TWO aspiring young South African film makers are appealing for help in getting to the Bermuda International Film Festival.Quinton Lavery and Darren Wertheim recently graduated from The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance (AFDA) in Cape Town, South Africa and want to represent their 12-minute short, Freedom Day> in person, but lack the necessary funds.

Freedom DaI> is this years’ only South African film featured at the festival which kicks off in March.

It follows the lives of three characters in post-apartheid South Africa, showing the changes over the past decade of democracy and whether or not they can deal with these changes.

Mr. Lavery told the Mid-Ocean Nethis week that the festival committee was kind enough to organise accommodation for them, but they had been unsuccessful in raising the necessary funds for airfare - about $4,000 each.

“The Festival will kindly be taking care of our accommodation, while we will take care of our own living expenses for the duration of the festival,” he explained. “Any help will be greatly appreciated as this is our first time going to an International festival.”

During their four years at AFDA the pair worked together on eight films including Only in De, an eight-minute experimental, which screened at Cape Town’s Horrorfest last year, and their graduation film, Freedomys, which won Best Third Year Production at the second Annual AFDA Cape Town Film Festival in 2005.

Freedoays was also selected as the only South African film for the 14th Chilean International Short Film Festival last year, where it ended up winning a Special Mention Jury Award.

Anyone who can assist has been asked to contact Mr. Lavery by e-mail at qlavery@gmail.com, or contact the Film Festival committee at info@biff.bm to find out about the “Adopt a Filmmaker” programme.

Every year this programme helps cover transportation costs for filmmakers from far-flung areas. This year a young filmmaker from Moscow is one of the beneficiaries of this programme.