Steven Markovitz

Steven Markovitz (Born 1965) is a South African film and television producer. He has produced and executive-produced features, documentaries and short films including the acclaimed "Boy called Twist", "Behind the Rainbow" and "Viva Riva!". Since 2007, he has worked all over Africa producing documentary series and fiction. He has an associate office in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo and works with production offices across Africa.

Career

Markovitz began his career in 1992 and co-founded the production company Big World Cinema in Cape Town in 1994. In 1999, he produced the short film “Husk”, which premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival; followed by “It’s My Life”, the intimate portrait of Zackie Achmat, South Africa’s leading AIDS activist in 2001. “The Tap” won Best South African Documentary at the Apollo Film Festival 2003 and Best Production of the Year at the Stone Awards, South Africa.

Markovitz produced the Academy Award-nominated short film “Inja” (“Dog”) in 2003; followed by the award winning South African-Canadian feature film “Proteus” directed by John Greyson and Jack Lewis which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in 2003 and Berlin; “Raya”, a short film part of the “Mama Afrika” series, which was theatrically released in the USA in 2003; and the TV movie ‘’Crossing the Line’’ by award-winning director Brian Tilley.

In 2005 he was the executive producer of the feature film Boy called Twist directed by Tim Greene, which screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005. This was followed by the animated short film “Beyond Freedom”, which screened at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Markovitz produced a series of thirteen films made by new South African documentary filmmakers titled “Project 10: Real Stories from a Free South Africa” which screened at Sundance and Berlin In 2008, he produced the acclaimed feature documentary “Behind the Rainbow” on South Africa’s ruling party, directed by Jihan El-Tahri for ZDF/Arte, SBS, SVT, VPRO, SABC and ITVS (USA). “Latitude”, a series of 9 short films from 8 African countries, was executive-produced by Markovitz, and premiered at Berlin in February 2010. It include the award-winning Kenyan science fiction short “Pumzi” by Wanuri Kahiu.

Recently, Markovitz completed the documentary omnibus “Congo in Four Acts” which travelled to over 50 festivals including Berlin 2010; and the documentary “State of Mind”, directed by Djo Tunda Wa Munga, which investigates the extent of trauma and its’ healing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Markovitz co-produced the Congolese-French-Belgium crime thriller “Viva Riva!”, directed by Djo Tunda Wa Munga, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010 and won the MTV Movie Award for Best African Movie. It is currently being released in USA, UK, Australia/NZ, Canada, Belgium, France, Germany and 18 African countries.

Other Work

Markovitz is the co-founder of “Encounters”, the South African International Documentary Film Festival, and the Close Encounters Documentary Laboratory, now in its 13th year. He is a founding member of the “Independent Producers Organisation” and has sat on various international film juries, including Cinemart, Rotterdam and Silverdocs. He recently moderated the first Good Pitch² in Johannesburg in partnership with Britdoc.

Personal life

Steven has an Honours Degree in African History from the University of Cape Town. He is in a relationship with Karen Thorne who is Station Manager of Cape Town TV. They live in Cape Town and have three children.