Hanneke Schutte

Who: Award-winning South African writer-director whose feature Meerkat Moonship had its North American premiere at AFF. Her Willem Dafoe-starring short “Saving Norman” was produced by Dana Brunetti and Kevin Spacey.

Biggest Lesson Learned: “Don’t imitate anyone. I thought that no one would want to see a film by a woman who grew up in the Kalahari desert in South Africa, so I tried writing a generic Hollywood blockbuster. I soon realized that thousands of people are doing that, and the only way my voice would be heard was if I wrote a small, authentic story that could only be told by me.”

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