Jaco Nothnagel
Jaco Nothnagel grew up in the Northern Suburbs in Cape Town. With his mom a teacher and dad working in the sales industry, Jaco’s dreams of pursuing higher education seemed distant. However, his natural leadership qualities shone through from a young age, as evidenced by his appointments as Head Boy in both primary and high school.
Working as cashier at Steers in Durbanville at the time, Jaco met up with a friend who convinced him to go and audition for the specialised course that she had just completed. He applied, auditioned and got in. His mother signed surety for a student loan and continued working throughout his four years at UCT. He graduated with Cum Laude and was placed on the coveted Dean’s list in 2009. During his studies, his paths crossed with Daniel Galloway and to be able to make ends meet he started taking on professional jobs as technician / manager at the various theatres on the campus. In 2010, he ran the Out the Box international festival for puppetry at the age of 23. In 2011, Galloway offered him the position of Resident Production Manager at the newly opened Fugard theatre. In 2012 and 2013 Jaco travelled to the Edinburgh festival where he was in charge of 11 traveling international shows, including a late night cabaret slot that he conceptualised and executed successfully – “Cabaret Nova” is still running to this day. In 2014 and 2015 Jaco got to see the world, working as Production Manager of Cape Town Opera. In his time, he was responsible for the smooth execution of large scale productions in Barcelona, Madrid, Germany and the UK with up to 100 people and sets / costumes / props traveling around the globe. In 2016, Jaco utilised his extensive technical experience to transition to television and film. Since then, he has created or contributed to an astounding body of work with his own company Go2 Content, listed below:
– International film festival Marketing and distribution: Kanarie, Die seemeeu.
– 2x short films he produced for the Silwerskerm festival in 2018 received 16 nominations and won 8 awards, including Best Short film. He also produced
– 10x 50min TV movies
– 13x 48min episode Studio Game show
– 13x 24min episode Reality Television show
– 4x 90min made-for-TV-films
– 1x 100min Feature film,
all for Multichoice South Africa.
Jaco started Go2 Content to try and shift the perspective on how good quality content can and should be made. He experienced the industry to be quite brutal and decided to take a stand against the way people communicate with each other. This has not always been met with much grace, but he perseveres to live by example and provide the platform for uniquely South African stories to be told. The cornerstone of his mission is to treat every single person with the same amount of respect. To be creative, one must be vulnerable, and it is very difficult to be vulnerable in a hostile environment. Jaco’s understanding of common humanity is so rare in this industry, in this country and the world. “He honestly does not see colour or gender or any bias”- from a coloured female – that says a lot!
Since operations began in 2020 as the pandemic hit, Jaco has generated employment for close to one thousand people. He has great integrity and is deeply ambitious. And with the biggest heart for human beings (and animals) – it is an honour to work for him and stand by his company Go2 Content.” – says Lamees Albertus.
Not many people come through, and persevere through so much of life, alone, and yet so warmly and with so much strength and humanity. He has been supporting his parents financially for many years – even through his own financial struggles. Within 3 years of starting a company in the first year of COVID, he has produced a CV of work many in this industry achieve in a lifetime. I book crew for all his films and projects, and ALL the crew will drop absolutely anything to work with him and his company. Any company is reflected by its leader, and that is why it is an incredible honour to be able to nominate him for this.”