kwailawai*

Eat my call up

2006-08-23T17:47:00.000+01:00

EAT MY CALL-UP, directed by Naashon Zalk, tells the story of four men who, facing lengthy jail terms, refused to "serve" in the South African Defence Force (SADF) in the 1980's.

From 1967 until 1993 all white males were conscripted into the SADF. The influence of the military increased dramatically after Angola and Mozambique’s independence in 1975 and the Soweto uprising in 1976. The SADF invaded Angola and destabilised much of Southern Africa. In 1984 the army was deployed into the townships, during the first State of Emergency. The penalty for refusing the call-up was a jail sentence of up to six years without parole. In response the End Conscription Campaign (ECC) was launched in 1983.

In 1980 Dr. Ivan Toms built a clinic in Crossroads squatter settlement, near Cape Town. He was the only doctor serving its 60 000 residents. After witnessing the army and police’s brutality in Crossroads he refused to return to the army. In 1988 he was sentenced to 21 months in jail and spent nine months in Pollsmoor prison, seven of those in solitary confinement.

Marius van Niekerk was a Special Forces “parabat”. Fresh out of school, he was deployed in Angola, Rhodesia and Mozambique in 1979 and 1980. Suffering from severe war trauma he went into exile in Sweden rather than go back to the army. He returned to South Africa in 2005 to continue his work counselling war veterans.

Charles Bester was the youngest objector to be imprisoned for his beliefs. In 1988, aged 18, he was sentenced to six years prison and served 20 months in jail.

Andre Zaaiman confronted his Afrikaans community in the search for truth and became a conscientious objector and ANC member in 1986. His decision led him to question his Afrikaner identity and brought the political rifts within his family to a head.

Call for Entries: The Southern African Documentary Co-production Forum (DCF)

2006-07-24T13:26:00.000+01:00

Sithengi has - at last - announced its Documentary co-prodiction forum for this year.

"Matching Projects and Broadcasters"

The DCF contributes directly to increased opportunities and improvement in documentary filmmaking in Southern Africa.

Submission Deadline: 17 September 2006, 5pm
(No extensions will be granted)
2006 ENTRIES

The criteria for entry into the 2006 DCF are:

At least 20% of your proposed budget has to be secured and/or
A broadcaster must be attached

ENTRY PROCEDURE

Download and complete the application form. This form must be signed and faxed to the Projects Co-ordinator at fax: 021 430 8186
Email the following to projects@sithengi.co.za
1 page synopsis (no longer than 1 page)
3 page treatment (no longer than 3 pages)
1-page budget top sheet
Any letters of intent/commitment from financiers, distributors, broadcasters etc...
1/2-page biography of the producer and 1/2 page biography of the director.
(Total number of pages of application to be emailed: 6 (excluding letters of intent/commitment and the application form)
NOTE:
The lengths of the above application material must be strictly adhered to. Any incomplete applications or application material that is longer than required will be disqualified and no correspondence will be entered into.

In Brief

17 September: Final Deadline for ALL submissions from SA and Africa

16 - 18 November: Sithengi Film & TV Market

For further information contact:
The Projects Officer
Tel: 27 21 430 8160
Fax: 27 21 430 8186
Email: projects@sithengi.co.za
www.sithengi.co.za

A Lion's Trail

2006-07-24T13:13:00.000+01:00

Lion to roar at the Emmies
A Lion's Trail, an hour-long documentary film directed by Francois Verster and produced by Francois Verster, Mark Kaplan and Dan Jawitz, has been nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Cultural & Artistic Programming by the US National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
The film, which has won various festival awards around the world and has been broadcast in seventeen countries, tells the story of how Solomon Linda, a Zulu isicathamiya musician wrote Africa’s most famous song, “Mbube”, how this became the inspiration for the multi-million dollar pop classic “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, and how Linda died with hardly any benefits from the success of the song. It follows the efforts of journalist Rian Malan, folk singer Pete Seeger and others in trying to redress the wrongs of the past. Traveling into the musical worlds of South Africa, England and the US, A LION’S TRAIL celebrates the song’s timeless power while revealing injustices within the international recording industry.

Said Lois Vossen, series producer at ITVS Independent Lens, which broadcast the film in the US and put it forward for nomination, “I am extremely pleased and proud that A LION'S TRAIL has been nominated for an Emmy Award… This is a great honor, of course, and one [the filmmakers] fully deserve.” The winners of the awards will be announced on Monday, September 25 at a black tie awards ceremony in New York City, and the director and producers have been invited to attend the event.

Director Francois Verster said, “This is great news, and comes on the heels of much happy news over the past year in terms of money going back to Linda’s family!”

The film – together with efforts by Rian Malan, US parties and local lawyers - was partly instrumental in persuading local and international rights holders on the song (including The Richmond Organisation, rights holders on “Wimoweh”) to cede future income on the song to the Ntsele (Linda) family. Last year, after a campaign by local copyright lawyers, a settlement was reached whereby Disney paid out a large amount to the Ntsele family in Johannesburg for income from the song through THE LION KING.

A LION’S TRAIL has won various festival awards around the world (including Best Documentary at the Portobello Film Festival, Best Documentary at the 2003 Stone Awards and the Silver Dhow at the Zanzibar Film Festival), and has been broadcast in over fifteen countries. It was produced by Undercurrent Film and Television, Rapid Blue and Ice Media, and was funded by SABC3, the National Film and Video Foundation, the BBC, SBS, RTBF and the IDC. It is being distributed by First Hand Films in Zurich (www.firsthandfilms.com).

Source: http://www.filmmaker.co.za

Encounters promisses to be best yet

2006-07-17T09:42:00.000+01:00

According to Matthew Krouse from the Mail and Guardian this years Encounters documentary festival promises to be the best yet.

Bang bang goes gung ho
The Encounters documentary film festival highlights the responsibility of filmmakers in troubled times, writes Matthew Krouse

The raw material of the documentary filmmaker is misery. The fallout of war, the false hopes of the poor, the battle for survival of almost lost animal species, the territorial skirmishes of underprivileged youth, the painful dissolution of the traditional family and more.

Crafting this misery into entertainment is the documentary filmmakers’ lot. They take us with them on journeys fraught with doubt as, frame for frame, we witness the construction of the work. Even if you don’t appreciate their political views, you’ve got to love them for the commitment to their craft.

Having sat through all eight Encounters documentary film festivals, albeit in my lounge on preview tapes, I am convinced that of all the festivals we’re privileged to have, this is The One. In short, the programme tells us that this year there are 56 titles, including a record number of 20 local works.

In the early days of South African television, the nation’s understanding of the documentary form was based largely on the Thames Television series The World at War. Week upon week (26 in all) we sat glued to the box as cadavers piled up in faraway Europe. Mum knitted and dad puffed on his pipe sternly as Lord Lawrence Olivier’s exquisite narration droned on.

The world’s most acclaimed documentary, it seemed, had been made by God himself.

Today the divine presence is very much out the picture and the handmade aspect of the documentary is in. There is scarcely a work on the festival that isn’t narrated in first person by the director. Stock in trade is the cellphone. There are hours of conversations in moving cars with evasive, guilty parties adamant that they are not to be filmed. Nick Broomfield is the master of the genre -- “his idiosyncratic style of filmmaking has been called not so much fly on the wall as fly in the soup”.

When Broomfield arrives as a festival guest, perhaps someone will ask him what it is about the simpletons of the far right that keep him coming back for more. Broomfield’s recent work, His Big White Self, is a follow-up to his earlier look at Eugene Terreblanche in The Leader, His Driver and the Driver’s Wife.

Watching His Big White Self, locals will experience a sort of sick nostalgia for the chubby, red necks poking out of self-important safari suits. But Broomfield is a master of redemption, and he befriends the most unlikely of characters. This “apparently bumbling and chaotic Englishman who disarms his subjects”, as he’s referred to, finds worthy qualities in all his adversaries.

For a more in depth review of His Big White Self read this one on the Kwailwai* sister site Mhambi.

Read the whole Mail and Guardian article here.

Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela: A Son's Tribute to Unsung Heroes

2006-07-10T17:42:00.000+01:00

The New York-born filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris first set eyes on the central South African city Bloemfontein in 2000 at the funeral of his stepfather, a long-exiled veteran of the struggle against apartheid. The two men had not been especially close. But when mourners warmly embraced Harris as the son and spiritual heir of Benjamin Pule Leinaeng, known as Lee, Harris began re- examining their connection as well as the many meanings of exile.

His new film, "Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela: A Son's Tribute to Unsung Heroes," is the result of his look at that connection and the life of Leinaeng and 11 comrades who left South Africa in 1960 after the banning of the African National Congress and spent the next three decades agitating from abroad for an end to white minority rule.

"The film really saved my life," said Harris, who wrote, produced and directed "Disciples." He used actors from Bloemfontein, who improvised their lines on the basis of a script outline that relied on Leinaeng's archives and interviews with seven surviving "disciples." (Three have since died.)

"All of my work is about identity," said Harris, an African-American who is gay and dislikes giving his age. "This film works on many levels: the meaning of diaspora, the reconciliation between me and Lee, the reconciliation between people and their country."

"Disciples," which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, was nominated for a 2006 Independent Spirit Award. The 73-minute film was also named best documentary at the Pan-African Film Festival in Los Angeles this year.

Mingling documentary and re-enactment, "Disciples" tells both the story of the 12 young men who had met in high school in Bloemfontein, joined an ANC youth cell and then dispersed to points all over the world, and the story of Harris; his mother, Rudean Leinaeng; and his younger brother, Lyle Ashton.

This family of black intellectuals in the Bronx was enamored of the pan-African movement and lived in Tanzania for a while, but in the film Harris also recalls being both wary of and enchanted by Leinaeng, an exotic foreigner who slaughtered sheep in the family's backyard.

Leinaeng, a journalist, married Harris's divorced mother, a chemistry professor, in 1976.

"At the funeral it was like looking in the mirror, and everything shattered," Harris said in an interview. "I realized I had followed Lee: I had become a political journalist, I had become a filmmaker, I have a revolutionary attitude toward my work."

Early in "Disciples" is a grainy scene of a 1999 Father's Day celebration at the family's home. It was the last time Harris saw Leinaeng, who died the next year at 63. Harris says in his narration for the film, "He had raised me since I was 9 years old, but I had never called him Father."

Harris is perhaps best known for the award-winning 2001 documentary "I Minha Cara/That's My Face," which, along with "Disciples" and "Vintage: Families of Value" (1995), forms a trilogy about his family and identity, whether sexual, racial or national. After graduating from Harvard in 1984 with a biology degree, Harris turned to film as a way to express himself.

The title of his latest film is derived from his boyhood imaginings of his stepfather's life. "I used to look at the photographs of them, and there were 12 of them," Harris recalled. "I came from a religious background - AME - and I thought they must be the 12 disciples of Nelson Mandela." (He was referring to the African Methodist Episcopal church.)

Although their names are largely lost to history, the "disciples" were among the foot soldiers of the African National Congress in exile, igniting sanctions and boycotts against South Africa. The film documents not just how the men worked to dismantle apartheid but also the loneliness of exile and, for those who came to the United States, the shock of the U.S. brand of racism.

"Thirty years is a hell of a time, it's a hell of a time," Leinaeng says near the end of "Disciples."

While in exile, Leinaeng earned a journalism degree from Temple University in Philadelphia, set up an ANC office in New York City in 1972, became a staff member at the United Nations' anti-apartheid unit and in the late 1980s served as acting chairman of the ANC regional political committee. He also produced an anti-apartheid radio program that was broadcast in South Africa. He returned to his homeland in 1995, after the end of apartheid.

Beyond Harris's personal motives in turning his camera on his family's role in a worldwide struggle, "Disciples" fleshes out a story that, like the U.S. civil rights movement, is often dominated by outsize leaders. While Mandela is well known, Harris said he had to start cobbling together the Bloemfontein story without benefit of books, articles or films.

His efforts have made him a hero to some in Bloemfontein. "There has never been a film tracing the people who left South Africa," Bethuel Setai, a 67- year-old "disciple" who is a former director general of the Free State Province, said in an interview from Bloemfontein. "So many people believe the struggle began in 1976 with Soweto. This shows this whole struggle has been a relay race."

Mochubela Seekoe, a 67-year-old "disciple" who became South Africa's ambassador to Russia, was, like Setai, delighted by the film.

"Our children will know what happened and who these people are," he said in a telephone interview from Bloemfontein. "I was touched and I was happy."

Isabella Winkie Direko, 76, who had been the disciples' teacher and later became premier of the Free State Province, which includes Bloemfontein, said the film had already had "a terrific impact on the city.

"The younger ones are impressed by the amount of work they did as exiles," she said. "The older people have gone down memory lane about what they endured."

As for Harris, the film project made him more aware of the history in his midst.

"I tell young people, 'Turn off the TV and interview the oldest person in your family,'" he said. "We have all the stories we need."

NY Times

The Bridget Jones Phenomenon

2006-07-06T15:18:00.000+01:00

The Bridget Jones Phenomenon
in South Africa
South Africa 2006 48min
Dir: Wendy Hardie

In this dynamic, pertinent and fun investigation, four talented, beautiful, independent and unmarried thirty-something women embark on a quest to see if they are the only women in Cape Town, or indeed the world, who are still single. And if so, why? Growing up on a rich diet of romantic fairytales, the four sassy, successful singletons sip cosmopolitans and wonder just what is keeping their knight in shining armour. Has woman’s lib literally given him the willies? Have men been left behind in the changing times? Is compromise as dirty a word as commitment? Would he rather sit in a Jacuzzi surrounded by buxom twenty-somethings? Despite an irreverent approach Hardie asks some hard-hitting, insightful questions, and not just, where have all the good men gone?

SABC

Bushman’s Secrets

2006-07-06T15:17:00.000+01:00

Bushman’s Secrets
South Africa 2006 64min Subtitles
Dir: Rehad Desai

Deep within the Kalahari live the original custodians of Africa. In this hostile environment, the San’s ancient knowledge ensures a symbiotic relationship with the harsh climate, plants and animals. But for centuries, the San were judged as inferior and their land exploited. Today they are still marginalised and, unable to hunt and gather, continue to live in poverty. Then one of their medicine plants, hoodia, is discovered as a miracle diet drug and has been patented by a giant pharmaceutical company. Just what does this now mean for the Khomani San – unknown riches or the plant vanishing from the landscape? The filmmaker walks through the Kalahari with a traditional healer, Jan van der Westhuizen, to explore the collision of corporate might and ancient ways.
Uhuru Productions

From Nkoko...with Love

2006-07-06T15:16:00.001+01:00

From Nkoko...with Love
South Africa 2006 48min Subtitles
Dir: Karin Slater

“What am I going to leave my grandchildren? How am I going to show them how I grew up?” asks the spry seventy-four year old Grace Masuku. As tribal matriarch of the Bakgatla ba Kgafela tribe and a retired headmistress, she answers her own question by instructing her six year old grandchild and travelling the region, sharing her conviction in the power of indigenous knowledge and the value of natural resources with the youth. As Masuku missions around her province, her diverse teachings range from Tswana ancestors, sex education, and healing plants that, among other things, delay puberty and prevent menopause. The compelling joy of this film is not just Masuku’s personality and knowledge, but her forthright ability to embarrass teenagers make them listen.
SABC

Homesick

2006-07-06T15:16:00.000+01:00

Homesick
South Africa 2006 72min Subtitles
Dir: Asivhanzhi Mathaba

Cruising the nightclubs of a psychedelic Hong Kong is a young, vibrant and forthright South African singer called Precious Unathi Motsweni. Precious considers her current career path a stepping-stone to international recognition. That has already involved cosmetic surgery and a trip to Dubai. But the resolute pursuit of stardom continues and so we chase her from her agent’s office in Johannesburg to a studio in Hong Kong to another back in Johannesburg. But while Precious’ determined ambition is remarkable, her sensitive and giving nature emerges when she returns to her rural home. There we see Precious tackle her unresolved and painful history that includes a broken home, an indifferent father, a now sober grandmother, and a not so sober mother.

Johnny Appels – the Last Strandloper

2006-07-06T15:15:00.000+01:00

Johnny Appels – the Last Strandloper
South Africa 2006 24min Subtitled
Dir: Michael Raimondo

as the Atlantic breeze, this light and charming film sees Johnny Appels, and his merry band of hounds, daily teeter across the ancient slippery rock walls of Arniston’s fish traps, catching the fish and octopus left behind by the tide. Living according to the rhythm of the ocean, Appels loves his life, making his living from nature’s bounty using an age-old method handed down from the original inhabitants, the Khoisan. But Appel’s life has not always been so fulfilling. His stint in Victor Verster Prison for stabbing and assault left a tattooed body with eyes in the back of his legs and a determination to return to the sea. When he received amnesty, he headed back to the shore and began the process of repairing himself and the traps.
SABC

Mixed Blessings

2006-07-06T15:14:00.000+01:00

Mixed Blessings
South Africa 2006 48min
Dir: Gillian Schutte & Fumane Diseko

Although striving for raceless society, the reality of living in South Africa is very different. In this sincere documentary, two sets of interracial parents look at how their children view the issue of race. Although neither Fumane nor Gillian wish their children to be viewed as ‘coloured’, what will they ultimately think of themselves? And how will their own political, cultural and intellectual upbringing and sensitivities contribute to their children’s idea of self and interaction with the world. Ultimately the children must decide for themselves. But for now, Kai, son of Gillian and Sipho, is a happy, self-possessed little boy who thinks of himself as golden. And Rehumile, the eldest of Fumane and Francisco’s three children, applies a liberating attitude – she is Worldian, a person of the world.

