Bima Stagg

 

Born and raised Hollywood and New York. Father: playwright, agent, producer. Schooled at Fairfax High (tennis team), Columbia U (fencing team).

 

Trainee for two summers in William Morris Agency mailroom, Beverly Hills and New York. Spent next summer vacation at Andy Warhol’s Factory, a subject in all reels of Andy’s Screen Test compilations, co-starred with Edie Sedgwick in Warhol’s Beauty #1.

 

DJ at New York club, The Scene, where Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jim Morrison, jammed for fun. 

Graphics and Fashion designer New York, featured in Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, NYT. 

 

Briefly ran ‘underground railroad’ smuggling Vietnam War fugitives over the border to Canada. Moved to United Kingdom to join Sufi commune. One year as Land Rover mechanic, then sailed 9 weeks from Rio de Janiero to Cape Town on a small ketch, through a hurricane, with no food for 11 days; survived by making new engine parts from scrap metal with a Swiss Army knife.

 

Edited law books, and designed geodesic domes in Cape Town, then wrote and co-starred in Death of a Snowman aka Soul Patrol in Johannesburg, featured in Quentin Tarantino’s history of ‘Blaxploitation’ as the only such film actually made in Africa.

 

In London, adapted Jackie Collins novel for Joan Collins movie The Stud; dreadful film, monster hit. Wrote South African miniseries Kwela Man in Zulu. Wrote Inside, winning PEN Award for 1997 (in 2008, Inside was judged out of 560 contenders to be one of the Top Ten films ever shown during the Directors Fortnight at the Cannes Festival, out of 560 contenders).

 

Wrote the true story of Africa’s greatest bankrobber Stander, opening in 2004 to great reviews and modest box office. 

 

Notable babysitters: Bette Davis, Marlon Brando.