Company: Big Fish Digital School of Filmmaking
Company Description: Founded by Dr Chait (2003)addressing job creation & skills training for historically disadvantaged matriculants in S. Africa, who have no access to tertiary education. 2000 applications received, 700 people trained on fully sponsored courses, with an 85% employment rate of former students. The Film school has received 6 awards for its outstanding work in education & poverty eradication.
Nomination Category: Company/Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Corporate Social Responsibility Program of the Year in the Middle East and Africa

Nomination Title: Big Fish School of Digital Filmmaking commitment to skills development, poverty eradication and job creation

Tell the story about what this nominated company achieved (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Big Fish, the only accredited not-for-profit, Section 21 film school in South
Africa has, its in pathbreaking efforts, created jobs, offered world-class
training on cutting edge technology with award-winning tutors, provided skills
development, capacity building, job creation and as a result, made a sustainable
change to over 5000 previously disadvantaged lives. Having trained and created
job opportunities for over 700 people, the effect this has on youth's extended
families is significant. The film school has won 8 awards since 2003, beating
all 11 national film schools (for the elite) for its prizewinning documentaries.
Furthermore, Big Fish is the recipient of `Investing in Culture' Platinum award
presented by the Minister of Arts & Culture, Minister Z. Pallo Jordan, in
recognition of excellence in technical innovation, capacity building and
sustainability for outstanding performance in 2008. Other awards include the
film festival awards, the Mail & Guardian Investing in Education and Drivers of
Change and the Impumelelo award for its innovative work in fields of poverty
reduction and community development. No other educational facility in South
Africa can boast these significant achievements, let alone in the highly
competitive, and ever growing world of digital production. Ongoing obstacles
include fundraising and the need for publicity in order to educate the public on
Big Fish's work, thus enabling it to secure CSI and CSR funding. Other obstacles
include the fact that the disadvantaged youth require professional etiquette
training, life skills and conflict management due to their very harsh
upbringings and lack of financial aid. Big Fish secures funding for
accommodation, transport and stipends in addition to making this world-class
training free to committed, talented youth from all around South Africa.  Our
recipe for success has been the intensive, practical, hands on approach, full
time, intensive training with award-winning tutors (including the likes of Gavin
Hood (Director Oscar winner Tsotsi, Jacques Pauw, Special assignment producer
etc) over 6 - 12 months, ensuring workplace experiece through our full time
staff member whose portfolio is purely to find internships and thereafter full
time jobs. Big Fish has also set up a Trust company, Little Pond, to enable
former students to be mentored on their own productions, thus enabling them to
secure funding as emerging filmmakers. All our camera equipment is available for
current and former students including the computer and editing labs for research
and production work.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://www.bigfish.org.za  

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated company:

Dr Melanie Chait, is a recipient of Fulbright Scholarship and received her
Doctorate from Oxford University.She spent many years in England where she
worked as an awardwinning TV political documentary filmmaker covering stories in
Eastern Europe, Central America, Pacific Rim and clandestinely in South Africa.
Her persona-non-gratis from South Africa was withdrawn in 1995, where she took
up the position as special advisor to the Group Chief Executive at the SABC and
established a department on programme policy, planning and co-productions.  It
was during that time that she became aware that worldclass training was not
available in SouthAfrica for disadvantaged youth, and starting researching the
viability of a film school. In 2003, she launched the Film & TV Unit at MOnash
SOuth Africa, and then in 2007 due to its huge expansion broke away from the
university, necessitating a name change to Big Fish, the fully accredited film
school.