Courtesy of the SABC and the Director

The Mothers’ House

2006-07-06T15:13:00.000+01:00

The Mothers’ House
South Africa 2005 76min Subtitles
Dir: Francois Verster

Charming and precocious, Miche Moses is a normal, conflicted teenager, but she lives in Bonteheuwel, on the Cape Flats where opportunity is frustrated by poverty, joy by anger, and love by violence. Miche’s mother, ex-Struggle activist Valencia, is proud and beautiful but unemployed, single and expecting her third child. Valencia’s mother, Amy, is a powerful, dominant matriarch who is the sole provider. As the birth of Miche’s sibling approaches, Valencia’s hormones rage out of control and so does her fiery temper and violent impatience. Navigating the tension that bounces off her at home, whilst doing her chores and schoolwork, Miche is pulled between her love for both her mother and her grandmother. At the same time, she must make her sense of the confusing and often violent world around her.

Best Documentary.
Cape Town International Film Festival 2005,
Premio Diocesi di Milano. Milan African, Asian and South American Film Festival 2005
Courtesy of the SABC and the Director

Mr. Devious: My Life

2006-07-06T15:12:00.000+01:00

Mr. Devious: My Life
South Africa 2005 48min Subtitles
Dir: John W. Fredericks

From the seemingly endless gang violence of Beacon Valley, Mitchell’s Plain, emerges a young vibrant charismatic talent in the form of Mario “Mr. Devious” van Rooy. Shunning the cyclical debt of fame offered in Johannesburg, Devious returns to the Cape Flats determined to use his brand of hip hop activism to inspire the youth at risk and offer a creative alternative to juvenile offenders in prisons across the Cape. But, just as his message of non-violence is starting to get through, he is killed when rescuing his father from teenage muggers. Devastated by the loss of a close friend, the filmmaker explores Devious’ life, and the future of his legacy that now lies with his young widow and mother of his three children, Natalie.
Courtesy of the SABC and the Director

Rape for who I am

2006-07-06T15:11:00.001+01:00

Rape for who I am

South Africa 2006 26min
Dir: Lovinsa Kavuma

South Africa is infamous for its rape statistics where a woman is raped every 29 seconds. But this insightful and revelatory film takes you into the marginalised society of black lesbians, and a worrying trend that seems to be on the increase. Bathini, Keva and Mary have been raped by men they knew – men who wanted to teach them how to be ‘real women’. The surprising thing is that these were not just homophobic men either, one rapist was gay. And others in the group talk of regularly being beaten by their partners. These women boldly tell their story and refuse to become victims of their sexuality. Our Constitution enshrines their right to equality, but society seems to be taking a while to catch up.
Courtesy of the Director

Enraged by a Picture

2006-07-06T15:11:00.000+01:00

Enraged by a Picture
South Africa 2004 15min
Dir: Zanele Muholi

A photographer, Muholi is celebrating her exhibition in Johannesburg. Effi ciently confrontational, the exhibition causes a stir and provokes an outcry on a subject that is particularly taboo: being black and, in this case, being lesbian. Forthright and beautifully shot, each monochrome photo captures the present reality of the photographer’s subjects – the daily discomfort, double lives, abuse and hatred. The photographs present a window into their world. This documentary explores that world’s reality.

Ndim Ndim

2006-07-06T15:10:00.000+01:00

Ndim Ndim
It's me, It’s me
South Africa 2005 8min
Dir: Martha Qumba

This is a fascinating portrait of brave, quietly persistent Funeka Soldaat who is an out lesbian and anti-abuse activist. Living in the controlled homophobia of her Xhosa-dominated community in Khayelitsha, Funeka’s single-handed education of those around her progresses slowly but surely.

Possessed by Demons

2006-07-06T15:09:00.000+01:00

Possessed by Demons
South Africa 2004 4min
Dir: Nokuthula Dhladhla

This is a personal account of a congregation’s medieval and masculine response to a lesbian in their midst. Their brutal quest to cast out her male demons hardens her resolve to live as God’s creation.

Senzeni Na

2006-07-06T15:08:00.000+01:00

Senzeni Na
What have we done
South Africa 2006 58min Subtitles
Dir: Portia Rankoane

Tsietsi Mashinini, the leader of the Soweto student uprising, was the apartheid government’s most wanted man in 1976. Forced into exile, he died under mysterious circumstances in Guinea Conakry, never to harvest the fruits of freedom in his homeland.

By means of rare archive and interviews with his close friends, comrades and family, the film goes beyond Tsietsi’s myth to discover what really happened to him in exile in West Africa. It depicts in detail the prelude to the momentous events that led up to June 16th 1976, and the unraveling of his political and social life after his marriage to beauty queen, Welma Campbell. It is both a celebration of, and a tribute to, a great revolutionary whose actions and those of his comrades, changed the course of history forever.
Courtesy of the SABC and the Director

Soweto Blues

2006-07-06T15:07:00.000+01:00

Soweto Blues
South Africa 2006 90min
Dir: Faith Isiakpere

On the 16th June 1976, thousands of children took to the streets of Soweto in a peaceful protest. The apartheid government’s violent reaction created chaos and carnage and irrevocably changed the political landscape in South Africa. Due to heavy press censorship at the time messages of liberation and resistance that erupted after this day filtered out through music, to be heard around the world. Hugh Masekela immortalised the events in his lament Extensive interviews conducted with members from South Africa’s golden hall of musical fame – including Masekela, Hotstix Mabuse, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Jennifer Ferguson, and also Sono Okosun, Lance Gewer, and Duma Nhlovu – explore very personal perceptions of what the uprising meant and how it altered the conscious of politics and society in South Africa.
Courtesy of the SABC and the Director.

Gavin Hood on directing Tsotsi

2006-07-04T15:01:00.000+01:00

In this video titled Gavin Hood on Tsotsi, Tsotsi director Gavin Hood explains his directing tecniques when working with actors.

He also discusses the visual style and the framing of shots in Tsotsi. His shots were very composed and stylized and he explains why he chose this over the hand held style of that other famous ghetto movie - City of Gods. Gavin reveals that besides being trained as an actor, he has an interest in stills photography.

Encounters features the work of Jean Rouch and Nick Broomfield

2006-07-03T18:05:00.000+01:00

Two influential directors are receiving special attention at this years Encounters documentary film festival. In his lifetime, the great French auteur Jean Rouch created a formidable body of work, mostly in West Africa. The tiny selection Les Maitres Fous, Petit A' Petit, and Chronique D'Un Ete (Mad Masters, Little by Little and Chronicle of a Summer) at Encounters gives audiences a taste of his groundbreaking approach and innovative style that gave birth to Cinéma vérité. Encounters, assisted by the French Embassy, will host Bernard Sugurue, Claude Haffner and Sue Levine, colleagues of Rouch, who will provide an invaluable glimpse into Rouch's world.

Always managing to endearingly bumble himself into the most outlandish situations, Nick Broomfield is one of Britain's most respected documentary filmmakers. His lens has captured and investigated the personalities of many of the world's most infamous people, among them Aileen Wuornos, Heidi Fleiss and Margaret Thatcher. For this Encounters, Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love (Kurt & Courtney), Biggie Smalls and Tupac (Biggie & Tupac), and our very own Eugene Terreblanche (His Big White Self) come into not so flattering focus.

Polygamy, misinterpretation, religion, regal matriarchy and madness - these are the visions of other African cultures from across the continent. The five titles of the African Focus are Si-Guériki La Reine Mère, Le Malentendu Colonial, Cinq x Cinqi, Une Fenêtre Ouverte, and Mo and Me (Si-Guériki The Queen Mother, The Colonial Misunderstanding, Five x Five, A Window Opened).

Jean-Marie Teno, director of The Colonial Misunderstanding will be attending. As will Salim Amin for Mo and Me, a film of his father's life as a photojournalist in Africa. Others in the Journalists on the Edge theme are the Oscar® nominated The Death of Kevin Carter , a member of the South African Bang Bang Club, and The Black Road, an affecting portrait of Aceh's little known war.

The topic Food For Thought uncovers how clinical food production can be (Our Daily Bread), but occasionally isn't (The Real Dirt on Farmer John and Johny Apples - the last Strandlooper (a World Première)). It also shows the tenuous pact that exists between man and nature - and when man ventures into nature's domain, just what can happen (Conflict Tiger).

Films that bring joy to the world are the New York kids learning to dance in Mad Hot Ballroom and the Neapolitans' superstitious obsession with the Lotto in Dreaming by Numbers. Family perceptions and identities are re-analysed in 51 Birch St, 100% Human, My Grandmother's House, and local films Homesick and The Mothers' House. Music uplifts entire communities in Favela Rising, Mr Devious: My Life, Glastonbury and Dave Chappelle's Block Party.

Three titles from the Archives remind us of a history best never forgotten. These somewhat chilling retrospective views of the old South Africa sit in contrast to a record 21 vibrant, fascinating and insightful new South African films. These include the innovative Black on White series (The Heart of Whiteness, Inja Yomlungu, Men of Gold, Different Pigment). Encounters is also hosting a debate about Race and Identity in South African filmmaking. Be sure to catch the 24 local directors at the screenings of their films.

Political titles cover a gamut of issues. First are two views of the ongoing Palestine situation (Leila Khaled Hijacker (Leila Khaled will be a guest) and the poignant Another Road Home. The from America's politically-tied economy (Enron, the Smartest Guys in the Room and The American Ruling Class) to issues surrounding Iraq (Iraq in Fragments and Gitmo: The New Rules of War) that include the detention of prisoners, Saddam among them (Saddam Hussein, The Trial) and the use of private armies (Shadow Company). Other fascinating political films include Excellent Cadavers that chronicles the Mafia's murderous grip on Italy; Friends of Kim sheds an interesting new light on North Korea and sheds light for sympathetic Europeans. Our Brand is Crisis, shines the spotlight on morally-bankrupt electioneering processes driven by American 'image-consultants'.

Encounters is not just about the titles - though that is a major part of it. It is about developing new documentaries and taking a wealth of films to other areas. With this in mind, Encounters is hosting various Master Classes including one presented by Sky Sitney, Programme Director for Silverdocs. The SABC are hosting industry-specific workshops on Authorship & Ownership in African Storytelling and Your Business is Our Business! (How to get the best out of working with the SABC in the future).

The 8th edition of Encounters South African International Documentary Festival takes place in Johannesburg at Nu Metro Hyde Park from 14 July to 23 July 2006 and in Cape Town at Nu Metro V & A Waterfront from 21 July to 6 August 2006

Son of Man not in Zim

2006-07-03T17:40:00.000+01:00

CONTROVERSIAL South African feature film, Son of Man, widely seen as echoing President Robert Mugabe's leadership and seemingly oppressive regime, is yet to see the light of day in Zimbabwe six months after its release.

The motion picture, which is a new interpretation of the Bible casting Jesus Christ as a revolutionary fighting oppression in contemporary Africa, premiered on January 22 at the Sundance film festival in Utah in the United States. According to the film's associate producer, Pauline Malefane who also plays Mary, Son of Man contains an echo of Mugabe's regime. In the movie Jesus is depicted as a political messiah who mobilises people to fight poverty and political oppression.

"He gathers people around him to fight against poverty and political oppression," Malefane recently told the South African press. "It feels a bit like apartheid, people living in fear that soldiers could come into the house at any time and kill children. But with the oppressor, a black government, there was an echo of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's regime."

The contentious film also challenges Hollywood depictions of a Western-looking messiah by replacing him with a "black Jesus", facing the Herculean task of emancipating a bewildered people from the jaws of a notorious and tyrannical rogue regime said to resemble Zimbabwe. Son of Man was directed by Mark Dornford-May and is a collaborative effort between Spier Films and Dimpho Di Kopane, a theatre and film ensemble. It was shot on location in South Africa's rural Eastern Cape and Khayelitsha.

Film experts argue that although the movie gives a fresh and innovative approach in depicting the birth and death of Christ in a politicised manner, it may prove contentious for switching the story from Roman-occupied first-century Palestine to a misruled 21st-century Africa.

Independent Xtra enquiries as to when the feature film is likely to show in Zimbabwe failed to yield any dividends as film and cinema organisations were evasive. However, given the stringent measures used by the Censorship Board in gate-keeping artistic products, the film might not show at public theatres due to its political connotations as was the case with American political thriller, The Interpreter which government last year dismissed as a CIA project to vilify Mugabe.

The Interpreter, which stars Oscar award-winner, Nicole Kidman, and Sean Penn showed for a week at public cinemas before being mysteriously pulled off the big screen. According to film website database http://moviefone.com, Son of Man gives an account about the life and death of Jesus Christ retelling it in a strong political and powerful drama from an African perspective.

"Mary (Pauline Malefane) is seeking shelter in a schoolhouse during a skirmish in the midst of a bloody civil war when she is visited by an angel of the Lord, who tells her that she will give birth to the son of God," reads the synopsis. "Mary raises Jesus (Andile Kosi) until he grows to adulthood; he then sets out on his own, preaching a new faith which embraces compassion and non-violence while rejecting the corruption and brutality of the current political leadership. Jesus' teachings attract a handful of disciples ranging in age, background, and gender, but as a military occupation force takes over the land, the actions of those who oppose their authority are monitored closely by the new government, and Jesus and his associates are no exception.

John Malkovich to lead in Disgrace

2006-07-03T17:28:00.000+01:00

THE Australian film-making team of writer-producer Anna-Maria Monticelli and director Steve Jacobs, together with Emile Sherman, son of South African-born Australians Gene and Brian Sherman, has secured actor John Malkovich to play the lead in the movie Disgrace, an adaptation of the Booker Prize-winning novel by J. M. Coetzee that goes to the heart of ethical complexities in modern South Africa.

It was confirmed this week that John Malkovich will replace UK actor Ralph Fiennes as the novel’s central character, Porfessor David Lurie in the film version of JM Coetzee’s Disgrace. Malkovich, 52, has been nominated for two Oscars.

It's arguable that the complex Malcovich would make for a much better Professor Lurie than Fiennes, although it's a pity that they have not cast a South African actor for the role.

In 1999, Disgrace was awarded the prestigious Booker Prize and in 2003, Coetzee won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The SA-born author now lives in Australia where he is an honorary research fellow of the University of Adelaide’s English department..

Disgrace centres on a middle-aged romantic-poetry scholar, Profess David Lurie, whose world falls apart after his love affair with a student comes to light. He retreats to his daughter, Lucy’s Eastern Cape farm where he gets entangled in a disturbing web of post-apartheid politics.

Director Steve Jacobs and screenwriter Anna-Maria Monticelli plan to film Disgrace in South Africa later this year. The producers hope to cast a South African actress as Lucy and some of the country’s top actresses have auditioned for the role.

The executive producer of Disgrace is Daria Jovicic (Girl With a Pearl Earring).

Numa Numa in Afrikaans

2006-06-29T13:53:00.000+01:00

A YouTube trend of dubbing videos into Afrikaans is developing. Weird. This one - part of the Numa Numa phenomena- will go down well on Sokkie dance floors across South Africa.

SA featurefilms at Grahamstown Art Festival

2006-06-26T18:11:00.000+01:00

Ten of the best feature films to come out of South Africa in recent years, along with an SA film retrospective and a diverse international selection, make for a powerful cinema programme at the 2006 National Arts Festival, on in Grahamstown from 29 June to 8 July.
There are two important South African premières: Spier-based Dimpho di Kopane's Son of Man (about a divine child born to a lowly couple in a strife-torn African state), and Richard E Grant's Wah-wah, about the collapse of a colonial family as Swaziland prepares to celebrate independence.

Oscar-winning Tsotsi (2005), based on the Athol Fugard novel, enhances a strong Fugard component in the theatre programme.

Other recent films on show in Grahamstown this year include Zulu Love Letter (2004, directed by Ramadan Suleman with Pamela Nomvete), a personal story unfolding during the TRC hearings; and Norman Maake's Homecoming (2005), which follows the return of three exiled MK cadres.

In Conversations on a Sunday Afternoon (2005), director Kalo Matabane takes viewers into the world of immigrants and refugees in Johannesburg. Also set in the metropolis, among the poorest of the poor, is Darryl Roodt's Faith's Corner (2005). Tim Greene's Boy Called Twist (2004) repositions the Charles Dickens classic in a South Africa setting.

In Critical Assignment (2004, directed by Jason Xenopoulos), a fearless Nigerian journalist - Africa's answer to James Bond?! - takes on corruption like a true-blue action hero. The Bone Snatcher (2004, directed by Jason Wulfsohn) features a group of people stranded in the Namibian desert with a horrifically bloodthirsty monster at large.

SA film retrospective
A strong retrospective programme includes Elaine Proctor's On the Wire (1990), which deals with the troubled psyches of SANDF soldiers who have committed atrocities. Robert Davies' Saturday Night at the Palace (1987) is a powerful filmic version of Paul Slabolepszy's play - at once a thriller and an analysis of white working class fears and prejudices.

David Bensusan's My Country My Hat (1982) uses the problems of a worker without a passbook to unleash a storm of hysterical neurosis. Oliver Stapleton's Shadowplay (1980) is set in the insidious network of apartheid informers that reached out as far as London.

Dirk de Villiers' Glenda (1976) immortalizes Glenda Kemp, the stripper with an irreverent sense of humour. Darryl Roodt's City of Blood (1988) is a dark and complex chiller starring Joe Stewardson as a lonely cop and Susan Coetzer as a Joubert Park sex worker.

In Cedric Sundstrom's The Shadowed Mind (1989), a nightmare of sex and horror plays out in a private clinic. Heinrich Dahms' Au Pair (1991) is an erotic psychological thriller filmed in Durban.

To fill in any gaps, a zesty collage of 11 short films (including three by Aryan Kaganof) grouped in four programmes spark unconventional ideas of what it means to be South African.

