Darren Wertheim

Darren Wertheim is a freelance cinematographer, producer, and co-owner of Chasing Migada Productions. He is currently based in Cape Town, South Africa, where he has been working for the last seven years. During his studies at (Cape town branch) AFDA (2002-2006) Darren shot seven short films, three of which were shot on film. His graduation film 'Freedom Days' (2005) and Honours film 'Barren' (2006) were selected for various international and local film festivals and respectively received a number of awards. In 2006 Darren graduated with an Honours Degree in Motion Picture Medium and Dramatic Arts and chosen for the Dean's list for Excellence in Cinematography. After graduating he co-founded Chasing Migada Productions with Quinton Lavery with the vision of creating an independent filmmaking culture in South Africa. Having started with low-budget projects (mainly music videos for top local bands such as 'Tait'; 'The Ragdolls'; 'Hey Mister'; '7th Son'; 'Unit R' and 'Lark' for which they also produced the acclaimed DVD 'A Dagger and a Feather') and without the luxury of big budgets, the Chasing Migada team had to push themselves creatively within the framework of low-budget filmmaking as to maintain the high-quality professional standards which is part and parcel of the company's general ethos . In 2011 Chasing Migada Productions established a collaborative relationship with Van Coke Kartel, shooting two music videos for the songs 'Dis 'n Land' and 'Tot die Son Utikom' found in the band's album 'Wie's Bang'. 'Dis 'n Land" won best rock and group, and 'Tot Die Son Uitkom' won best video of the year at the 2013 MK Awards. During 2011 Chasing Migada also endeavoured to complete their first feature film - a low budget comedy titled "Casting Me..." which has been accepted into one local and two international film festivals, subsequently securing a US sales-agent working on distribution of the film in North America. Local release is due in 2013.