Kultur - Issue 3

We don’t wait for the world to accept.
We create because we want to. Like it
or not, we will be here for many years
to come.”
You never quite know what you’ll get
when the BlackMilk crew sits around
a table to discuss their next project.
What you can be assured of is that
you’ll have a visually rich final product
with its own lexicon of imagery that
often recurs. Be it a fish, gas mask
or flowers, these symbols are left open
to the viewers’ interpretation, often
within a non-linear context.
and high heels, her face still hidden in
the shadows and obscured by a widebrimmed
hat, and a silky trail of smoke
rising from the elegant cigarette holder
in a gloved hand.
“23 Rue d’Amour stole my heart and
ate it. When I read the script I was
inspired. A new world opened before
me. There was so much that I could
play around with and elements that I
could add to the film. I do not recall the
complete briefing that I received, other
than ‘film noir’ and ‘old-school elegance’
without restricting the script by confining
Estè Kira Thomas Dorman Ronnie Belcher Leon Visser
It’s the behind-the-scenes anecdotes
that make the films for me, little place
markers that are almost like journal
entries, especially with some of the
outrageous demands they make for
production design. One such is for 23
Rue d’Amour, where they briefed a
food stylist to create life-sized, edible
penises—that were both cut and uncut.
The final results were eerily realistic,
especially when viewed in their container
on the day of filming. According to the
actress, they tasted good too!
This was Este’s debut with the crew. She
says, “I came on board about a month
before shooting 23 Rue d’Amour. I still
today do not quite know how I managed
to prepare everything in time, but somehow
it all worked out. Today, multiple
projects later, I am still here.
“BlackMilk is my mistress and ours is a
clandestine affair. She seduced me and
I willingly allowed myself to be mesmerised
by her black-seamed stockings
it to a certain period. I started sourcing
in the prop houses of Cape Town where
bit by bit the different pieces started
falling into place. A good example of
this is the eye-shaped mirror in one
of the opening scenes. During the
pre-production phase I constantly tried
to include textures and depth into the
design. I created depth with interesting
things, such as a dirty popcorn machine to
shoot through, a warped carnival mirror to
twist you into a different reality and big old
metal letters backlit for added dramatic
effect and background texture.”
Keeping up with the BlackMilk crew can be
quite challenging but then they excel at
functioning under some pretty frightening
time constraints. Pre-production meetings
happen almost daily in the run-up to the
shooting schedule, after hours and often
until quite late. How they manage on the
chronic lack of sleep I don’t know—and it’s
possibly why they’ve brought out their
own brand of BlackMilk coffee. If you
have a chance to lay hands on the stuff,
KULTÜR
NOVEMBER 2011
54