International cinema
Almost local, Christopher Schlingensief's The Slit (Germany, Zimbabwe 2003) is a bizarre piece shot in Harare. Jurgen Goslar's Whispering Death (Germany/Rhodesia 1976), based on a violent Daniel Carney novel, features Christopher Lee and Trevor Howard. David Pupkewitz's Kolmanskop (1983) is a ghost story in two time zones.

Moving from Africa to some of the less-frequented tracks of international cinema, a special programme of work with a sense of spirituality includes Ki-duk Kim's Buddhist-inspired Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring (Korea 2003) and Gidi Dar's Ushpizin (Israel 2004), made by and with members of the Orthodox Jewish community.

William Arntz, Betsy Chasse and Mark Vicente joined forces to direct What the Beep do we Know (USA/South Africa 2004) with the assistance of the Ramtha School of Enlightenment. Ed Solomon's Levity (USA 2003), described as a monumentally religious work, tells of a murderer released from prison seeking enlightment in the five steps prescribed by an eleventh century book.

The New World (USA 2005), directed by Terence Malick, is a deeply spiritual examination of human ambition in 17th century colonial America, its central moment being the meeting of John Smith and Pocahontas. Unfolding like a magical love story, March of the Penguins (France 2005) is a poetic documentary about emperor penguins which many festinos will want to see a second time.

Cinema about cinema, Film as a Subversive Art (UK 2003) documents the ideas of the controversial filmmaker Amos Voges. Inside Deep Throat (USA 2005) revisits the part-time erotic filmmaker who created a new benchmark in explicit cinema back in 1972 - while Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs (UK 2004), which features two people copulating incessantly, suggests that the explicit has now become trivial, tedious and repetitive.

Themroc (France 1972) proposes that hedonism is a form of anarchy appropriate to a hedonistic society, while Futuro (Finland 1998) charts the rise and demise of the plastic flying-saucer house - the South African prototype of which still stands in Port Alfred.

Stylish and dark, Asia Argento's The Heart is Deceitful Above all Things (USA/Italy 2004) tells of a young child yo-yoing between his teenage mother (an itinerant prostitute), his pious grandparents and the welfare authorities. The lush visuals in Rolf Schubel's Gloomy Sunday (Germany 2003) overlay a civilised ménage a trios and a string of suicides as the Nazis march across Europe to Budapest.

Thrillers Rabbit on the Moon (Jorge Ramiraz-Suarez, 2004) and Walk on Water (Eytan Fox, 2004) come from the different worldviews of Mexico and Israel. Two films by Rebecca Miller, Ballad of Jack and Rose (USA 2004) and Angela (USA 1995), both use isolation as the pressure cooker for their themes.

A third Miller film, Personal Velocity (USA 2002), tells of three women's search for freedom, with the underlying wisdom that one can only find happiness with someone going, metaphorically, at the same speed.

Ken Loach's Ae Fond Kiss (UK 2003) uses the tale of a cross-cultural romance as a critique of racism entrenched in British society. A second Loach film, Family Life (UK 1971), is a deeply disturbing indictment of Britain's mental health policies. Faith Akin's Head On (Germany 2003) charts the trials and tribulations of a Turkish immigrant couple in a critique of the social mores in contemporary Germany.

The National Arts Festival is sponsored by the Eastern Cape government, Standard Bank, the SABC, the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund and the National Arts Council.

Business & Arts South Africa has also made a special grant to the festival this year. The major portion goes to the artists on the festival fringe, the rest to festival newspaper Cue, the Youth Audience Development Project and the Art-Walk Meander Map.

John Grierson in South Africa

2006-06-23T22:46:00.000+01:00

It is a little know fact that John Grierson, father of British documentary, came to South Africa to advise the then Nationalist government on the establishmnet of a national film board.

In the US Grierson had met pioneering documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty. Grierson respected Flaherty immensely for his contributions to documentary form and his attempts to use the camera to bring alive the lives of everyday people and everyday events. Less commendable in Grierson's view was Flaherty's focus on exotic and faraway cultures. ("In the profounder kind of way," wrote Grierson of Flaherty, "we live and prosper each of us by denouncing the other"). In Grierson's view, the focus of film should be on the everyday drama of ordinary people. As Grierson wrote in his diaries: "Beware the ends of the earth and the exotic: the drama is on your doorstep wherever the slums; are, wherever there is malnutrition, wherever there is exploitation and cruelty." "'You keep your savages in the far place Bob; we are going after the savages of Birmingham,' I think I said to him pretty early on. And we did.")

In 1938, Grierson was invited by the Canadian government to study the country's film production. He proposed the government create a national coordinating body for the production of films. In 1939, Canada created the National Film Commission, which would later become the National Film Board of Canada. Grierson was the first Commissioner of the Board. When Canada entered World War II in 1939, the NFB focused on the production of propaganda films, many of which Grierson directed. After the war, it focused on producing documentaries that reflected the lives of Canadians.

In this articleby Keyan G Tomaselli & Edwin Hees, Grierson's journeys to South Africa is evaluated. Kwailawai* has posted some interesting excepts below.

The affinity for South Africa... by John Grierson is perhaps not surprising. Though his and the apartheid government's political philosophies were very different, Grierson was impressed by the level of development he observed in the country, especially in comparison to other African states. He shared with Afrikaners a sense of historical national loss at the hands of the English. In the Afrikaner Dutch Reformed Church he found familiar Calvinist doctrines and democratic church governance taught by the Church of Scotland.

Highly critical of British expatriates, Grierson referred to them as "pampered Whites". These "lost and conceited children" of the Empire embodied, he concluded, "a sort of decadent evaluation of the imperial idea in which privilege is accepted without any appropriate sense of leadership and guidance". Afrikaners, he saw, had wrested the nettle of political leadership from their English-speaking compatriots. Where Afrikaner means "of Africa", Grierson wrote that English speakers' "only basic bond with Africa is in the escape it seems to offer from British taxation and the cutting down of their class privileges". Most crucially, Grierson realised that liberalism had little or no role to play in South Africa. This realisation notwithstanding, as we shall argue, Grierson's proposal on the establishment of a national film board for South Africa was nevertheless predicated upon liberal ideals - as well as his enthusiasm for film as a means of conveying public information as a requirement for democracy.(3)

The Cilliers Film Committee, which reported to the government in 1943, aimed to stimulate the growth of a purely South African, but more specifically white Afrikaans cinema, by forcing exhibitors to screen Afrikaans-language shorts at every performance.(8) English-speaking critics reacted vociferously. The Union review described Committee Chairman Professor A.C. Cilliers as "a lifelong nationalist" educated in Germany, whose aim was to succour Afrikaner nationalist cultural enterprises.(9)

The Cilliers Committee recommended the establishment of a national film board to produce documentaries aimed:

...at presenting essential industries, ways of living and environment of normal people in such a way that the appeal is no less dramatic than that of the fiction film, in which life is often reconstructed in an exaggerated way.

This could well have been Grierson speaking! The board was thus intended to provide an ideological portrayal of life in terms of the reciprocal relationship between "national culture" and the economy, since white documentary filmmakers were seen as "trustees of the native and other non-European races," who needed "to make the public aware of the world it lives in, to show up the romance and dramatic quality of reality, and thus make the real experience of one the imaginary experience of all".(11)

Objecting to the proposed government dictatorship of the film industry, the Union review stated:

There are two languages in this country for official purposes, but that white bilingualism is, therefore, correctly enforceable in the public service, the schools (government schools, that is), Parliament and the courts ... it is not enforceable in private life - i.e. in the home, the club, the office and the cinema "But," say the mugwumps, "it will enable the English-speaking section to improve their knowledge of Afrikaans." What is cinema - a place of entertainment or a night school?

Professor Cilliers puts it more elegantly - having had a lot of practice in political persuasiveness - thus: "The theatre-going public will have the additional pleasure of seeing the various aspects of our rich national life portrayed on the screen through the medium of one or both of our two national languages." But many of us do not want to see our "rich national life" portrayed in our leisure-time and at our expense. We want to see Rita Hayworth. Anyway, this is a dangerous argument. If accepted, we should be shown District Six and Johannesburg's "Shanty Town" and the ruined reserves and the Indian slums of Durban.(13)

Realising that the Cilliers recommendations created more problems than answers, the government sought to ameliorate the problem by appointing yet another committee. The Smith Committee responded in December 1944.(14) Its proposals differed markedly, suggesting a consolidation of the various government film units into a national film board concerned with the "production, distribution and exhibition of educational, instructional, informative and publicity films which were not normally intended for exhibition in commercial cinemas." Films of a commercial character were to remain the province of the industry. The composition of the board was to be far wider than that suggested by Cilliers.

The recommendations of this second Committee were clearly of a less sectional nature than the Cilliers Report and served the needs of the national economy rather than merely the Afrikaner cultural constituency. The British-supporting United Party government, however, failed to enact Smith's recommendations.

(13) August 1944, p. 34.

(14) Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee appointed to consider the reports of the Committee on State Publicity and the Film Committee and other relevant matters (Union of South Africa: Government Printer,14 December 1944), 3pp.

The Grierson Report

In May 1949, less than a year after the NP had won Parliament from the United Party, the new Cabinet accepted a proposal to invite John Grierson to South Africa. His brief was to conduct an enquiry into the scope and adequacy of the State's film services and to make some recommendations in this respect. Grierson was at that time Controller of Films of the British Central Office of Information and had been previously instrumental in setting up and running for a time the successful National Film Board of Canada (he left when his term of office expired there in 1945). He visited the Union in October 1949. A National Film Advisory Committee was appointed to frame the terms of reference for Grierson's enquiry and to comment on his final report. He was to report to Dr Otto du Plessis, State Information Officer.

Grierson was directed in a fairly general way "to examine the scope and part the Informational and Educational, Scientific and Research Film is playing in South Africa" in informing South Africans and their well disposed allies about the country; he was also to make recommendations about how state departments and "all commercial film interests concerned in the production and distribution of such films" could be drawn into a common scheme to promote the national interest most effectively.(15) In the process, Grierson met at the suggestion of the Advisory Committee senior newspaper editors, both English and Afrikaans, film industry executives, officials of parastatal companies and private companies, independent producers, captains of industry such as Harry Oppenheimer, members of the Natal Indian Congress, and both black and white academics.(16)

Afrikaans-speaking filmmakers and cultural theorists had finetuned their techniques through a technicist reading of Sergei Eisenstein's theories of film, which they mistakenly assumed were similar to those of Grierson.

...

Finally, Grierson had little impact on South Africa. He himself briefly remarked on the lack of discussion over aesthetics. The absence of university film courses until the early 1970s contributed to this neglect. When Grierson was discussed, usually by the odd cinephile, and usually in the context of European film theory, his visit to South Africa was never mentioned. Only one film we know of draws on Grierson's influence. This was People of the Great Sandface (1985), playing with the earlier film, Coalface. The director of Sandface, John Myburgh, had gleaned something of Grierson and Flaherty from his studies as communication student. He had not seen any films by either director. These anecdotes reveal something about the isolation of South Africa from international influences during the apartheid years.To read the whole article, click here.

Xenophobia features at DIFF

2006-06-23T21:20:00.000+01:00

Xenophobia has emerged as a significant theme at the Durban International Film Festival, writes Niren Tolsi

In August 1999, Fod Tounkora (15) and Yaguine Kota (14) prepared for their aeroplane trip from the Guinean capital, Conakry, to Brussels in Belgium.

For protection against the cold they both wore several layers of clothing, yet kept their plastic sandals on. On arrival they were found dead in the plane�s landing gear. They had frozen as the plane scaled heights twice that of Mount Everest and temperatures had dropped to -55 �C.

A note on one of them read: "Excellencies, gentlemen -- members of those responsible in Europe, it is your solidarity and generosity that we appeal for your help in Africa [sic]. If you see that we have sacrificed ourselves and lost our lives, it is because we suffer too much in Africa and need your help to struggle against poverty and war ... Please excuse us very much for writing this letter."

Refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants, illegal immigrants, illegal aliens -- the world has many names for the desperate people searching for new lives on routes that are sometimes deadly, and destinations that are generally callous to their plight.

According to filmmaker Makela Pulula, 800 refugees from around Africa enter Cape Town every month.

Pulula's documentary, A Shadow of Hope, is one of several films at the Durban International Film Festival to examine and interrogate issues of migration, displacement and asylum-seeking.

"South Africans aren't talking about refugees and immigrants. They don�t want to accept the reality, because they don't want to see themselves in the mirror," said the 41-year-old from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

That this country's national discourse will have to pay more attention to foreigners and their assimilation into South Africa is also evident in Khalo Matabane's feature film, Conversations on a Sunday Afternoon. Centred on a young South African, Keniloe (Tony Kgoroge) and his search for Fatima (Fatima Hersi), a Somali woman who he meets one day in the park, it is a vision of Johannesburg inflected with French and Swahili voices far removed from the Mzansi-centric bloated buppie-burbs characteristic of the generally accepted portrayal of the city growing into the post-apartheid dispensation.

Combining documentary and drama, the camera journeys through Johannesburg meeting and interacting with Kenyans, Somalis, Congolese, a Palestinian and a streetwalker from the former Yugoslavia.

While South Africa has only begun to grapple with the issue of migration, it is an international one.

Guinean director Gahit Fofana was moved to make the melancholically beautiful Un Matin Bonne Heure (Early in the Morning) after reading the story of Tounkora and Kota's deadly journey.

Fofana says there is no political instability (just political inefficiency) or poverty in Guinea, that "whatever you want to eat you can grow in the rich earth" and that the northward gaze is a new development: "For the past 10 years, it has been changing. The youth are attracted to these new things on television and radio and all these images from the world are compelling for them," he says.

The lure of the promised land, for whatever reason, will always compel people to move. Yet, in a globalised village that is, paradoxically, driven by increasingly controlled national borders, those stories are haunting.

Escape doesn't always provide respite. In Matabane's Conversations, his protagonist asks a European woman, "Is the war over [in the former Yugoslavia]?" She replies: "It is, but I don't know if the war is over in my head."

Afrikaans South Park

2006-06-19T18:21:00.000+01:00

Another Afrikaans episode of South Park has made it onto YouTube.

Sithengi insists doc co-production forum will go ahead in 2006

2006-06-16T14:12:00.000+01:00

South African documentary makers will have noticed that Sithengi has, unlike previous years, made no mention of the Documentary Co-production Forum (DCF) on their website this year.

Kwailawai* has contacted them and according to Sithengi, it will happen and information and details will be made available soon on their site soon.

This is excellent news for local documentary making as the DCF brings documentary commissioning editors from the some of the worlds largest TV networks, armed with their considerable checkbooks (by South African standards), ready to fund South African docs.

Kwailawai* has attended both the previous two years' pitching sessions and was concerned that last years poor showing may have dissuaded the international broadcasters from attending.

All the projects pitched had to already have had some promise of funding by the SABC. Unfortunately the SABC pitching requirements were so politically correct that very few of the projects the SABC wanted to fund, was found to be of any interest by the international panel.

During the pitching question and answer session, when asked whether it helps that a documentary is produced by a black producer an emphatic "no" come from the panel, and BBC Storyville Commissioner Nick Fraser put it more bluntly. "I don't care who you are", he said.

In the light of the recent debacle where the SABC declined to air documentaries deemed to be politically sensitive, one has to hope that Sithengi excepts documentaries that have not been necessarily been pre-approved and part funded by the SABC. For this to happen Sithengi will have to put an independent panel in place.

Mpofu lashes out at Mbeki doccie critics

2006-06-16T14:05:00.000+01:00

SABC group CEO Dali Mpofu yesterday launched a scathing attack on the producers of the “unauthorised” documentary of President Thabo Mbeki and what he termed “right-wing organisations” for implying that the SABC was biased towards government.

The broadcaster’s decision not to screen the 24-minute documentary last month has been criticised by industry professionals, the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) and the South African National Editors Forum, saying the decision was made due to political pressure on the public broadcaster.

Read more here.

SABC theathens South African documentary making

2006-06-16T14:02:00.000+01:00

From the South African Mail & Guardian on the canning of the Mbeki documentary

I TOLD a friend to watch Unauthorised: Mbeki, the documentary that was scheduled for Wednesday June 6.

Instead we were force-fed a repeat diet of Patricia de Lille. Since then I have been trying to get to the bottom of why the doccie was canned.

After a private viewing, columnist Anton Harber commented that it was fairly innocuous and that he could not understand why this form of censorship was continuing. This form of mind control yet again “reinforces (his) view that the SABC’s problem is not that they are captives of the government or the ruling party, but that they’re crippled by a mixture of fear and confusion, borne of a fatal mixture of incompetence and uncertainty. There are ongoing battles between those who want to do more daring and provocative work, and screen a range of views on matters as complicated as the presidency; and there are those who want to move the SABC closer to the ANC (African National Congress). In the middle are a lot of confused and uncertain individuals being pulled in both directions.”

Read more here.

Durban International film festival to kick off this week

2006-06-13T19:45:00.000+01:00

The 27th Durban International Film Festival will present over 300 screenings celebrating the best in South African, African and international cinema. Most of the screenings are either African or South African premieres. The festival also offers filmmaker workshops; industry seminars; discussion forums; outreach activities that include screenings in township areas where cinemas are non-existent, and much more. For more information Contact: Tel: +27 31 2602506 / 2601145 Fax: +27 31 2603074 Email: diff@ukzn.ac.za

Read more here.

Zim Movie to Feature in SA

2006-06-13T19:39:00.000+01:00

The award-winning Zimbabwean movie, Tanyaradzwa, together with over 300 others, will feature at the 27th Durban International Film Festival that opens in South Africa on Wednesday this week.

Most of the screenings are either African or South African premieres. The festival also offers film maker workshops; industry seminars; discussion forums; outreach activities that include screenings in township areas where cinemas are non-existent.

A selection of the best in current world cinema, most of which are premiere showings on the continent, will be on offer during the festival that ends on June 25 after showing at 25 different venues across Durban.

