An education to take home

When Gavin Hood first introduced himself to one of his UCLA
Extension classes, three students walked out.

“I said, “˜My name is Gavin, and I’m from South
Africa.’ Three people ““ two black guys and a white guy
““ got up and walked out and didn’t want to be in class
with me. You just want the world to open up and swallow you,”
said Hood, the writer and director of “Tsotsi,” a 2006
Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film.

The year 1990 should have been a difficult one for Hood, who had
just moved to the U.S. to study film.

In addition to the irony of facing prejudice due to his home
country’s apartheid policy, Hood, who is white, was unable to
afford film school, so he began UCLA Extension’s
Entertainment Studies certificate program.

It was, however, exactly what he wanted. Despite the fact that
he had earned a law degree back home, he spent his time outside of
extension classes working odd jobs for a commercial company on a
cash basis.

“I mean, folding letters into envelopes or cleaning up or
whatever ““ I had the best time. I worked on as many
people’s short films as I could. I didn’t have money to
make my own short,” Hood said.

“I hadn’t had the benefit of a film education, and I
was just drinking it in.”

For Hood, the education Los Angeles had to offer was a godsend
compared to what was available to him in South Africa.

There, he had left his job at a commercial law firm to work as
an actor, playing the lead in a television series. But he quickly
became frustrated with the limits of the country’s
entertainment industry.

“We were very much a small industry, and I didn’t
think the standard of work ““ my own included ““ was that
high,” he said. “I thought that spending a period of
time in a formal training environment would allow me to immerse
myself in learning the craft. And that’s what I did ““ I
sold everything when I was 29 years old, I left South Africa, and I
went to UCLA.”

The first part of Hood’s journey in the entertainment
industry, which ended with his return to South Africa upon
receiving his certificate, is actually a common one in the
Entertainment Studies certificate program.

In the program, students do not receive degrees but still have
the opportunity to take courses, seminars and workshops taught by
industry professionals.

The flexibility of the schedule attracts many students from
other countries who, like Hood, lack the resources and time to
attend film school.

“There’s a surprising number of foreign
students,” said Pete Hammond, a frequent contributor to
Variety and film critic for Maxim, who this quarter moderates UCLA
Extension’s Sneak Preview Series.

“I would say the majority of them seem to be from
somewhere else. (The Entertainment Studies program) is something
that is easier for them to go to, and like (Hood), they’re
just trying to get where they can and do what they can in this
country.”

The fruit of Hood’s labor has been the surprise success of
“Tsotsi.”

The power of his story, of a young shantytown gang
leader’s inner struggles, has resulted in several festival
awards, including the coveted top prize at the Toronto Film
Festival.

The film has broken box office records in South Africa, and is
currently being distributed in the U.S. by Miramax.

Last Monday, Hood returned to UCLA Extension ““ this time
as a part of the curriculum, having accepted an invitation to
attend and discuss Hammond’s screening of
“Tsotsi.”

There he enthusiastically shared insights into the filmmaking
process, from screenplay structure to his method of casting and
directing actors.

Present at the screening were students with whom he could relate
all too well. One grabbed the microphone and asked in a thick
Indian accent how much UCLA Extension had really helped him.

“I was really trying to know if he got a lot of
information from the classes or if his creativity came from more
than what he learned from them,” said Raj Narayanbas, who is
in his second year of the Entertainment Studies program.

Narayanbas, who worked as an assistant director on three films
in India, came to Los Angeles after being unable to get into the
Film and Television Institute of the University of India, Pune,
which was, for all practical purposes the only film school he could
attend there.

Here, he works days at Best Buy in order to take courses at
night.

“I was really lucky to get into this program. I
didn’t meet any graduate students (here), so I also want to
know how different it is from the Extension Program. That was
another reason I asked (Hood),” he said.

“Because regular graduate students must have a lot of
lengthy classes from the faculty, and for the Extension Programs
it’s only three hours a day. I’m wondering how much
real content we’re getting from the instructors.”

Hood’s answer highly praised the program, emphasizing that
it had offered the opportunity to hone skills, such as
screenwriting, that he had not been able to learn back home.

In fact, Hood’s time with UCLA Extension directly
jump-started his filmmaking career. With the help of a writing
course, he wrote his first screenplay, “A Reasonable
Man.”

Based on the strength of that writing sample, Hood was hired to
write and direct educational dramas for South Africa’s
Department of Health that dealt with pressing urban issues such as
teen prostitution and the spread of AIDS before directing,
co-producing, and starring in “A Reasonable Man.”

The film got him on Variety’s list of “10 Directors
To Watch” after its screening at the 2000 Sundance Film
Festival.

His film education here is further evident in
“Tsotsi,” which sets a very American narrative
structure within a uniquely South African setting.

“I think what you can take from L.A., and what’s so
great, is that one thing American films know how to do is keep the
pace going,” he said.

“The great thing about studying an American film is
learning the tools of storytelling, getting great pace and rhythm
to a movie. And that doesn’t mean going flat-out, it means
earning moments of silence, knowing how to shift pace, and knowing
how to convey a great deal in as little time as possible. All of
that, I think, is evident in “˜Tsotsi.'”

In addition to depicting his education in Los Angeles,
“Tsotsi” represents a culmination of Hood’s
experiences thus far.

The film casts its lens, as Hood did for the Department of
Health, on South Africa’s economic gap and the reality of
life in its poverty-stricken shantytowns, where many orphaned
children are homeless.

For the film’s empathetic look into the mind of a young
criminal, Hood drew on experiences he said are common to many in
South Africa. He had been mugged, and his mother was carjacked
twice.

“A young kid just ripped her necklace from her neck and
pulled out her earrings, and my mother tried to get him into a
conversation. My mother was going, “˜Sweetheart … what would
your mother say?'” Hood said.

“And I said to my mom, “˜What were you thinking? You
could have gotten shot, Mom.’ And Mom was going, “˜But
he was just a child,’ and she was all upset. I think
that’s right. As naive as my mother is, it’s sort of
profound.”

The film’s call for understanding has resonated strongly
with audiences and critics.

“I think it’s really a remarkable movie. It’s
a movie that connects with audiences. That’s why it’s
done so well on the film festival circuit,” Hammond said.

“There’s just something about it. It shines a light
on a certain condition ““ that you don’t have to live in
South Africa, that this kind of thing goes on everywhere.
It’s almost a universal story, and it also has a lot of
heart.”

Hammond, who is also an Oscar expert and one of Movie City
News’ “Gurus of Gold,” likes the film’s
chances in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

“I think it’s got the best shot to win the
Oscar.”