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Jacobus Johannes Uys ( ; 30 May 1921 – 29 January 1996), better known as Jamie Uys, was a South African film director, best known for directing the 1980
comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...
'' The Gods Must Be Crazy'' and its 1989 sequel '' The Gods Must Be Crazy II''. Uys also directed the 1974
documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
'' Animals Are Beautiful People''.


Early life

Before his foray into film, Uys was a mathematics teacher in his hometown of
Boksburg Boksburg is a city on the East Rand of Gauteng province of South Africa. Gold was discovered in Boksburg in 1887. Boksburg was named after the State Secretary of the South African Republic, Willem Eduard Bok, W. Eduard Bok. The R29 (South A ...
. He then married Hettie, a fellow mathematics teacher, and the couple started farming and opening trading posts along the Palala River. He was later appointed local magistrate and Justice of the Peace. In an interview, he stated, "Every Tuesday I crossed the wildest country and swam through rivers to get to the police post where I could hold court".


Career

He made his debut as a film director in 1951 with the Afrikaans-language film '' Daar doer in die bosveld''. He directed 24 films. He founded a company with Tommie Meyer but later they split up. Uys received the 1981 Grand Prix at the Festival International du Film de Comedie of Vevey for '' The Gods Must Be Crazy'', and in 1974 he received the Hollywood Foreign Press Association award for best documentary for ''Animals Are Beautiful People''. ''Animals Are Beautiful People'' is about the plant and animal life in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
,
Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...
,
Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...
and
Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...
, especially desert creatures. A highlight of the film includes a scene with
elephants Elephants are the Largest and heaviest animals, largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant (''Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian ele ...
,
warthog ''Phacochoerus'' is a genus in the family Suidae, commonly known as warthogs (pronounced ''wart-hog''). They are pigs who live in open and semi-open habitats, even in quite arid regions, in sub-Saharan Africa. The two species were formerly cons ...
s, baboons,
ostriches Ostriches are large flightless birds. Two living species are recognised, the common ostrich, native to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and the Somali ostrich, native to the Horn of Africa. They are the heaviest and largest living birds, w ...
and other animals staggering around after eating rotten, fermented marula fruit. Jamie Uys is credited with this legend of animals getting intoxicated on fermented marula fruits. Jamie Uys's most financially successful and well-known film is '' The Gods Must Be Crazy'', a comedy first released in 1980. The film features a San hunter/gatherer named N!xau in the lead role. Its plot concerns a
Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...
bottle that was thrown out of an airplane, fell into the
Kalahari Desert The Kalahari Desert is a large semiarid climate, semiarid sandy savanna in Southern Africa covering including much of Botswana as well as parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African ...
and was found by a San tribe. As this was the only "modern" object in their world, it led to strife and it was decided that the bottle had to be returned to the gods, who must have sent it in the first place. The character played by N!xau was given the task to return it. The movie generated extensive word-of-mouth success in
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
,
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
and
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
, with the movie rights initially being sold to 45 countries. It spawned a less successful sequel, '' The Gods Must Be Crazy II''. Uys had earlier made another film set substantially in the Kalahari Desert: '' Lost in the Desert'', which tells the story of 8-year-old Dirkie Hayes's efforts to survive in the desert after surviving a plane crash, whilst his father Anton mounts increasingly desperate efforts to find him. As well as directing the film, Jamie Uys also played the part of Anton, and his son Wynand Uys played the part of Dirkie. Some early sources and credits name the director and actor of Anton's part as Jamie Hayes, and name Wynand Uys as Dirkie Hayes, but the relatively recent DVD release of the movie is attributed to their real names. Uys's other well-known film was ''Funny People'' in 1977, which was a comedy in the same genre as '' Candid Camera'' in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, putting unsuspecting people in embarrassing positions. These included a talking postbox, with the voice of a man claiming to be trapped inside, who asks a passerby for help. When the passerby returns with his friends, the 'talking' postbox is silent, and his friends accuse him of being drunk. The sequel, ''Funny People II'', was released in 1983, and features a young Arnold Vosloo who later found fame in Hollywood. Uys loved the outdoors and to get away from the hubbub of
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...
where he lived. He had a modest
A-frame An A-frame is a basic structure designed to bear a Structural load, load in a lightweight economical manner. The simplest form of an A-frame is two similarly sized Beam (structure), beams, arranged in an angle of 45 degrees or less, attached a ...
dwelling at Paradise Beach (262, Die Heide St), a quiet coastal resort 5 km west of the surfers' paradise Jeffreys Bay (
Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...
). It was about 300 metres from the sea and for most of the years it had no electricity - only paraffin lamps and (later) gas lights. He at times would slip away to his favourite holiday retreat where he was seen collecting plant specimens, as a very keen amateur botanist who had his own
herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...
. Uys would ride around on his bicycle to get to interesting spots in the veld. He also was a keen builder of model aeroplanes, on which he spent many hours during his Paradise Beach visits. In the late 1970s and early 1980s he had a luxurious house built on the beachfront, a couple of hundred metres away from his old A-frame. Uys died of a
heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
in 1996 at the age of 74.


Selected filmography

* '' Daar Doer in Die Bosveld'' (1951) - Hans Botha * '' Vyftig-vyftig'' (1953) - Hans Botha * '' Daar Doer in die Stad'' (1954) - Hans Botha * '' Geld Soos Bossies'' (1955) * '' Paul Krüger'' (1956) - Younger brother * '' Die Bosvelder'' (1958) - Hans Botha * '' Rip van Wyk'' (1960) - Rip van Wyk(character based on
Rip Van Winkle "Rip Van Winkle" () is a short story by the American author Washington Irving, first published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American villager in Colonial history of the United States, colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who meets mysterious Du ...
) * '' Hou die Blink Kant Bo'' (1960) - Himself (uncredited) * '' Hans en die Rooinek'' (1961) - Hans Botha * '' The Hellions'' (1961) - Ernie Dobbs * '' Lord Oom Piet'' (1962) - Piet Kromhout * '' Die Wonderwêreld van Kammie Kamfer'' (1965) - Witch Doctor (voice, uncredited) * '' All the Way to Paris'' (1966) - Igor Strogoff * '' Dingaka'' (1965) * '' After You, Comrade'' (1967) * '' Die Professor en die Prikkelpop (also known as The Professor and the Beauty Queen)'' (1967) - Professor Hans Botha * '' Lost in the Desert'' (
Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
version as "Dirkie": 1969; English version as "Dirkie Lost in the Desert" / "Lost in the Desert": 1969) - Anton DeVries * '' Animals Are Beautiful People'' (1974) * '' Funny People'' (1976) - Himself / Various voices (uncredited) * '' The Gods Must Be Crazy'' (1980) - The Reverend (uncredited) * '' Funny People II'' (1983) - Himself (uncredited) * '' The Gods Must Be Crazy II'' (1989) - Bob (voice, uncredited) (final film role)


References


Further reading

*


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Uys, Jamie 1921 births 1996 deaths South African film directors South African comedy film directors Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent People from Boksburg