With films from over 50 countries, the festival opens a window onto film-making around the world and through the magic medium of cinema enriches our experience and understanding of the world. Including numerous award-winners, the line-up of cutting edge feature films is supplemented by a prime selection of topical documentaries and short films.

Read more here.

Tsotsi director reveals anti-pirate moves

2006-06-13T19:36:00.000+01:00

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE

Moonyeen Lee is one of South Africa's leading film gurus. Today she boasts of overseeing over 15 movie productions as casting director. Perhaps the best of all her efforts has been the 2005 hit movie, Tsotsi, which won an Academy Award for best foreign film this year. The movie is about a gangster and shows compassion.

The popularity of the works saw one of the editors of the film releasing it illegally on DVD. He was eventually caught and brought to book, but the bootleg DVDs did not stop flowing into the lucrative market where the news of the success of Tsotsi at the Academy Awards created waves. The result was mass production of Tsotsi, by other DVD thieves who flooded the whole of southern African market, including Botswana. The pirated copies hit the market even before the real DVD was officially released. Lee is filled with pain. She feels especially for the actors, who have now been denied their rewards because the money for the hit movie is now going into wrong hands. "The whole cast is not benefiting at all from the rampant piracy. It is really sad."

Read more here.

Stock Options offers South African 35mm footage

2006-06-13T19:30:00.000+01:00

Stock Options, a leading South African stock footage company, is offering footage that captures the rich diversity of South Africa.

Captured on 35mm film, the collection offers a broad range of footage that includes, aerials of Cape Town and other scenic landmarks and locations, wildlife, superb extreme sports, township and urban life and lifestyles and more. The collection also includes a strong ethnic section, capturing many charming traditions that are not commonly seen.

The footage will be available on the company's soon-to-be-launched searchable website, but is available immediately as response to a telephonic or emailed enquiry, according to manager Erna de Villiers. "We can usually email a selection of clips to clients within a matter of hours. Broadcast masters are on hand for rapid delivery to clients."

Read more here.

Tsotsi writer Fugard gave SA township actors a voice

2006-06-07T10:48:00.000+01:00

The Eastern province Herald on the amazing tale of how Athol Fugard got involved in the theatre of the townships.

By Ivor Markman

WITH international accolades raining down on the shoulders of ex-Port Elizabeth playwright, Athol Fugard after the film adaptation of his book Tsotsi won an Oscar earlier this year, the famous author is back in South Africa at his rural retreat in the village of Nieu Bethesda, 50km north of Graaff-Reinet.

The Herald travelled to his home for an exclusive interview about the creation of the New Brighton-based, black theatrical group, the Serpent Players, during the height of the apartheid regime.

While the Gavin Hood-directed film has put Fugard back in the public spotlight, most South Africans are not aware of his seminal contribution to SA theatre through the players – the first serious black theatre troupe in the country.

Shortly after returning home to PE from a tour of his nationally acclaimed play, The Blood Knot in 1963, Fugard one night had an unexpected visit at his flat in Bird Street from a group of New Brighton residents.
Read more here.

U-Carmen eKhayelitsha

2006-06-06T11:05:00.000+01:00

Can there be anything fresh to add to this screen carnival of Carmens? U-Carmen eKhayelitsha (12A), directed by Mark Dornford-May, transplants Carmen to a present-day South African township, Khayelitsha, and fuses the familiar story and music with the language, rhythms and everyday details of a shantytown setting outside Cape Town.

It becomes an energetically shot, realistic semidocumentary on urban South Africa invigorated by an unlikely melodramatic European opera soundtrack. It ultimately works, and transcends being a musical novelty or graceless curdle of traditions, because it has a unique Carmen – lusty, volatile Pauline Malefane tears through the story, giving us an exhilarating Carmen on a knife-edge between the determined and the demented.

Call for Entries the cool Karoo Apollo Film Festival

2006-05-30T19:18:00.000+01:00

Victoria West’s cool and internationally recognized Apollo Film Festival, soars into a sixth year of impressive and exhilarating new activities, special events and initiatives. The Sixth Apollo Film Festival is now accepting entries for the 2006 festival.

We would like to invite you submit a DVD or VHS Pal copy of your film for consideration and possible inclusion in our 2006 programme. Please note that English subtitled 35mm print or BETA SP Pal tape would need to be available for a minimum of two screenings over the dates above.
The Film Festival will take place September 22-30, 2006 at the Apollo Theatre located in beautiful town Victoria West in the Karoo desert.

Last year’s festival was attended by an audience of film lovers, filmmakers, actors, programmers, distributors, industry representatives and journalists. The Apollo Film Festival has used the unique geographical and cultural position of the Northern Cape province to make the festival a premiere venue for the exhibition of South African features, shorts and documentaries and student work.

Selection Process:

The festival is seeking innovative works that are 'by', 'about' or 'for' the South African community, that have been produced between 2005-2006. Work previously exhibited at the Apollo Festival is not eligible to apply. A panel of distinguished judges from South Africa community will select the films and videos to be screened during the "Official Selection" of the festival. All entries will be pre-screened for eligibility by curators, however, not all entries will be programmed.

An additional panel of distinguished filmmakers, International film critics, and actors will sit on this year's Awards Jury. Awards are given for excellence in form and content.

Awards Categories include:

Best South African film feature
Best Film ( International Youth Jury)
Best South African documentary
Best South African short (professional category)
Best South African short (Student and newcomer category)
Most promising newcomer (directing)
Best Actor in a feature
Best Actress in a feature
Best Script for a feature length film
Best Cinematography for a feature length film
Deadline for submissions to the festival is June 15th 2006

REGULATIONS

No films to be submitted without complete entry forms.
All viewing-tapes to be clearly labelled.
All submissions to include the following: approx. 200 word synopsis, 2 stills from the film either in hard copy or scanned to JPEG with 300 dpi, complete filmography/biography of the director.

Viewing tapes and any promotional material submitted will not be returned to the sender.
No material sent at charge of Festival will be accepted.
All VHS viewing tapes to be submitted in PAL format.

In the event of your film being selected it must be available in Beta SP PAL format or 35 mm print in English or with English subtitles.

The holder of copyright authorises the Festival to make excerpts of a maximum of three minutes available to television channels and for use on the Apollo Film Festival website for the promotion of the film and the Festival.

DEADLINE

The deadline for submissions is 5 p.m. Thursday 15th June 2006. No late entries will be considered.

Entry Forms will be emailed upon your request.

FESTIVAL OFFICE
Leon van der Merwe - Festival Organiser Reginald Khanzi - Festival Manager
Telephone: (+27) 0837924320 (+27) 053 621 1173
Fax: (+27) 086 6421457 (+27) 053 621 1113
Email: films_for_africa@telkomsa.net filmfestival@apollotheatre.co.za

Postal Address
Apollo Film Festival
PO BOX 5235
Cape Town
8000 7070

Ster Kinekor and Big World Cinema announce distribution of six films

2006-05-30T19:11:00.000+01:00

South African production company, Big World Cinema and leading South African distributor, Ster Kinekor Distribution have announced a new partnership where Ster Kinekor will distribute a slate of six of Big World Cinema's films over the next 3-4 years including four feature films and two feature length documentaries.
Further to the distribution deal, Ster Kinekor will consider each project's investment potential. Big World Cinema will continue to bring new projects to Ster Kinekor beyond the slate of six.

This partnership is the culmination of 12 months of negotiations between the two companies. Big World Cinema has produced and executive produced award-winning features, docs and shorts such as Inja (Oscar nomination), Boy Called Twist (Cannes 2005) , Beyond Freedom ( Berlin Competition 2006) , Husk ( Cannes Competition 1999) and Project 10 (Sundance, Berlin). Ster Kinekor is the leading distributor and exhibitor in Southern Africa and the key distributor in promoting South African content.

Helen Kuun, Marketing and Acquisitions Manager for Ster-Kinekor Distribution said: "This partnership serves to further strengthen Ster-Kinekor Distribution's strategy to secure a significant number of homegrown releases for release to the South-Africa consumer on an annual basis. We believe that this arrangement with the producers of Big World Cinema will further stimulate the delivery of relevant projects to South-African audiences on a sustainable basis, and thereby support the development of local content."

Steven Markovitz and Platon Trakoshis, producers of Big World Cinema said: ''This partnership creates an important platform for our films in the Southern African market. This development is adding considerable momentum to these films and further confidence amongst investors and funders. We will continue to develop films that have commercial viability and artistic merit for South African and international audiences''

Source: http://www.bigworld.co.za

The Fourth Reich (1990)

2006-05-30T14:05:00.000+01:00

The director's cut of The Fourth Reich, also linear in structure and realistic in style, is Manie Van Rensburg's greatest achievement. The film is basically structured as a thriller, a hunt by a dedicated Afrikaner policeman, Jan Taillard (Marius Weyers), working undercover to expose and capture the fascist, Robey Leibbrandt (Ryno Hattingh), before he carries out his plan to assassinate General Smuts. Van Rensburg's themes of betrayal, the outcast, communication problems in relationships (in this case between Taillard and his wife) and Afrikaner nationalism are all present and brilliantly developed in the director's cut which runs for over three hours.

The controversy surrounding the production has suggested that the shorter theatrical version is perhaps not fully the film Van Rensburg made, and that to see his concept at its best one should watch the three-hour television version. But even the shorter version is still an impressive achievement: it depicts, as does Heroes, a time when the country was divided, as thousands of Afrikaner patriots, instead of joining the war effort, flocked to an ultra right-wing organisation violently opposed to the British.

Right-wing extremist sentiments are personified in the Leibbrandt character. He objects to his parents' friendship with a Jewish family. According to him, they are exploiting the Afrikaner nation. Later in the film, he and members of the Stormjaers blow up the shop of this Jewish family. During the recruiting of members, he remarks: "The Afrikaner grew up with his Bible in his one hand and his gun in the other. This is why we are still here." After this sequence, he starts a sabotage campaign.

The film is well structured and edited. Its linear structure involves two parallel narrative lines of Leibbrandt and Taillard respectively starting their missions, receiving instructions and making contact with crucial people. These storylines become one in both characters' involvement with a German woman. Taillard cannot tell his wife about his mission. His obsessive involvement in his work contributes to the separation between them. It is never resolved.

The Fourth Reich is one of the few South African films to make the great landscapes of this country (in particular the Cape Province, a recurring landscape within Van Rensburg's oeuvre) an integral part of the narrative structure.

Visually the film is hauntingly beautiful, photographed by Dewald Aukema. It fully deserved the 1990 AA Life Vita Award for best cinematography. The film's authentic images consist mostly of long shots of figures against the landscapes of a rural South Africa in contrast to medium and close-up shots of characters within darkly lit indoor settings.

Louis van Rensburg composed a remarkably authentic musical score for the film, developing specific musical themes for the key characters. Concertinas and violins were used throughout, as well as the Second Movement of Franz Schubert's Piano Trio in E-Flat Op 100, for the characterisation of the German woman, Frau Dorfman.

The failure of the film at the box office, however, was a shock for the industry. It cost some R16 million to make, raised mostly through the tax incentive scheme. The film opened with 20 prints, a saturated media and highly favourable reviews. Van Rensburg took best director at the Vita Awards. One explanation for its failure is that the main distributors, Ster-Kinekor, Nu Metro and UPI only cater for a small portion of the population. There are no cinema outlets to which blacks have easy access, the luxury complexes only being in the cities. Cinemas may be multi-racial, but outside the cities there are no substantial distribution chains to ensure that the majority of the South African population will see local movies.

What next for Tsotsi's Gavin Hood

2006-05-30T13:13:00.000+01:00

By ROBYN MCLEAN

Gavin Hood has gone from obscure South African director to in-demand film-maker deluged by script offers.

Gavin Hood's life changed the minute he walked on to the stage to accept an Oscar for his film Tsotsi. The South African film, which took out the award for best foreign film at this year's Academy Awards, had been a labour of love for Hood. The director now finds himself in the enviable position of being swamped with movie offers – more than he knows what to do with.

"I've gone from being in the business of begging people to help me make a film or finance a film to being in a position where people think I can help them get their films made," he says.

"The first week after the Oscars I got 70 scripts and thousands of emails. My manager got 3000 emails the week after the Oscars . . . It's a sign of the slight craziness of the business."

The Afrikaans word for thug, Tsotsi is set in the Johannesburg township of Soweto. It follows six days in the life of a seemingly cold-hearted young gang leader who ends up caring for a baby he accidentally kidnaps during a carjacking.

Tsotsi, played by Presley Chweneyagae, has been orphaned at an early age and forced to survive for himself – which hardens him and makes him devoid of compassion.

The Oscar win has forced Hood to employ a team of people to help him sort out correspondence and give him guidance on future projects.

"At the tender age of 42 I'm able to get access to funding in ways I wasn't before and on a scale that was unthinkable before," he says.

"I've got a team of people that I never used to have before. I feel lucky to have people helping me work out what I'm going to do next because the truth is, it could all go away if I made a bad film. It's a very fickle business."

Hood says that in filming Tsotsi he used twins to double as the kidnapped baby so as to make things easier on-set.

"They were a boy and a girl. What was very helpful was that the boy cried and screamed a lot and the little girl was a perfect angel and slept and smiled a lot. So we just swapped them over as the script required."

He is eager to point out that the ants which crawl over the sleeping baby's face are not real but computer-generated.

"When I first told the young 3D artist who put the ants on the baby's face (about the scene) he said, 'Great, come back in a couple of days and I'll have some drawings'. Of course when I went back the face was swarming with ants and I had to say, 'It's not a horror movie!' "

Hood trained as a lawyer and worked briefly as an actor before studying screenwriting and directing at the University of California.

After finishing his studies he returned to South Africa and got a job making dramas for the health department, which was about to launch a series of educational initiatives about the impact of Aids.

That work helped him establish a real understanding for the character because it involved working with plenty of real-life Tsotsi cases.

"When I first graduated from film school I worked with a lot of young people. I was writing and directing educational dramas, usually centred around HIV. We were trying to talk about it at a time when no one else did. I met a lot of very distressed young people. Tsotsi to me is about these young people all crammed into one character.

"I think it's about a child who is trying to pretend to be an adult and is doing some pretty bad things. He is understandably angry at the world and is like, 'f . . . the world, it hasn't dealt me a good hand so why should I give a shit?'.

"Through his encounters he is almost unwillingly bumped towards a point of self-awareness.

"The moment that point happens, he falls apart."

In 1998 Hood made his directorial debut with a short film called The Storekeeper which went on to win 13 international film festival awards, including the Grand Prize at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

That success helped to pave the way for Hood to make his low-budget feature debut, A Reasonable Man, in which he also starred. In 2000, he was named by movie industry magazine Variety as one of their "10 directors to watch".

Wood's next film will be a Middle Eastern thriller called Rendition, currently getting priority from New Line. "It's a story set between Cairo and the US. I've been reading a lot of scripts in the last month . . . I've (been) looking for a theme that fascinates me and that I find slightly difficult."

Despite the accolades and ever-increasing power within the film industry, Hood is a down-to-earth individual who seems a little unsure how to handle the praise.

"I think the trick is not to take it too seriously and yet be very grateful for it because it's enormously helpful and I've certainly been trying to work out how to make the most of my very good fortune at this moment."

He's delighted Tsotsi has broken into the mainstream market – always a difficult feat for a foreign-language film. Part of its success, he thinks, is the timeless storyline, originally penned by South African author Athol Fugard.

"I was very familiar with Athol's work and a huge admirer of the fact his characters are always profoundly human. What I like about Tsosti is on the one hand it's a very South African film set in a specific context, but actually at its core it's a universal and timeless coming-of-age story. You could set this film in almost any major city in the world."

When he wrote the film script, Hood deliberately tried to limit the dialogue.

"The language of emotion is universal, that's what I wanted to get in there. People's response to trauma is universal. You lose your mother, I lose mine, we both cry."

He is proud that the film is having a positive effect and that it is reaching the ghettos – as can be gauged by the number of pirated copies on sale. Days earlier, the South African media reported a carjacking case that mirrored Tsotsi's. The mother called the assailant on her mobile phone which was also in the car and he agreed to return her baby.

Coincidentally, the assistant to Tsotsi's director of photography was carjacked, only to be freed after he revealed he helped make the film. "As the robber held a gun to his head, the assistant said, `Man, come on, this is like Tsosti. I helped make that film. Did you see it?' and he says, `Yeah, that was a great movie, get out of the car'."

Sounds like something straight from a Hollywood script, an irony not lost on Hood.

SABC cencors documentaries

2006-05-30T13:01:00.000+01:00

In a very worrying development the Freedom of Expression Institute reports that the South African National Broadcaster has removed and changed documentaries critical of South African President Mbeki.

South Africa: FXI Concerned About 'Growing Trend of Self-Censorship' at SABC

FXI concerned about growing trend of self-censorship at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) The FXI is deeply disturbed about recent reports regarding the SABC's decision not to [broadcast] a documentary on South African President Thabo Mbeki scheduled for Wednesday of last week. Apparently the documentary takes a critical look at the President's governance style, including what many commentators have referred to as a growing centralisation of government.

Several newspaper reports have quoted sources stating that the documentary was canned shortly before it was due to be screened after a member of SABC's management had an informal meeting with the Communications Department of the Presidency, where concern was expressed about the documentary's contents.

Also, apparently management was concerned that the timing of the documentary was wrong. Mbeki has been accused of being behind the demise of the former Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who was recently acquitted of rape, and reportedly management was concerned that a critical documentary may heighten the political [tensions] in the country. The FXI has also just learnt that another documentary, [one] on Irvin Khoza, was altered by removing the most controversial part from the film.

Read the whole story here.

