a-k-a-jenna-bass/ |access-date=2024-11-06 |website=Strange Horizons |language=en}}
- "A Hole in the Ground" (Jungle Jim Volume. 2)
- "Hunter Emmanuel" (Jungle Jim, Volume 6) Shortlisted for the Caine Prize in 2012.
=Filmography=
| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ ! Year ! Title ! width="65"| Director ! width="65"| Writer ! width="65"| Producer ! width="65"| Cinematographer ! Other ! Notes |
| 2010
| The Tunnel | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | | | Part of Africa First: Volume One |
| 2014
| {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | Editor, production designer | |
| 2017
| {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | | |
| 2018
| Rafiki | | {{yes}} | | | | |
| 2019
| Sizohlala | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | | | | Short film |
| 2019
| Flatland | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | | | | |
| 2019
| Neighbours | {{yes}} | | | | | |
| 2021
| {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | Production designer, Casting | |
| 2021
| | {{yes}} | | | | |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|nm3689536}}
- Geoff Ryman, [http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/100african/constance-myburgh-a-k-a-jenna-bass/ Constance Myburgh a.k.a. Jenna Bass], Strange Horizons, 2017.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bass, Jenna}}
Category:English emigrants to South Africa
Category:South African short story writers
Category:South African screenwriters
Category:South African film directors