A Shot at the Big Time

A Shot at the Big Time is a film inspired by the true story of my brother, Jimmy, who took his own life rather than fight in the Apartheid Border War, a war he didn't believe in.

I've launched a crowd-sourcing campaign on Indiegogo.com to raise production funds for this film after the conventional fund raising platforms didn't work. This film is timeless, about the young men who gave up their lives to fight in a war many of them had no desire to fight. Every white boy in South Africa in the seventies, eighties and early nineties, was conscripted into military service. After three months of brutal basics they were spat out onto the border to kill their so-called enemy.

A Shot at the Big Time traces the life of my brother and one of his friends who just happened to black in Apartheid South Africa. They had no interest in waging war against each other - they just wanted to be rock stars. Then Jimmy received his call up papers. Forced into the brutal regime of the military, with a sargeant who had it in for him, he went AWOL. A fatal accident sealed his fate and blew up any chances Jimmy might have had to have a normal life. He had a mental breakdown after this and was removed from service and placed in a mental home to recover. Just as he was finding his feet again, the army declared him "fit for service", and drafted him straight into armed combat on the Angolan border with the instruction to seek and destroy "the enemy". His broken heart couldn't do this. So instead of fighting, he released the bullets from his rifle, walked straight into the line of enemy fire, strumming his gun as if it was his beloved guitar.

This film has taken me nine years to write. Now I'm ready to put it on the big screen. A number of songs have been written by Jonathan Handley of the Radio Rats who was so moved by reading the script that he recorded songs you can see on this website. Strum My Gun was inspired by the film's ending.

We need production funding! But we're not asking for money for nothing. Even $10 will get you co-producer's credit and $100 gets you a copy of the novel, Width of a Thread, which is based on the screenplay, as well as a Radio Rats CD.

$1000 gets you all of the above, plus a chance to appear in the film in a crowd scene as well as a chance to send in your auditions for the roles. The main roles will be auditioned online.