Director Manie van Rensburg remembered

2006-05-30T12:59:00.000+01:00

Kwailawai* remembers one of South Africa's greatest directors, Manie van Rensburg, with two links to research done by Martin Botha on his life, times and work.

Van Rensburg produced remarkable work in an era when the government, financing and technology was not as benign to independent South African film-makers as they are today.

Read part one here.

Part two is here.

Read a summary of one of his movies - The 4th Reich - here.

South Africa and Britain sign co-production agreements

2006-05-26T15:19:00.000+01:00

24 May - South African Culture Minister Zweledinga Pallo Jordan today signed an agreement with his British counterpart in London, which will make the way for co-productions that may tap from British promotion funds. The UK government was guided by the many recent successes of the South African film industry on the international market when choosing a new partner for a co-production agreement.

Minister Jordan in London met with the British Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and today finalised the deal that will unite the two countries' national film industries. The deal is to "enable the UK and South African film industries to work together to create top class cinema," the optimistic ministers said in a statement today.

Under the new co-production treaty, filmmakers from both countries may pool their resources to create films that will benefit both countries financially and culturally. This means that a South African film deploying some UK actors or other professionals may be termed a co-production and thus have access to British state funds promoting the national film industry.

This type of agreements enable films made jointly by UK producers and their counterparts in other countries to qualify as films with "national" status in both the UK and the other country, meaning that they may be eligible for any national incentives. The co-productions will also be treated as "national" films at film festivals and other arrangements that may include prices.

The British government has so far entered into rather few co-production treaties with other countries, only focusing on prestigious filmmakers. Existing UK agreements include Australia, New Zealand, Canada and France. Currently, however, the Britons aim at developing a new package of bi-lateral co-production agreements, namely with India, China, Jamaica and Morocco.

The first new deal within this initiative - and the first African deal ever - however became South Africa. While Africa's film giant is Nigeria, South African films lately have convinced with several international successes, testifying of the high quality of the national film industry.

This success had been a decisive factor for the Britons to seek an agreement with South Africa, Culture Secretary Jowell revealed. While the British film industry is down from its previous heights, South Africans have gone from success to success. Since 1986 the film industry in South Africa has produced 78 feature films, including "Totsi", "Drum", "Hotel Rwanda", "Red Dust" and "Yesterday". In 2005-06 the industry produced 17 feature films with combined box office earnings of around 50 million rand.

Read the whole story from Afrol news here.

The Filmmaker’s Guide, reflecting South African film

2006-05-26T15:08:00.000+01:00

South African film has had a phenomenal year. The service industry is stronger than ever, while, backed by international acclaim and increased funding streams, the local industry has never been more confident.

The Filmmaker’s Guide to South Africa is the definitive guide to the film industry. Now in production on its sixth edition, this guide has evolved, transformed and progressed to reflect the new heights and expectations of the industry.

The editorial looks at a year in the making. Encompassing the resurgence of the film service machine, the creatives that showcase our nation, and the inspired local production that reflects it – as well as the facilities that make every stills, commercial and long form shoot possible.

The Filmmaker’s Guide to South Africa 2007 is in the last stages of its advertising cycle and would like to remind advertisers to book their positions in the 6th edition now. Beat the final deadline! Limited space is still available for high-profile full page and strip adverts.

A major part of the book is the profile section that features South African-based, international production. The Filmmakers Guide to South Africa is produced in association with the National Film & Video Foundation. The country’s top production companies, as well as vital film suppliers, supporters and production companies are outlined in its attractive pages.

The Filmmakers Guide is also in production on the forth edition of its digital newsletter. Profiling major achievements within the industry as and when they happen, each newsletter offers advertorial and banner space. Now there really is no reason for your company and its services not to reach the top members of the film industry.

For more information on the Filmmaker’s Guide to South Africa 2007 advertising, please email taryn@filmevent.co.za or contact her on +27 21 670 1345 or go to The Film Event website.

The Colossus draws big names in statement on Iraq War

2006-05-23T10:27:00.000+01:00

According to Variety, Rachel Weisz, Ian McKellen and Susan Sarandon have joined actor Colin Firth in the production of The Colossus.

The film, a colonial drama set in South Africa at the turn of the 20th century, will be helmed by rookie director Sean Mathias (Bent).

Mathias and Myer Taub wrote the script based on Ann Harries' novel Manly Pursuits.

The Colossus will give a fictionalized version of the events preceding the Boer War. The story will tell of a ornithologist hired to transport English songbirds to the recently deposed Cape prime minister (Cecil Rhodes). An ill Rhodes believes that only English bird song can cure him. The ornithologist falls in love with a firebrand political activist (Olive Screiner) and becomes entangled in a plot to stop the imminent Boer War.

The Colossus is likely to be a romantic Hollywood statement against the Iraq War. Britain, like the US was the dominant global power at the turn of the previous century. Both powers had at its height about 260,000 troops involved in a War to subdue a very small country. Both had ruthless characters like Lord Alfred Milner and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, imbued by a weird mix of liberal and conservative ideologies, set on instigating war.

The Little Film Co. is selling the $15 million project worldwide. Production is expected to begin September.

Rachel Weisz can be seen in the upcoming Darren Aronofsky film The Fountain and Ian McKellen can be seen this upcoming weekend in X-Men: The Last Stand.

Elalini adds to SA film awards tally

2006-05-22T10:44:00.000+01:00

South Africa has another Oscar winner. The student film Elalini has been selected by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences membership as the winning film in the 33rd Annual Student Academy Awards Honorary Foreign Film category.

The winning director, Tristan Holmes, will travel to Los Angeles as a guest of the Academy to spend the Student Academy Awards week with the other winning filmmakers from the US.

The film was part of Holmes' honours study at the Afda film and drama school in Auckland Park, Johannesburg. It will be shown to an audience of 2 000 top people in the film world.

"Nomakaya, a disillusioned policewoman haunted by the memory of a boy's death, who must decide between the city and her rural home when the protection of her own child is placed under threat

"Her traditionalist father, now too weak to look after him, journeys the long distance to Johannesburg to convince her to return.

"It is through a broken and lost street child, Moses, that she is able to find the strength in herself to forgive, and resume her responsibilities as a mother."

Read more.

Teboho Mahlatsi on his new project Scar

2006-05-22T10:37:00.000+01:00

Teboho Mahlatsi talks about his new movie project Scar at Cannes.

Again it's about young people, young, hip South Africa now. It is set in the Kwaito music culture. Two friends, one gangster and the other an spiring rapper and the girl who is caught between them. Sexy road movie. "The Harder They Come" meets "Jules and Jim" in urban Africa. It is inspired by the local music here and Wong Kar Wai movies.

Read more here

Bunny Chow gets local distribution

2006-05-18T10:01:00.000+01:00

Bunny Chow, described as “urban comedy”, is the first feature film from John Barker and the Dog Pack crew (Kagiso Lediga and John Barker)

Currently in post production, the film guarantees local and international audiences a great laugh. It will be released nationwide by Ster-Kinekor in early 2007. Dv8 Films is handling worldwide sales.

Starring some of South Africa’s funniest stand-up comedians, it follows the road trip of four comedians to a popular rock concert, Oppi Koppi, their trails and tribulations, and generally unsuccessful attempts at relationships with women.

Directed by John Barker, and written by David Kibuuka and John Barker and story by Salah Sabiti and Joey Rasdien, the film also stars the increasingly popular Kim Engelbrecht. It is produced by Kagiso Lediga and Leanne Callanan of Dog Pack Films, and Michelle Wheatley.

Barker explains that he was blown away with the support of the local industry. “We managed to do this film because established companies agreed to board the project in an amazing way. Magus Visual and Terraplane gave time, experience and equipment to the project. Ministry of illusion and Cut and Paste helped to finish the film to an acceptable standard and Dv8 and Ster-Kinekor Distribution have come on board to distribute locally.”

For full story see May issue of Screen Africa magazine.

Alive in Joburg

2006-05-11T17:27:00.000+01:00

Gavin Hood, director of Tsotsi, has said that his film was - amongst other things - an opportunity to show the world the dramatic city scapes of Johannesburg. But arguably Neill Blomkamp's amazing but dystopian sci-fi short, Alive in Joburg, which also features Joburgs skyline, has been seen by thousands more across the globe.

The reason for this is simple: Alive in Joburg was distributed over the Internet.

See it on YouTube.

WAH-WAH: Richard E. Grant Makes Directorial Debut

2006-05-10T11:07:00.000+01:00

Richard E. Grant Richard E. Grant wears a watch on each wrist. One tells the time in London; the other is set to the time in Swaziland, the country of his birth.

The scene is based on truth, Grant says — as is nearly everything in the film, a warm but unsentimental coming-of-age story set during the last days of the British Empire.

Actor Richard E. Grant displays the same wit in his directorial debut as he did in his diary "With Nails." Grant's semi-autobiographical telling of adolescence in Swaziland is a bittersweet toast to the past.

Young Ralph (Nicholas Hoult) endures his parents' (Gabriel Byrne, Miranda Richardson) battles, infidelity and inevitably searing divorce. Two years later, a brash American (Emily Watson) marries his dad, proclaiming the English propensity to mask what they really mean as "wah wah."

The film is so well acted that its more cloying moments -- a stage play of "Camelot" where "one brief shining moment" coincides with the release of Swaziland from British colonialization -- are moot. It's the things that aren't said and Byrne's alcoholic regret that make the "wah wah" so effective in this personal drama. (P.N.) Grade: B

Read more here.

Ongeriewe in line for best short film at Cannes

2006-05-08T17:12:00.000+01:00

Ongeriewe in line for best short film at Cannes

What started out as a graduation film project has landed four local film-makers in France for the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

Capetonians Robin Kleinsmidt, the director, Christopher Wessels, the cinematographer, and Keenan Arrison, the lead actor, with Tristram Atkins, the producer, have had their film, Ongeriewe, chosen as a finalist for the Cannes 2006 Best Short Film award.

Read more

South Park missing episode in Afrikaans

2006-05-02T14:41:00.000+01:00

A rather funny adaptation of South Park, with voice over in Cape Town Afrikaans has found its way onto YouTube.

Afrikaans has been described by Wallpaper* magazine as arguably one of the ugliest languages in the world. But it seems some Youtube users think it sounds rather sexy.

Note - it seems that YouTube has removed this clip.

SABC declined to fund Tsotsi

2006-05-02T13:16:00.000+01:00

The South African Mail and Guardian has reported that the SABC and the NFVF had been approached for funding by the Tsotsi producers - numerous times. All of which were declined.

Tsotsi is not a black film

2006-05-02T13:12:00.000+01:00

Gavin Hood has been quoted in Der Spiegel that Tsotsi is not a black film.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: But is there a difficulty in you, as a white person from a relatively affluent background, going in and making a film about black poverty? Or is that an unfair criticism?

Hood: No, it's a comment I hear all the time. And I have never found a perfect answer to it. Other than to try to say, at the risk of being controversial, "Tsotsi" isn't a black film. And I think it's kind of patronizing to constantly talk about black people, as if they are somehow so different from white people, that white people cannot understand them. This is a story about a traumatized young person. He happens to be black. But frankly he might have been Chinese in Shanghai, white in Moscow or African-American in South Central LA. I really believe that trauma is trauma. What gives the film its flavor, is its cultural specificity, but it's not what gives the film its soul. I am a story-teller working with a craft. My job is to use my craft -- which is a different thing to my race -- and tell a story well. Take someone like Ang Lee: I admire his artistry in films like "Sense and Sensibility", which is quintessentially English, or a film like "the Ice Storm", which is very American. Or a film like "Brokeback Mountain" which is about gay love, by a director, who as far as I know is heterosexual, using two actors who are heterosexual. The point is they are artists able to empathize and use their craft to tell a story, that perhaps lesser artists of whatever race or sexual orientation may not have told as well. You have to separate artistic ability from ethnic origin. Not only am I not black, I am also not a woman, therefore how can I direct women? I am also only 42, therefore how can I direct someone who's 60? So you see where the argument ends up? If you take it to its logical conclusion, I would have to walk around and point a video camera at myself. And who the hell is interested in that?

Indeed. Indeed.

Tsotsi: Violence and identity in South Africa

2006-04-25T09:49:00.000+01:00

Thewre has been an interesting point of view expressed and a bit of critisism on Tsotsi in the Rochester City News.

"Even in emerging nations without a grand history of production, a new self awareness can sometimes inspire filmmakers to reflect an equally new sense of identity. Tsotsi, which recently won the Academy Award for best foreign film, indicates something of a new spirit in South Africa, a relatively old country with a relatively new form of government."

"...camera also, however, lingers far too long on the faces of the actors, who often simply look at each other for long periods, as if trying to make up their minds about a speech or a gesture. The heavy-handed technique needlessly overstates the emotion of the film's situations, adding false melodrama to several naturally tense of moving encounters. Tsotsi often seems crude and oversimplified, but its themes and contexts, and more importantly its national origin and its appearance here, represent an important step for South African film."

Read more here

Lucky short is all the rage

2006-04-24T15:48:00.000+01:00

A 20 minute short film is currently taking the international film festival circuit by storm. LUCKY is written and directed by Briton Avie Luthra and produced by Durban based Junaid Ahmed. It tells the story of an Aids orphan desperate to leave his rural Zulu village for the bright lights of Durban.

Dollars & White pipes on DVD

2006-04-24T15:34:00.003+01:00

Donovan Marsh's South African film Dollars & White Pipes, which provides an insightful look at the subculture of drugs and gang violence, releases in South Africa on DVD on Friday.

Ecounters doc fest deadline approaches

2006-04-22T11:04:00.000+01:00

The closing date for submissions to South Africa's largest documentary festival is fast approaching, on 5 May 2006. Read more about it here. www.encounters.co.za.

The 2006 festival itself will take place:

• Johannesburg: Friday 14 July - Sunday 23 July
• Cape Town: Friday 21 July - Sunday 6 August

kwailawai* news

2006-04-22T10:45:00.000+01:00

This blog has not been updated regularly for some time. I have put some though into what I should do with it. Just let it hang round cyberspace, unkept and unchanged, delete it, or continue working on it.

I decided to keep it and keep updating it, but it's focus will change. Instead of being about all South African culture related issues, it will only feature reviews of South African feature films and documentaries.

There are other websites that cater for SA industry film news, such as Screen Africa. This site will however still have news on SA film festival and the like, but much less so than before.

Thanks for understanding.

Wessel

mhambi: His big white self: Nick Broomfield becomes part of the story

2006-04-20T14:30:00.000+01:00

Read a review on Mhambi of Nick Broomfield's second documentary on South Africa's extreme right wingers.

mhambi: His big white self: Nick Broomfield becomes part of the story

Nick Broomfield might not be aware of it, but His big white self his documentary on South African Eugene Terre'blanche and his Afrikaner Weerstands Beweging (AWB), follows a precedent established way back.

In 1834 The Spectator bemoaned the "maltreatment of the aborigines" and according to it, this had no equal in history. The Afrikaner colonists had a very bad press, starting at the turn on the nineteenth century by an account of the British traveler John Barow, and a few years later in a book by John Philip, a compatriot.

Straight Outta Benoni

2005-09-22T15:07:00.000+01:00

Straight Outta Benoni is a comedy about two lifelong friends in search of fame - in which they star along with director Trevor Clarence, Tanit Phoenix, Colin Moss and a few other eye-candy celebrities.

Brendan and Gavin are lifelong friends who feel comfortable with fame and international adoration. Even though they haven't achieved it yet. They're just like any other small town guys - they enjoy playing in a band, reviewing book reviews and busting mad sickness whenever they can. They also have brand new jobs in advertising. Unfortunately their world falls apart after they lose their jobs, a day before their ten-year school reunion - a day they've dreamt about for, well, ten years. The pressure's suddenly on to achieve. All they have to do is get their band signed to a label, get cast in an American movie, avoid being arrested by a deluded cop, entertain a rowdy kids party, produce world-class marketing ideas, outsmart their nemesis, woo a starlet, get their picture in the newspaper and beat all the odds against them... Before tomorrow.

They've got twenty-four hours to achieve overnight success, and nothing can stop them... Except maybe themselves.

Background

Crazy Monkey started out as four guys made up of Trevor Clarence, Brendan Jack, Gavin Williams and Brett Goldin, having fun with a video camera, making fun of extreme culture, and has turned into an international phenomenon.

Crazy Monkey is a series of spots made for MTV as idents to go between music videos. The team behind Crazy Monkey first made them in the hope of MTV just flighting them at least once, and thus staking the South African flag on the airwaves of the world's music channel.

MTV loved them. They were soon picked up by all the MTV regions in Europe, Canada, South America, Australia and Asia. They even dubbed the spots into German. It wasn't long before they commissioned more spots, and even flew the guys to London to shoot some 'Crazy Monkey in the UK'.

There have been entire weekends on MTV in the UK, Canada and Scandanavia that have been devoted to Crazy Monkey. A Canadian wrestler is such a fan, that he even changed his name to Trevor Clarence, after one of the shows creators!!

Besides winning themselves a healthy number of international awards, the guys behind Crazy Monkey have really achieved something special in being among the first South African entertainers to have found international success.

Now the Crazy Monkey guys are embarking on an even bigger journey, teaming up with producers Ronnie Apteker and Tendeka Matatu to bring you their first feature film, "Straight Outta Benoni".

Tsotsi

2005-09-19T16:31:00.000+01:00

Set amidst the sprawling Johannesburg township of Soweto - where survival is the primary objective - TSOTSI traces six days in the life of a ruthless young gang leader who ends up caring for a baby accidentally kidnapped during a car-jacking.

TSOTSI is a gritty and moving portrait of an angry young man living in a state of extreme urban deprivation. His world pumps with the raw energy of "Kwaito music" - the modern beat of the ghetto that reflects his troubled state of mind.

