Co Owner, Director & Executive Producer of Hacienda, Shamiel Soni is a very experienced all round Filmmaker, having worked all over the world, on all formats of film making from TVCs , to feature films, Stills and Documentary Films. Born and raised in Cape Town he spent half of his life in the film business, working on films and commercials, working his way up over 18 years, over 1400 Commercials, 50 Feature Films and Long Form projects spanning 7 countries and 20 years starting out as a PA, 2nd AD & working my way up to being one of South Africa’s top 1st Assistant Directors & now working as a Director & very capable Producer too.
As a boy he always wanted to be a Director and was always inspired by great visuals, photography, films, a nice sports car, a good pair of sneakers or even a beautifully crafted sofa. He had a love affair for all things visually beautiful. As he got older, he started to seek a deeper meaning in filmmaking and developed a love for story telling and have since become a very versatile Filmmaker, loving nice visuals and substance. He thrives on that one second long moment, in a montage or the climax of a great story.
He is very much into trends and like whatever is trending, following fashion closely, he does however know that some things never go out of style and I has developed an affinity for these type of things.
An avid traveller, considering himelf as someone who suffers from wanderlust. Filmmaking, Photography and Football evokes a lot of passion in him. He is one of the biggest Manchester City Fans.
As a Director his style is very Commercial he likes bright colours, bold camera moves and a great story. Having been an Assistant Director, he has assisted some of the top Directors in the World and he feels I could Direct anything, from the Biggest Commercials to the most Outlandish Independent Films, Versatility and range is a strength of his and he strives for perfection. He is on a quest to change people’s perceptions and also educate and inspire through his films and he feels that he is coming of age not only just as a person but also as a filmmaker.
Nazeera Hartley Executive Producer
Nazeera Hartley's career began with various production roles focusing on commercials and stills and swiftly progressed to producing films herself. After 8 years she moved into broadcasting where she cultivated, launched and produced a passion project for a French director that grew into an award winning TV show/brand called ZANEWS and puppet nation.
This was broadcasted on TOP TV and later StarSat and has won several SAFTA AWARDS. Nazeera headed up production of this show for 5 seasons and mostrecently the show has been nominated for an International Emmy award. After moving on from ZAnews/Puppet Nation because the show ran extremely well in all departments and was produce on daily basis that she felt that there was no growth or challenge , Nazeera transitioned into a new role to grow her skills base. She accepted a position as the head of special projects at The Callsheet, a film and television industry publication and events.
Nazeera was responsible for their Cannes Festival launch every year. Here she was key in securing business andcreating strong relationships with industry events such as The Durban International Film Festival, The Loeries and Meetings Africa to name a few. After an amazing 2 years at Callsheet Nazeera decided to return to her 1st love film as a freelance producer, not long after she was approached to launch Cape Town International Film Market and Festival and was soon appointed CEO of the festival.
The festival was her ultimate dream being so passionate about film - she was now in the position to elevate, create and structure many aspect of film, student andwoman development was a big focus for Nazeera followed closely by channeling distribution of content. She opened channels between China and Africa and then hosted the first China-Africa film festival within the Cape Town Film Festival. The festival ran for 2 very successful years.
However, the government funding was short lived and actually stopped prematurely which created quitea lot of stress on the directors and inevitably close the festival doors. Nazeera has continued to produce films, doccies, music videos, TVC and recently crossed paths with Shamiel again in the most positive way.easy.
Harry Klunder - Executive Producer
Shamiel Soni - Executive Producer
Executive Producer Harry Klunder has been working in the photo- and film industry since 1976. "I enjoy the scope of my jobs, which ranges from advertising photographer and music producer in the past, to service producer for feature film, commercials and TV productions worldwide. I take great pleasure in working with clients to get at the heart of their message to manage a production as good as possible, anywhere in the world."
Straight out of Art University, he became an international working commercial photographer and worked for clients like Philips, Coca Cola and Heineken. It earned him several awards. "I see my work as a license to travel."
Over the years, he has been fortunate to work with a wide-spectrum of clients and projects including Ferrari, Amazon, Netflix, Audi, Google, Warner Bros, BBC, Toyota etc. As a production manager he was involved in feature films like " That good Night", starring John Hurt (2016) , "Mrs.Willoughby" (2019) , "Mr. Mayfair" (2019) , "There's always Hope" starring Colme Meaney (2020) and Paramount Picture's "The Infernal Machine" starring Guy Pearce (2021) .
He was associate producer on Paramount Picture's "The Infernal Machine".
Besides feature films he worked on the Netflix serie "The Disappearance of Madeline Mc Cann" (2019), and the very first episode of "The Grand Tour" (2015) for Amazon.
Over the last years he was able to complete his range of varied international film locations by signing joint-venture contracts with existing local film production companies in Portugal, Spain, Jordan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and South Africa.
"My projects have led myself not only to amazing places, but also into the lives of incredible people and organizations around the world."
MICHELLE VAN HUISSTEDE - PRODUCER
Michelle is an experienced (exective) producer with a demonstrated history of working in
the advertising industry. She is a bubbly personality with little to no ego, which allows her to get along with everyone and approaches everything with a positive aspect. A good course of a film does not gowithout a bump, but ego can really ruin that.
Her background and seven years of experience in coordinating projects and productions allows her to have an eye for detail and understanding of what each project will require. This helps to breakdown creative briefs and delegate the correct resource. She uses her expertise and knowledge to keep projects running efficiently and effectively. Always keeping client service as a first priority. Her goal is to always find the right balance between art and business to create great products an experiences. Over the years she has worked with clients such as: Justdiggit, Timberland, Grolsch, Just Eat, AFR100, NatGeo, various artist and many more.Clients often name her ‘The queen of getting things done’.
Acknowledgements:
Dutch Creativity Awards ’21 – Young Directors Lamp with ‘Uitgelicht’.