The film is a psychological thriller in which the protagonist is compelled to confront his own brutal nature and face the consequences of his actions. It puts a human face on both the victims and the perpetrators of violent crime and is ultimately a story of hope and a triumph of love over rage.

"Tsotsi" literally means "thug" or "gangster" in the street language of South Africa's townships and ghettos. "Kwaito" is South Africa's answer to American Hip Hop.

Longer Synopsis

In a shantytown on the edges of Johannesburg, South Africa, nineteen year old Tsotsi (Presley Chweneyagae) has repressed any memory of his past, including his real name: "Tsotsi" simply means "thug" or "gangster" in the street language of the ghetto.

Orphaned at an early age and compelled to claw his way to adulthood alone, Tsotsi has lived a life of extreme social and psychological deprivation. A feral being with scant regard for the feelings of others, he has hardened himself against any feelings of compassion. Ruled only by impulse and instinct, he is fuelled by the fear he instills in others. With no name, no past and no plan for the future, he exists only in an angry present. Tsotsi heads up his own posse of social misfits, Boston, a failed teacher (Mothusi Magano), Butcher, a cold-blooded assassin (Zenzo Ngqobe) and Aap, a dim-witted heavy (Kenneth Nkosi.)

One night, during an alcohol-fueled evening at a local shebeen (illicit liquor bar) Tsotsi is put under pressure by a drunken Boston to reveal something of his past; or at the very least, his real name. But Tsotsi reveals nothing. The questions evoke painful, long repressed memories that Tsotsi would prefer to keep buried. Still, Boston keeps asking. The other gang members sense a rising anger in Tsotsi and try to stop the interrogation, but Boston keeps pushing, prodding, digging. Suddenly, Tsotsi lashes out with his fists and beats Boston's face to a pulp. The violence is brief but extreme.

Tsotsi turns and flees into the night. He runs wildly, desperate to escape the pain of unwelcome images rising in his mind. By the time he stops running he has crossed from the shantytown into the more affluent suburbs of the city. He collapses under a tree. It is raining hard. A woman in a driveway is struggling to open her motorised gate with a faulty electronic remote. Tsotsi draws his gun. It's an easy opportunity for an impromptu car jacking. As he races away in the woman's silver BMW, he hears the cry of a child. There's a 3 month old baby in the back of the car. Tsotsi loses control of the vehicle and crashes to a stop on the verge of a deserted road. The car is a write-off.

Tsotsi staggers from the vehicle. The baby is screaming. Tsotsi walks away. Then he turns back. The baby calms slightly when Tsotsi looks at it. This unsettles him. He hesitates. An unfamiliar feeling stirs within him: an impulse other than his pure instinct for personal survival. Suddenly, he gathers up the infant, shoves it into a large shopping bag and heads for the shantytown on foot. Tsotsi does not reveal to anyone that he has the child. He hides it from his gang. At first he thinks he can care for it alone. Keep it in his shack. Feed it on condensed milk. But he soon realizes that he cannot cope. The baby screams constantly and his attempts to feed it fail miserably.

At the community water tap, Tsotsi selects a young woman with a baby of her own and secretly follows her back to her home. Forcing his way in behind her, he makes the terrified woman breastfeed "his" baby at gunpoint.

The young mother, Miriam (Terry Pheto), is only a few years older than Tsotsi. She has recently lost her husband to violent crime and lives alone with her baby, making ends meet as a seamstress. At first Miriam is very frightened by Tsotsi. But gradually she takes on the role of both mother to the baby and mentor to the desensitized young gangster. As their relationship tentatively progresses, Tsotsi is compelled to confront his own violent nature and to reveal his past.

Tsotsi wins Toronto audience prize

2005-09-19T16:24:00.000+01:00

Tsotsi has won the Toronto film festival audience prize.

Having taken home the audience award at Edinburgh this year, Gavin Hood's 'Tsotsi' achieved the same feat in Toronto over the weekend, walking away with the People's Choice Award at the city's international film festival.

Tsotsi will also be the opening film at this year's Cape Town World Cinema Festival (11 - 20 November).

Hey, Boy

2005-03-22T14:57:00.000Z

When I set out to find South African films for this year's festival I wasn't expecting any thing like this film. It's a less serious South African film, but who says all South African cinema has to be serious and political. It's a coming of age story focussing on two university graduates in Johannesburg; their sex lives and their egos. This low concept film doesn't try too hard to ram political issues down your throat, instead Hey, Boy is a light hearted and frivolous look at youth culture in South Africa, which touches upon more recent socio-political issues. The cast is mostly taken from popular South African television drama and soap operas, and this is reflected in the slightly slapstick comedy performances and a few inside jokes. Director Andr» Odendaal also comes to us straight from an illustrious career in TV sitcom. It was shot on Digibeta, which works perfectly for a small budget characterbased film. Those familiar with South African culture will particularly enjoy the common dialogue and idiom. TR

Andre Odendaal was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1961. He studied Arts at the University of Pretoria. He later joined The Arts Council as a professional actor. His acting career spans over 18 years including 45 stage productions, also performing in film and television he won three major awards for acting. In 1999 he turned his hand to directing. He has now directed over 122 sitcom episodes and won a best directing award. Hey, Boy is his first feature film.

Country South Africa Running Time 90 mins Format DV Director Andr» Odendaal Prod Brendan Pollecutt S'play Justin Cohen, Brendan Pollecut DoP Eran Tamor Cast Brendan Pollecutt, Justin Cohen, Lorila Cooper Print Source Howard Sacks E polly@ican.co.za

Encounters documentary festival announces dates

2005-03-05T12:18:00.000Z

Encounters the South African documentary festival has announced it's dates. They are from 15 to 30 July in Cape Town and from the 5th to the 14th of August in Johannesburg.

Entries from filmmakers should reach them no later than Friday the 6th of May 2005.

Get the entry from here.

ALTER-CINE FOUNDATION Documentary Film Grants 2005

2005-02-27T17:57:00.000Z

The Alter-Cine Foundation was created in the memory of Canadian filmmaker, Yvan Patry, who passed away on October 14, 1999. The Foundation offers a yearly grant to young film and video makers from Africa, Asia and Latin America to enable them to study or complete training in cinema, or to direct a documentary film on the theme of rights and freedoms, including social and economic rights, women’s rights, the right to culture, art and artistic creation.

Call for applications to the HIVOS/Sithengi Film Fund

2005-02-27T17:55:00.000Z

Sithengi invites first-time and established filmmakers from SADC countries, excluding Tanzania, to apply to the HIVOS/Sithengi Film Fund. Dutch NGO, HIVOS, recently handed over the administration of its film fund to Sithengi for 2005.

Disbursements will take place in April and September 2005. Sithengi is currently in the process of appointing a Selection Panel/Board who will be responsible for the evaluation and selection process as well as to provide governance to the Fund.

The Fund includes three specific areas of intervention, namely Short Film Production; Documentary Production and Feature Film Production.

Documentary funding (DCF) picthing report back

2004-12-03T18:46:00.000Z

by Liezel Vermeulen

The stress. The five minutes spotlight. The knife-edge teetering between yes and maybe. The Encounters Sithengi Documentary Co-Production Forum allows documentary filmmakers to pitch their proposals to a panel of commissioning editors from France, Germany, Finland, the SABC. Filmmakers go through this grueling, nailbiting process hoping to initiate a friendship based on co-production or commissioning interest from the panel.

With only five minutes to pitch and five minutes to answer questions, Vincent Moloi’s A Pair of Boots and a Bicycle attracted the most attention in a morning worth of pitches. His documentary is about the 120 000 black South Africans who fought in the Second World War to return to South Africa. Moloi’s story tries to reconstruct the reasons why mineworker Job Maseko became a hero at Tobruk and survived 23 days in the desert to return home to poverty and a destitute death. “I got the idea first when I was in rural QwaQwa as a ten year old boy and heard his story on the radio. It stayed in my mind like his memory stayed in the minds of his family. We haven’t had many heroes besides Struggle heroes.”

“It’s overwhelming when you see people appreciating our South African stories, their feedback and support is important, but we must tell our own stories.” says Moloi. He’ll be keeping in touch and developing his story further. “This forum is a first step of getting to know each other and getting a sense of the project” says Sabine Bubeck-Paaz of ZDF Arte in Germany.

About 60% of the people pitching are existing filmmakers, but if they go into production their films will be premiered at the Encounters Documentary Film Festival says Encounters and DCF director Steven Markowitz. “We’ve proven the success of this forum with Rehad Desai’s Born into Struggle which received support last year and won awards at Encounters and the Apollo Theatre Film Festival this year”.

The DCF is modelled on IDFA and “opens the interaction between the filmmaker and interested parties” says Anna Miralis Australian SBS “We specialise in presales and acquisitions, so this is the establishment of a relationship with the film”

Blood on a Red Dust Floor

2004-12-03T18:43:00.000Z

by Liezel Vermeulen

Red Dust’s British director Tom Hooper grew up learning about Apartheid at school. But when he read the screenplay of Gillian Slovo’s novel optioned by the BBC and Anant Singh’s VideoVision, his understanding of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was fairly hazy. Now he has a visceral understanding of the effects of apartheid.

“I never felt that I wished I was a white South African. I felt freer coming from the outside, it was slightly easier to find a way of seeing the story.” But complete detachment isn’t really possible: witnessing the country’s disparities in eight months spent researching, visiting 17 platteland towns to find fictional Smitsivier and then filming in Graaff Reinett and Johannesburg.

Should a British filmmaker make a South African story? “I don’t feel proprietorial about being an outsider: UK’s Ridley Scott makes great American films and Rene Zellweger is playing Britain’s national icon. I would hope that as filmmakers we can work in a global environment”
“The central concept of the TRC is an extraordinary one, but it’s not part of the general knowledge base of people in the UK and USA. I will have succeeded if British and American young people who have grown up post 1994 come out with even a simple understanding of the TRC”
“Conflict management is misunderstood at a time when revenge and retaliation are so dominant. American foreign policy exploits the nature of revenge.” Hooper is also “desperate to show the film in Palestine”.

He didn’t know organisers would play a video message from TRC chairman Archbishop Tutu at the premiere at the CTCWF, “I was staggered. This message alone was enough. I so wanted people who went through the process to feel that it was accurate.” Tutu will be attend-ing the showing of Red Dust at the Dubai International Film Festival in December.

Red Dust has a superbly experienced cast: Jamie Bartlett finds the ebb and flow between tenderness and harrowing cruelty as the policeman seeking amnesty. Academy Award winner Hilary Swank plays brittle lawyer Sarah Barcant and BAFTA winner Chiwetel Ejiofor gives a compelling performance as Alex Mpondo, who confronts the unease of reconciliation in a world where vengeance is second nature.

The actors were incredibly flexible, even though they were dealing with a deep well of emotional trauma. The most powerful scene is where Nomhle Mkonyeni is at the gravesite of her son: “She was so closely drawing on her experience of losing a loved one during the Struggle. As a director I knew that to direct her would be outrageous, my duty was to stand back and record it”

Hooper would love to work in South Africa again: “When you are in the UK or USA, you are lucky to get a great script. In South Africa I am humbled that there are so many stories about transition and the apartheid era. South Africa is so crowded with great stories.”

Murmur: Desire, Sperm Deprivation, True Love

2004-12-03T18:39:00.000Z

“This has been the longest and most unsuccessful courtship in the history of the world,” complains Gray Hofmeyr of his relationship with Jacqui L’Ange. “But an excellent film has come out of it,” L’Ange quickly adds. They are referring to Murmur, the M-Net film that they co-wrote and had its World Premiere at Sithengi last night.

The “fairy tale for grown-ups” was shot on location in Mozambique and involves a love triangle. “It’s certainly not like any other film that’s been made in South Africa to my knowledge,” says Hofmeyr. With the use of animation in innovative ways, an original southern African soundtrack with many young artists who have not been heard before and some “nice hot bodies”, Murmur is, as L’Ange says, “very indicative of what you can do with very little money and a lot of energy.”

The story is about fantasy, and the things that go on under the surface, with the strongest element being the love story. Due to popular demand, there will be an extra screening of

South Africa and Brazil get into Step

2004-12-03T18:36:00.000Z

by Liezel Vermeulen
It takes two to tango! The Brazilians at Sithengi are starting discussions towards a Co-production Treaty agreement with South Africa, tapping into the African Lusophone market of Angola and Mozambique.

New Brazilian government initiatives wish to strengthen South/South relationships and acknowledge that 50% of Brazilians are of African descent.

“South Africa and Brazil have more in common than less in common: colonisation, our cultural diversity. and the rich warmth of our peoples” says Themba Sibeko of the Gauteng Film Office.
Ilda Santiago, director of the Festival Do Rio met with Sibeko last year to start connections resulting in a South African focus this year, reaching an audience of 200 000 people. “We have a fruitful way ahead, a lot of exchange culturally and money to make. There is content, there is a market and relationships to be established,” says Santiago. Brazil produces 40 to 50 films annually, with local content strongest in 2003 at 23% against American cinema offerings.

The success of the IBSA exchange between South Africa, Brazil and India had a positive impact on diverse sectors such as motoring and mining, but there is also a need to develop investments in the film industry. Joel Zito Araujo, director of Daughters of the Wind, cautions that the current mindset amongst Brazilian producers is that they should produce mostly with Europe. “We are a very promising cultural industry, al-though it is just starting it will take off in the next ten years”

While there are no formal structures in place at present, “Personal contact is everything, meeting people and understanding each other’s countries,” says Santiago.

“I see a lot of money in Africa and in South America, we have the talent and if we get together, it’s in our hands to say good-bye to everyone else!

Sithengi Newsletter

Murmur

2004-12-03T18:15:00.000Z

This Monday saw the next instalment in M-Net's Original Movies series. Murmur is the third full-length film in this initiative to boost the South African movie industry. If you missed the film, try and catch a rerun.

Produced by journalist Jacqui L'Ange and South African film veteran Grey Hofmeyr, Murmur is certainly a departure from the norm for South African movies. It tells the story of a young couple, Sage (Milan Murray) and Billy (Langley Kirkwood) who run a backpacker's lodge in Mozambique. The film examines their relationship, and the tensions which weigh heavily on it as they try to make a life for themselves, combined with a healthy dose of myth, legend, magic and suspense.

SABC to license short films

2004-11-08T20:59:00.000Z

SABC are licensing local, short films to fit into a half hour slot. This means that the films have to be 24 -26 minutes in length. Also interested in shorts of 12 minutes duration.

Please email anyadikee@sabc.co.za with a brief synopsis of your film and your contact details. Please title your email: Short film synopsis.

This IS NOT a call for scripts but for films which have already been shot and edited.

Erica Anyadike
anyadikee@sabc.co.za

Kae-Kazim on what SouthAfrica can learn from Nigeria

2004-11-08T20:35:00.000Z

Cape Town based filmmaker Hakeem Kae-Kazim recently completed a co-production, Coming to South Africa, with a Nigerian producer. Shot on minimal budget, on digital video, over ten days, with three lights and "lucky locations" in Durban, Kae-Kazim has emerged from the experience with a better understanding of the Nigerian style of film-making.

"It was deliberately done 'the Nigerian way.' We wanted to mimic that style in the South African context," he says.

The film tells the story of two Nigerians who come to South Africa to improve themselves but end up in a drug gang. Kae-Kazim says it's a story that "humanises the South African stereotype about Nigerians." At the same time it's a cautionary tale to Nigerians back home as to why their fellow countrymen get such a bad press here.

Kae-Kazim admires the Nigerian filmmakers for finding and making stories that entertain, for doing the business without looking over their shoulder for guidance and affirmation.

In a population where thousands of VHS cassettes and VCDs are being pumped into the market, competition is intense. Keeping it cheap is a way of getting high turnover, small margins and maximum return - and for the consumers, a great variety of product choice. Inevitably, this opens up a can of questions about volume versus quality. But the value lies in the audience reception and, as Kae-Kazim notes, some directors are pushing out three or four films at a time.

So, does quality matter to Nigerian filmmakers? The answer from Kae-Kazim is that you make the best out of what you've got available. Omotoso reckons that if a producer thinks he can get more bang from his buck by upping the investment, then he will do that. But the bottom line is - business. It's strictly business.

Typically, movies from the Nigerian stable have riveting storylines, says Hakeem Kae-Kazim, although they may be patchy in terms of technique. It all depends on the maker and the amount of budget and time he can afford.

Coming to South Africa was his first experience of working in this way, at high-speed, relying on the story to make the impact. But the experience was critical in his development. Like all filmmakers would like the big-budget movie to fall into his lap, but he can't afford to rely on that happening.

"We must begin to tell it from our own perspective. I want to tell the story. I don't want to wait three or four years to tell a story because I don't have the money."

For Hakeem, the method is: fill the gap, improve your technique as you learn, by doing; compete in the market.

It's all very well trying to do the Hollywood copycat formula movie that is going to make millions (if you get really lucky), but the most important motto is - tell our own stories.

Kae-Kazim continues: "You have to look at where you started, and then get better. Otherwise we are just playing catch up the whole time." And that, as we know, is not how Bollywood evolved.

Kae-Kazim believes, however, that the popular tide is turning in Nigeria. Audiences are beginning to discriminate much more. They are asking for quality of technique, style and story-telling. The practitioners themselves are looking to create guilds for professional practitioners - a case of separating the wheat from the chaff.

Wait, he says, "In three years time it will be a different picture in Nigeria, whilst South Africa is still flapping about in the dark."

One of the hot issues at Sithengi will be how South African filmmakers respond to the challenge of the Nigerians. Are their audiences even the same? How do our filmmakers respond to local audiences? Nigerians tend to invest in home entertainment - video and DVD machines. South Africans in the township lack that basic technology.

It's time for change? The Nigerians will be at Sithengi in force, to show just how change is done.

Source: Sithengi Newsletter

Nigerians mean business

2004-11-08T20:31:00.000Z

The biggest players in African film are about to burst onto the Sithengi scene when 130 Nigerian filmmakers arrive in Cape Town to do business.

Some of these filmmakers will be part of a delegation that heads up a forum on Co-production and Distribution possibilities with Nigeria. That discussion takes place formally on November 18th at the Sithengi conference. Many other delegates will be networking with local and international cineastes about the possibilities of business in South Africa and Nigeria.

The public will be treated to a kaleidoscope of Nigerian films on the African Magic Screen where they can choose between titles like Formidable Force, Beautiful Angel, King's Pride and Apostle Kasali.

Nigeria makes about 700 movies a year - films that are increasingly finding a following in South Africa. American movie companies are trying to make inroads on this phenomenal market force in a country where 120 million Nigerians regard VHS and VCD copies of the latest home-grown movie as part of their staple entertainment.

Joburg-based producer-director-actor, Akin Omotoso - who made God Is African and produced this year's competition entry, Gums And Noses - reckons that a symbiotic relationship between South Africa and Nigeria is all-important. The growth of Nigeria's film industry is vital to South Africa.

Omotoso believes there should be more reciprocity. The growth of African partnerships is as important to SA, if not more so, than linkages with Europe and the developed economies. He has, in the normal course of his business, been keeping lines of communication flowing between South Africa and Nigeria. "Discourse is already happening, under the radar," he says.

"I just want to meet up with the guys and find out what business they're doing and if we can do business - talk in the same way that I would talk to a Belgian, say. I understand the curiosity element about them (Nigerian filmmakers) but it's no different than anywhere else. It's not a weird thing."

The hyperbole and bad press that surrounds Nigerians masks the fact that their entrepreneurship in making movies that people want to see underlines big business.

Says Omotoso: "Nigerian audiences want to see Nigerian films. So there's a demand. And Nigerian producers understand their audience. So they produce movies for their market. It's a business - not like South Africa where nobody knows what South Africans want."

Source: Shitengi Newsletter

Sithengi strives for a Cinema Paradiso through Italian connection

2004-11-08T20:27:00.000Z

A year after sealing a film co-production treaty between South Africa and Italy - and buoyed by the success of Hotel Rwanda at the Toronto Film Festival which was financed on the back of this bilateral agreement - a strong Italian delegation will be back at Sithengi 2004 to seek new linkages with its southern partners.

And the spoils of the 2003 protocol are potentially huge. Hotel Rwanda, starring Nick Nolte and Joaquin Phoenix, was picked from stiff United States competition for the Audience award at the Toronto Film Festival where it recently premiered. The movie is due for release in Hollywood this December.

The film's initial success has given considerable zest to the Cape-Roma film pact and will add lustre to South Africa's producing capabilities in increasing complex terrain of film financing.

Amongst Sithengi panellists who will discuss Working With Italy (November 16th, 11h30 to 13h00 on the conference programme) is home-boy Izzy Codron, who was co-executive producer on Hotel Rwanda, according to the treaty structure. Wearing his South African Film Finance Corporation (SAFFCOR) cap, Codron can offer considerable insight into the detail of putting together production packages in terms of the treaty.

"Why is the treaty important?" he asks, rhetorically. "It gives us a foothold in the European Union and allows us to do tripartite productions with other EU countries that have European funding. (In the case of Hotel Rwanda) it gave us access to the UK."

Codron reckons that South Africans can learn a lot from the technical finesse of Italian filmmakers. "Technically, their crews are brilliant. They have fabulous cinematographers, fantastic directors and great writers."

Codron is likely to go ahead with another Italian co-production in 2005 through his company, The Imaginarium.

A mutual transfer of skill, experience and culture is underscored by the Italian Cinema Authors Guild (ANAC) which has numerous projects in the pipeline for South Africa.

ANAC Gregoretti has said that Sithengi will provide a favourable environment to implement and protect intellectual rights. The delegation will also look at new ways of financing "quality cinema". An Italian state fund would also be instituted directly for the purpose of fuelling production between South Africa and Italy.

Sithengi boasts a good showing of Italian films, including the in-competition The Consequences of Love, an existential thriller from director Paolo Sorrentino, who will also be on the panel. Other guests are Paolo Virzi whose film Caterina in the Big City, is showing in the World Cinema line-up, Francesco Munzi, director of one of the most acclaimed Italian films at the Venice Film Festival 2004, Andate e Ritorno/Round Trip; producers Domenico Procacci, Carlo Brancaleoni of Rai, Christiano Bortone (Saimir) and African Italian filmmaker, Alberto Ianuzzi.

Sithengi aims to develop local talent

2004-11-08T20:23:00.000Z

Between November 16th and 19th, Sithengi 2004 will host this exciting forum for filmmakers. Some 70 participants, ranging from students to young, relatively inexperienced cineastes from the region will pitch in with older, more skilled local personnel as well as a few masters from Africa and abroad.

Says CEO of Sithengi, Michael Auret: "The Talent Campus is a great opportunity for students and both aspiring and experienced filmmakers to learn from masters in the industry, both locally and internationally. The Sithengi Film & Television Market will now provide a new learning environment within the Market to allow professionals to increase their knowledge and skills and benefit from visiting international experts".

The Talent Campus will cover important aspects of the filmmaking process from pre-production, production, post-production and promotion and marketing to distributing film.

The Berlin Talent Campus brought in over 400 participants from about 60 countries. The success of this blueprint is reckoned to have revived the dynamism of the Berlinale amongst a growing, often confusing cluster of film festivals scattered through Europe.

It is hoped that Sithengi will add new shine to its lustre with the potential explosion of skills energy from the inaugural Talent Campus. "Our aim is to allow aspirant and veteran filmmakers an opportunity to acquire knowledge on global trends and techniques.

Source: Sithengi Newsletter

Berlin World Cinema Fund comes to SA

2004-11-08T20:18:00.000Z

At the same time, they will also launch the Berlin World Cinema Fund in South Africa. This fund is an initiative of the Berlinale. It will swell funding sources for filmmakers in developing countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

A pool of 500,000 Euros will be distributed annually to support feature films or creative full-length documentaries from these regions. The Fund promises to recognise and reward applicants who submit work with "a strong cultural identity". They will also help to strengthen the profile of these films in German cinemas.

South African production companies who are promoting their own directing talent, or German companies using a local director, could be in line for grants of up to 100,000 Euros for a project in the 200,000 to 1 million Euro range. Successful applicants are eligible for a disbursement of a further 15,000 Euros for distributing product in Germany. Applicants can go to the website: www.berlinale.de and check for links to the World Cinema Fund.

Source: Shitengi Newsletter

German Co-production treaty one step closer

2004-11-08T20:16:00.000Z

Germany and South Africa are poised to sign a film co-production treaty that could truly transform the local industry from being a service-based location destination into becoming prime partners in the making, direction and ownership of movie product.

At the Sithengi Film and Television Market 2004, industry representatives from both countries are set to seal discussions that began between executives of both Sithengi and the Berlinale in February 2003.

Co-production treaties are becoming a vital mechanism for accessing funds that are not always fully available in one country. A German co-production treaty would expose South African product to more financing possibilities from that country and would also increase opportunities for cashing in on funds cached under the European Union umbrella.

Ms Sonia Moerkens from the Berlinale Co-production Market and Ms Dorothee Wenner from the Forum, will front a workshop discussion at the Sithengi conference on the co-production possibilities at Artscape on November 17th. Check the conference programme for details.

Brazil to forge closer ties with SA film

2004-11-08T20:14:00.000Z

Three new film projects are being negotiated between South Africa and Brazil, according to the chief executive officer of the Gauteng Film Office, Themba Sibeko.

"Very soon you will see concrete co-operation between a film company in Gauteng and one in Rio, or Sao Paolo," Sibeko revealed.

The content of the deals will be revealed when all parties come together at Sithengi, Sibeko said. Stakeholders in the film industry will discuss the options of co-production partnerships between South Africa and Brazil when all parties engage at the Cape Town marketplace.

Concrete deals have materialised as a result of a rapid increase in dialogue and trade between Brazil and South Africa. Film producers are beginning to benefit from the huge politically-mandated trade initiative at state level between India, Brazil and South Africa, known as the IBSA Initiative.

With a total population of 1,3 billion people in these countries, the IBSA initiative promises huge benefits in trilateral exchange as a south-south free trade zone emerges.

IBSA is a counterpoint in world trade to the G8 countries of the north. The spin-offs for film and television in this relatively new agglomeration are already being felt.

The Gauteng Film Office (GFO) was mandated to develop trading options in the cultural sector. "So we took the baton and ran with it," says Sibeko.

Efforts bore fruit with the exposition of 20 South African films at the Rio film festival in September. Audience response was enthusiastic.

Links have been established at provincial level between Gauteng and Rio, in the main, and to some extent with the province of Sao Paolo.

A similarity in histories and culture could see a powerful fusion of creative synergies between Brazil and South Africa, even despite language differences. The emergence of Lusophone Angola as a producer of film has put a new spin on the possibilities of collaboration.

With that in mind, Brazil and Angola, as Portuguese speaking countries, will come together on the same panel discussion at Sithengi on 18th November. Maria Joao Ganga makes her feature film debut, Hollow City, at the World Cinema Festival, in competition. Ganga had written and directed theatre, and made documentaries before, but her story of a rural boy finding his way about the ravaged beauty of Luanda, is a new direction and heralds a cinematic era in that country. It will provide a haunting evocation of war and humanity in Angola.

As the sleeping giant of Angola awakes, so too Brazil, the world's fifth largest economy, is being roused to greater potential in the cultural field - especially film and television. With some 90 million citizens of African descent, there are growing indications that indissoluble links are being forged at every level with Africa. By virtue of their Portuguese histories, both Angola and Mozambique stand to benefit from stronger ties. Brazil's soap channel, Tele Novella, regularly dispenses programmes to its Mozambique and Angola.

But South Africa, with its film engine humming, is poised for a period of huge cinematic growth and opportunities when all the details of exchange and trade exchanged are honed.

"Sithengi provides the opportunity for participants to meet and newcomers to climb aboard and discuss synergies," said Sithengi CEO, Mike Auret.

Brazil have attached great importance to the Cape Town marketplace by sending a high-level delegation comprising their Secretary for Culture, Orlando Senna, as well as the convenor of the Festival Do Rio, Ilda Santiago.

Brazilian director Joel Zito Araujo will also attend. His film, Daughters of the Wind, is an entrant in the World Cinema competition. It deals with a feud between two long-estranged sisters and follows the heart-breaking seam of racial discrimination that still dogs darker-skinned Brazilians, for all that country's officially non-racial ethos.

The prospect of seeing a cinematic first from Angola and the opportunity to "broaden horizons" with Brazil - as Themba Sibeko has said - should make draw considerable interest from film workers and aficionados.

"I am very excited about the possibilities," said Themba Sibeko. "The outlook is very optimistic."

Swedes get in on the action

2004-11-08T20:11:00.000Z

The completion of South African feature film, Max and Mona, in the studios of a small Swedish town may not be world news, but it is one of the reasons behind a growing desire for a co-production treaty between those two countries.

About an hour out of Gotheborg, the small town of Trollhaten is blooming into a tiny Tinsel town. Government subsidies to production companies have injected jobs and life back into the town as about 60 percent of Swedish film activity has now taken hold in the town.

Young Jo'burg-based producer, Tendeka Matatu, was in Trollhaten to oversee the final mix of Teddy Mattera's film, Max and Mona, which is on view at the Cape Town World Cinema Festival, November 12th to 20th.

Matatu said that film subsidies had reinvigorated the ailing town. A sound factory and studio facilities now attract the big names in Swedish cinema, like Lars Von Trier, to Trollhaten.

The final mix of Max and Mona was made possible by a straightforward barter deal with Swedish company, Film I Vast, who provided optical sound and Dolby in exchange for Swedish rights on the SA movie.

"It's great if we can continue doing these barter deals," Matatu said.

The Swedish delegation to Sithengi will include Bengt Toll, a representative of the Gotheborg Film Fund as well as a number of producers and directors.

The Gotheborg Film Fund has long-established links with Africa through IKON/South Africa. Currently IKON is developing documentary projects in Mozambique with backing from Swedish institutions before they turn their focus to South Africa at Sithengi.

It would seem that much is happening in Swedish small towns. A film from one of the Swedish delegations is a documentary made by Lisa Munthe and Helen Ahlsson, about a 23 year old woman arm wrestler from a tiny village in the snowy north. The film translates as the Arm Wrestler from Solitude (or Loneliness), this literally being the name of the small town where all of the sixteen inhabitants are the heroine's family.

It's the tale of a young woman, egged on by her whole family, who takes on the world in championship arm wrestling.

The delegation has been organised through the offices of Hanli Prinsloo, a South African filmmaker living in Sweden and working with the Swedish Institute. Ms Prinsloo will be part of the interesting Swedish entourage who will want to wrestle with South African counterparts to generate projects and perhaps pave the way for formal bilateral agreements between north and south.

From the Sithengi newsletter

Biltong makes it to Cyberspace

2004-11-01T21:04:00.000Z

Yes, Biltong, the South African raw dried meat delacacy has made it onto Ebay. With prices ranging from £5 to £10 and seller which has already sold over 700 items it seems its quite popular. Apparently made by real South Africans!

bil·tong (bltng, -tông)
(Food)
n. South African
Narrow strips of meat dried in the sun.

[Afrikaans : bil, buttock (from Middle Dutch bille; see bhel-2 in Indo-European roots) + tong, tongue (from Middle Dutch tonghe; see dgh- in Indo-European roots).]

South Africa's bumper crop

2004-11-01T14:11:00.000Z

By Jack Malvern, Arts Reporter (The Times)

A FILM that recreates the Soweto riots of 1976 using real participants as extras is one of a bumper crop of South African films at The Times bfi London Film Festival.
The combination of a weak currency and a keen government have spurred a film industry that has previously struggled. In the past year 15 feature films have been made in South Africa about South Africa.

Stander, based on the life of a policeman who became South Africa’s most notorious bank robber, is the most expensive South African co-production ever made, and is one of four South African films at the festival.

Bronwen Hughes, Stander’s Canadian director, used 1,300 extras to re-enact the Tembisa uprising, the scene of a police massacre where Andre Stander took charge. “It was enormous,” she said. “We thought it would trigger feelings to go off in a real way. The crowd broke out into a harmony protest song. Just as I was thinking that this was the most joyous thing I had ever heard, my assistant said to me: ‘This is the scariest thing I have ever seen.’ ”

The film portrays Stander wracked with guilt. He began a spree of bank robberies, which he was then asked to investigate. Eventually convicted, he broke out of jail and formed the Stander Gang, which sometimes robbed four banks a day.

The other three South African films at the festival were funded domestically. Yesterday, the first international film to be scripted in the Isi-Zulu language, tells of a woman who is rejected by her husband when she discovers she is HIV-positive. Drum is about a jailed journalist. Max and Mona, which has already been shown, is a quirky tale of Johannesburg township life.

Sweet-Thorn is as gentle and tender

2004-11-01T09:47:00.000Z

Sweet-Thorn is as gentle and tender as Gito Baloi’s death was violent. Riaan Wolmarans listens to Baloi's last project, co-written and co-produced with Nibs van de Spuy and Baloi, sadly, is with us no more. He was shot dead during an apparent robbery in Johannesburg in April this year. But he did leave us with this, a superb acoustic album he recorded, co-wrote and co-produced with Nibs van der Spuy.

In the sleeve notes, Van der Spuy pays tribute to Baloi, whom he first saw playing with Tananas in 1988, whereafter their musical paths crossed many times and a friendship came to be.

Baloi and Van der Spuy started playing as a duo in 2000: “Gito would send shivers down one’s spine; he had the voice of an angel, which was a musical instrument in its own right. So unique is his bass sound that after three notes you know it is Gito Baloi.”

And Sweet-Thorn (Greenhouse/ Sheer), which was ready for release just before Baloi died, stands alongside Van der Spuy’s words as a monument to Baloi’s musical gift.

The two musos’ gentle acoustic guitar rhythms blend effortlessly, with a minimal layer of vocals drifting in and out.

Opener Todos has a Spanish flavour, followed by Salaam with its vaguely Eastern tang and the African magic of Mountain Wind, and so it continues; eclectic, but not overpoweringly so.

Baloi also provides a touch of percussion, and Chris Tokalon (flute) and Kyla Thomas (violin) help out on a few tracks.

Sweet-Thorn is as gentle and tender as Baloi’s death was violent; it’s two African souls making music that is sublime in its simplicity.

Source M&G

The Story of an African Farm fares well on Opening Weekend

2004-10-31T20:53:00.000Z

The lighthearted book-to-screen adaptation of Olive Schreiner's, The Story of an African Farm, released countrywide on 8 October to rave reviews and audience applause at the box office.

With a print average of R7 400 per print, The Story of an African Farm outperformed Darrel James Roodt's 'Yesterday', which earned just over R6 700 per print in ticket sales on its opening weekend earlier this year.

Starring Richard E. Grant, Karen van der Laag (Isidingo) and Academy Award nominee, Armin Meuller Stahl, and introducing Kasha Kropinski, Anneke Weidemann and Luke Gallant, The Story of an African Farm brings a classic South-African novel to the big screen as a fun-filled children's adventure in the tradition of films like The Secret Garden and Whale Rider.

The production and release of The Story of an African Farm saw key South African film industry players in Ster-Kinekor Distribution, The Independent Development Corporation, The National Film and Video Foundation, SABC 2, Proudly South African and producer, Bonnie Rodini, combine forces.

The film follows the life and trials of the three children on a farm in the Karoo at the hands of Tant Sannie and her love interest in Bonaparte Blenkins, and revolves around the first half of Schreiner's novel.Says Helen Kuun of Ster-Kinekor Distribution: "A true reflection of African Farm's success would be the fact that it outperformed comparable genre or peer features such as Ella Enchanted, Thunderbirds and Around the World in Eighty Days, on their opening weekends. That gives a more realistic understanding of the success of African Farm. Thunderbirds earned just over R4 300 per print, whereas Ella Enchanted earned R8 700 per print on their opening weekends.

"In Cannes, the CEO of Miramax International told me to make sure the film does well in South Africa so the release here is very important to me," said Bonnie Rodini writer-producer of Story of an African Farm. "Part of our sustain activities includes an outreach program - we are aiming to get corporate companies to buy batches of tickets for underpriviledged children to come and see the film at cinemas."

Videovision begins shoot on Cape Flats feature film

2004-10-31T20:51:00.000Z

Anant Singh, Chief Executive of Videovision Entertainment has announced the commencement of principle photography on the company's latest production, Dollars And White Pipes.

The film, which is based on the true life story of Bernard Baaitjies who grew up in Hanover Park, marks the first feature film of director, Donovan Marsh who is known for his television productions of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, MTN Gladiators and the award-winning short film, Dead End.

Marsh wrote the script in collaboration with Bernard Baaitjies. Dollars And White Pipes stars a host of Cape talent, among whom are Clint Brink (Generations), Joey Yusuf Rasdien, Shaun Arnolds, Genevieve Howard and Nikki Nelson.

Dollars And White Pipes is a rags to riches story which follows Bernard's journey from the drug and gang culture to emotional and moral independence as he overcomes issues of race, education, addiction and racketeering and finally becomes a well respected and law abiding business entrepreneur - which he still is today. Bernard Baaitjies will be involved in the production, as will the Hanover Park community. "Dollars And White Pipes is an original South African story. It deals with important social issues, while at the same time being very entertaining," commented Anant Singh. "Bernard's life story is inspirational, incredibly motivating and very uplifting. He is a positive role model for all South Africans.

We are also pleased to be continuing our relationship with M-Net's local production initiative which began with their association with Yesterday," added Singh. Carl Fischer, Head of M-Net's Local Productions, says the film forms part of an M-Net initiative to boost the local film industry. "We invest in films that are set in a South African context, featuring local actors and production teams, and carry themes which will resonate with South African audiences.

We are extremely proud of all the films we have been involved in and believe that Dollars and White Pipes with its strong message and storyline will be another winner." Videovision Entertainment is a significant stakeholder in the Western Cape Film Industry with its major shareholding in DreamWorld Film City, the R400 million state-of-the-art film studio complex which will be built at Faure which is situated on the R310 just off the N2 in Cape Town. The development includes eight sound stages, production facilities, digital facilities and outdoor back lot areas.

Dollars And White Pipes is a Videovision Entertainment production in association with M-Net. The film is produced by Anant Singh and Helena Spring, executive produced by Sanjeev Singh and Sudhir Pragjee, written by Donovan Marsh and Bernard Baaitjies and directed by Donovan Marsh. Dollars And White Pipes will be shooting in the Western Cape until November and will be released in South Africa in late 2005.

Review: Max and Mona is *&%!

2004-10-31T18:29:00.000Z

Kwailawai* had the misfortune of seeing Max and Mona at the London Film Festival (LMF). Read a review here.

Gums and noses on a high

2004-10-31T17:50:00.000Z

'Gums and Noses', a feature film that romps through the tough world of advertising, has won the Best Feature Film award at the local Apollo Film Festival.

"Making the movie was a great experience, and a tremendous amount of work went into producing it in a very short time. This award is shared by all the people who worked tirelessly in front of and behind the camera to translate 'Gums and Noses' from stage to screen — successfully!" producer Robbie Thorpe said.

The fourth annual all South African film festival showcased 12 feature films and 22 documentaries. Graig Freimond, the writer and director of Gums and Noses, said: "It's a fantastic sort of vote of confidence in the film. It's a very small film made on a very small budget. It's competing against films with much bigger budgets so it just means a lot."

The film beat out stiff competition from five other movies, among them Darrel Roodt's 'Yesterday' and Ntshavheni Wa Luruli's 'Wooden Camera'.

Rehad Desai's 'Born into Struggle' won the best documentary award.

The Apollo Film Festival, now in its fourth year, is a community-based initiative aiming at promoting and encouraging local films. The vision behind the Apollo Festival is to provide a platform for films and documentaries from South Africa and other African countries in a drive to boost the local film industry.

This year's adjudicators included Letebele Masemola-Jones, Martin Botha, Darryl Accone and Helen Kuun.

Gums & Noses will be rebroadcast on Saturday 31 October at 11pm and Wednesday 10 November at 2:20am on M-Net as part of the channel's Original Movies initiative.

Source: iafrica.com

Cape Town World Cinema Festival brimming with local content

2004-10-31T17:32:00.000Z

Eleven South African feature films are amongst the highlights at this year’s Cape Town World Cinema Festival (CTWCF), which runs from 12-20 November 2004. Because of increased activity in the production industry, Sithengi is in a fortunate position to screen a lot more South African titles.

They include:

Drum
Red Dust
In my Country
Forgiveness
Zulu Love Letter
Boy called Twist
Cape of Good Hope
Gums & Noses
Max & Mona
Yesterday
Story of an African farm

Cape of Good Hope

2004-10-31T14:43:00.000Z

Cape of Good Hope uses a character driven portrayal of eight socially disparate, yet fatefully intertwined people to subtly portray generosity and joy, as well as the underlying racial and cultural prejudices that permeate all aspects of life in the Cape.

Boy called Twist

2004-10-31T14:42:00.000Z

Boy called Twist is the entrepreneurial filmmaker Tim Greene’s first feature film. The film captures the seedy individuals that survive on the streets of Cape Town as it shadows the timeless Dickens classic Oliver Twist.

The movie traces Twist’s journey from rural Swartland to the city’s underbelly.

“This is a part of Cape Town wholly omitted from glossy postcards and coffee-table books. It’s under freeways, next to railroad yards, spilling out of the City Bowl into the slum sprawl of Woodstock,” Greene said.

The film will debut at the Cape Town World Cinema Festival next month.

“Boy called Twist is just such a lovely story. And Tim Greene’s determination and entrepreneurial skills to get the money for the film were amazing,” said film festival manager, Jacky Lourens.

Greene, who directed SABC1 drama series Tsha Tsha, put the script on the Internet in 2002 and asked for R1000 pledges from the public. He also brandished a cardboard poster on street corners “begging” for funding.

Film Afrika boss David Wicht, who produced soon-to-be released Country of My Skull, starring Samuel L Jackson and Juliette Binoche, reached into his pocket for the movie. “In the absence of traditional funding, we as filmmakers need to resort to guerilla tactics, and this is about as innovative as it gets,” he said. “Tim is an excellent filmmaker, so I have high hopes,” he said.

The movie’s SA cast include Isidingo’s Kim Engelbrecht (Lolly) and Leslie Fong (Slu), Moodphase 5ive lead singer Ernestine Deane, and veteran actress Trix Pienaar, with newcomer 14-year-old Jarrid Geduld starring as Twist.

Although the actors were paid a reduced fee – calling the project “a labour of love” – Geduld has bought a cellphone and a pair of boots, and is saving the rest of his earnings to study.

Greene was also supported by the Arts and Culture Trust, the Spier Arts Trust, the National Film and Video Foundation and winemaker Graham Beck.

Source: AllAfrica.com

London film fest bangs the Drum

2004-10-26T17:37:00.000+01:00

With a wealth of films on offer at the LFF, we very nearly tore ourselves in several parts trying to get to all of them, but finally settled on staying in one piece and attending South African film Drum, from director Zola Maseko and starring Taye Diggs and Jason Flemyng.

Flemyng himself was in attendance, so we asked him to tell us a little about the film and his involvement in it.

"It’s set at the time of the clearances in South Africa, in Sophiatown, which was a borough of Johannesburg. There was a magazine called Drum, which was like the mouthpiece of the ANC during the 50s and 60s, and was kind of ignored by the government at the time. I play Jim Bailey, the guy who owns the newspaper. It's about what happened to the journalists of that newspaper at that time, and the very first beginnings of Mandela' rise to prominence."

The film shot on location in South Africa, which meant that Flemyng's gangster movie past came in handy. "It's not unlike South London but it's certainly a place that I'll never forget."

Stokvel gets Emmy nomination

2004-10-26T17:33:00.000+01:00

Penguin films, is among two African television productions outfits nominated for special prizes during the prestigious 6th International Emmy Awards Gala to be held on November 22 in New York.

South Africa's Stokvel, by Penguin Films, was nominated in the comedy category, and will compete for the award against Germany's Berlin, Berlin. The South African film is set in a community-run savings scheme and revolves around the regular meetings that decide which project will get funding.

The programme received two nominations from the international panel of judges, the highest number ever for a South African film in the awards.

Nation TV Cameraman George Bwana, who captured the heart-wrenching images on film.

The nomination for Stokvel was collected by Ms Jackie Motsepe, of the South African National Film & Video Foundation.

A total of 28 TV programmes were picked in seven categories for the awards.

Call for Proposals for a 10/15 Minute Documentary Film

2004-10-22T20:20:00.000+01:00

Out in Africa South African Gay & Lesbian Film Festival is making a call for proposals for 10 to 15 minute documentary films.

The call is open to those who have some filmmaking experience, but who may not have yet had the opportunity to make a film.

An 18 day workshop in Johannesburg, under the direction of British Filmmaker, Rikki Beadle Blair, will run from Saturday 26th February to Monday 14th March 2005. The workshop includes script development, pre-production, the shoot and editing (to final mix). Between four and six people will be selected, on the basis of their proposal, to attend the workshop and make their film. Those who are selected for this incredible opportunity must be available for the duration.

We require a 1 page Synopsis and 2 page Treatment for a Queer film with one of the following themes:

Stories of Liberation
Undocumented South African History
A Slice of South African Life
The deadline for entries is: Tuesday 30th November.
All applicants will be informed of the final selection by Friday 9th January 2005.

The finished films will be screened at the 2005 Out in Africa Film Festival in Johannesburg and Cape Town and will be included in the Video Suitcase, for use at various Satellite Festivals around the country.

Please visit the website www.oia.co.za for the Application Form, fill it in and email it, with the Synopsis and Treatment, to:

Sharon Jackson at sharon@oia.co.za
Out in Africa South Africa Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

Commonwealth Film Festival 2005 Call For Submissions

2004-10-22T20:04:00.000+01:00

Now in its fourth year, the Commonwealth Film Festival will take place April 29th - May 8th 2005 in Manchester, England, as a non-competitive showcase for over 200 features, shorts and documentaries from the 72 nations of the Commonwealth.

SUBMISSIONS DEADLINE: 31st December 2004
NO ENTRY FEE

Basotho hero finally comes to life on screen

2004-10-21T19:14:00.000+01:00

The premiere on South African TV last night of a documentary film on Moshoeshoe, the king who built the Basotho nation, honours the 19th-century hero as SA’s “first Mandela”, says University of the Free State rector and vicechancellor Prof Frederick Fourie.

The documentary has its origins in a conversation between Fourie and South African authorpoet Antjie Krog last April.

“We were discussing history and heroes and she (Krog) said: You have got to honour Moshoeshoe’,” Fourie says.

That comment spurred Fourie to head for the library and fuelled his discussions with historians who told him more about the Basotho king.

“It dawned upon us that he was our first Mandela, our first nation-builder and reconciliator. He is an important symbol, especially now that we must build a new society from a very fractured one,” he says.

Veteran journalist Max du Preez, who has done about six years of research on Moshoeshoe, had given up hope of making a film on the African statesman.

“No one wanted it. The SABC said no, (M-Net’s) KykNet wasn’t interested,” Du Preez says.

But Krog told Fourie of Du Preez’s dream. The professor contacted the journalist and the film was eventually made.

“I wanted to make a film because I recognise how powerful television is and I am a bit obsessed with popularising history,” says Du Preez. “I thought Moshoeshoe was too spectacular to hide in a book and I wanted to jolt South Africans into saying: My God, we forgot this great man in our past’.”

The film, The Renaissance King, tells Moshoeshoe’s remarkable story and links his philosophy of inclusivity and democracy with the aims of President Thabo Mbeki’s African Renaissance.

“He stabilised SA at a time of great upheaval,” says Du Preez. “There was massive famine and tens of thousands of people died during the Mfecane. Only one guy said: I am going to stop this.’ No one can imagine what the effect would have been if the Mfecane went on for another 20 years.”

The king united thousands of people from various tribes and nations, which were scattered during the Mfecane, a time of upheaval characterised by violence and plundering against the Sotho people by invading Nguni clans.

The united people eventually formed the Basotho nation.

Moshoeshoe moved to Thaba Bosiu in modern-day Lesotho, and gained a reputation as a wise leader who was compassionate towards those he defeated.

This, and his successful defence of his people, resulted in many people flocking to Thaba Bosiu for protection.

“He is one of the easiest people in our past that we can all identify with. Anyone can stand up and say: I’m so thankful for this guy’,” Du Preez says.

A cameo appearance by Du Preez’s great-great grandfather, former South African statesman Paul Kruger, in Moshoeshoe’s life simply added to the fascination he has had for the king since his childhood in Free State.

Kruger, who was not yet president of the Transvaal Republic, met Moshoeshoe as a negotiator for the Republic of the Orange Free State. On the second day of negotiations Kruger remonstrated with the Basotho King for arriving late for talks and asked why he came in a loincloth.

“He towered over Kruger, looked him in the eye and said: Because I am Moshoeshoe.’ I think that is so powerful,” Du Preez says.

Fourie said that yesterday’s premiere was “phase one” of his intention to deliver the message of Moshoeshoe’s reconciliatory role to SA and the world.

“It’s part of a general transformation (of the Free State campus and society),” the Free State professor says. “Many people count faces, black and white, but I see it as a more fundamental thing.

“The way people view history shapes the way they view the world. Moshoeshoe is a good icon,” says Fourie, who dreams of erecting a statue of the king on campus, next to the one of former Free State president MP Steyn .

“My biggest goal is to create a shared sense of history,” says Fourie, whose idea of an annual memorial Moshoeshoe lecture on African leadership is also awaiting for formal approval from university officials.

SABC 2 will screen The Renaissance King on November 4.

Source: AllAfrica.com

ET to star in another documentary

2004-10-21T19:06:00.000+01:00

Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging leader Eugene Terre’Blanche will be the star of a new documentary.

Terre’Blanche, who makes a living through public speaking, will also release an anthology of his poetry next year.

“I am without a doubt an Afrikaner with only one language. My mother’s language. And that is the beauty of this piece of land where God put us – which screams for us to write about it and handle it with love…’’

Terre’Blanche and his wife Martie, were guests of honour at a function in Pretoria where 11.3% Motion Pictures (Pty) Ltd announced its decision to make a documentary about him and his poetry.

Filming of the documentary started on Saturday on Terre’Blanche’s farm, Witrandjiesfontein, outside Ventersdorp. The documentary will also be filmed in Clarens in the Free State and in the Maluti mountains.

“This is the start of project Eugene Terre’Blanche,’’ said Dr Pieter Neethling, the director of the company.

He said the documentary and poetry would be followed by recordings of Terre’Blanche reciting works by Eugene Marais, CJ Langenhoven and AG Visser.

His anthology will be from works written mostly during his four years in Rooigrond prison.

Terre’Blanche said he was delighted at the opportunity to not only put his poetry on paper but also that it will be shown to the world.

“I try to write for my people. My folk. I try to understand them…”

Source: News24.com

Deputy President calls for moral Movies & TV

2004-10-21T18:58:00.000+01:00

The Deputy President Jakob Zuma has called for moral regeneration and for Christians to take the lead in this.

He was speaking at the inaugural Desmond Tutu Peace Lecture instituted by the Western Cape Province Council of Churches.

Zuma's call for opposition to moral degeneration came as his name was frequently mentioned in the Durban High Court trial of his close friend Schabir Shaik, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption involving the arms deal.

On Tuesday, a former secretary of French arms company Thint testified about a coded fax in which the company was allegedly asked to pay a bribe to Zuma.

But during his speech, Zuma appeared relaxed and self-assured, intensely concerned with the subject of his lecture.

He blasted material such as photographs of nudity and violence in the print media and violence and open sex in television programmes and said that South Africans could not expect their children not to act violently or immorally if this sort of material entered their homes every day.

"The excuse people give is that such and such a film has an age restriction. This is more of an invitation for children to try and watch it without their parents knowing," he said.

"People can call me a backward politician and out of touch with today, I don't mind.

SA surf film wins US prize

2004-10-21T18:51:00.000+01:00

A romantic comedy about an East Indian girl who becomes a surfer in Durban, has won South African-born writer director Eubulus Timothy the Hartley-Merrill National Screenwriting Prize 2004, for his screenplay for the film.

'Surf and Bhoondi' tells how a young Indian girl has to overcome family pressure and fight racism at the hands of white surfers in order to ride the waves. Set in South Africa, the film deals with issues of change within the one-million-strong Indian community and their relationship with other communities.

It also looks at the bond between father and daughter and how that has also changed for modern Indian families. In public the father is puts on the face of a modern liberal man in the new South Africa, while at home he struggles to maintain his orthodox values.

Timothy, who wrote and directed 'Bridging The Gap', the first ever-live television broadcast from Robben Island, was the founding chairman of the Cape Film Commission and has directed for the stage, television and film.

The Hartley-Merrill Screenwriting Prize is celebrating its 15th year supporting screenwriters from around the world and fostering interaction between international writers. Ted Hartley, head of RKO Pictures and his actress wife, Dina Merrill, founded it. Other founding members include Lord Putham and Robert Redford.

The prize was presented at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood.