Father Geek here with a late, but COOOOOOOOOL none-the-less edition of Dr. SOTHA's Africa-AICN column. Seems he was having some E-mail server problems. The same bug hit Darius25, you may have noticed NO Asia-AICN on Thursday, he'll double up his report next Thursday for you. Well, SOTHA, Rigobert Song, etc... finally got thru to Geek Headquarters with the following... Read and Enjoy...

DR.SOTHA emerging from the dark cavernous lab, after watching 24 hours of South Africa’s Big Brother. My God, I am an unrepentant voyeur. Who is the evil, nefarious mastermind who unleashed this brain-numbing phenomenon on the world. I’d like to dissect his brain with a lubricant enhanced pair of scalpels and a florescent pair of gloves, while eating a hot plate of Indian fried rice.

Send me your anecdotal out-of-body Big Brother experiences to africaaicn@hotmail.com and I’ll get to the bottom of this.

Nurse Hollis, showering nude in front of a ravenous television and internet audience, is ‘not’ my idea of a good time..

SOUTH AFRICA

* Cape Town-based production house, Film Afrika, has put its weight behind the production of ‘Promised Land’. This is the first professionally made, full-budget South African feature film to be made via deferrals and will be the first feature in the country to be shot on high definition 24p. Everyone involved in the film will invest their resources, skills and time in getting the film financed and made. Film Afrika has raised the cash portion of the budget from local investors to cover consumables. Producer David Wicht believes that digital technology is the ideal format for locally produced films. "I believe that South Africa could become a world leader in digital production," he says. Writer / director Jason Xenopoulos will begin shooting Promised Land in September. The feature will be f! inished digitally before being transferred to film and is expected to be ready in time for Sundance and Cannes next year.

* Fifty-six documentaries and feature films will be shown as part of the cultural programme in the run up to, and during, the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Durban will host the Film Festival Against Racism from 29-31 August and September 2-7. Film themes cover issues such as globalisation, poverty, media representation, environmental racism, debts, reparations, and landlessness. Invited filmmakers and panelists include: Ethiopian-born, American-based Professor Heile Gerima; South African veteran filmmaker Dr. Lionel Ngakane; Senegalese film guru, Ousmane Sembene who will have a panel discussion Akin Omotoso, who's much awaited God is African will be premiered at the festival; South Africans Zola Maseko and Ingrid Gavshon. Through the 'Teaching Screens' outreach programme, selected films will also be exhibited at universities and schools in and around Durban. For more info contact Holtsea@iafrica.com

* Believe it or not some good news about South African film goers: In a survey recently conducted by CineMARK, cinema attendance has increased by as much as 10.1%, with attendances peaking at 2 434 345 in July 2001, against July 2000's figure of 2 210 164. Cinema attendance has gradually increased during the past six months but the July figures are extremely exciting for CineMARK, advertising contractor for both Ster-Kinekor and Nu Metro Theatres. "The steady increase in audience attendance reiterates marketers needs to maximise on their cinema advertising campaigns," comments CineMARK CEO, Trevor Ormerod.

* Platypus Productions of Cape Town has created a DVD label aimed at giving African producers and distributors affordable access to the rapidly expanding DVD market. Called Mosaic, the label will consist of selected programmes which will be authored to the DVD format in South Africa by Platypus Productions and sold through international distribution partners in the US, UK, France, Australia, Germany, Japan, South Africa and tertiary markets. Programmes will be grouped into product lines by subject, ranging from themes such as wildlife, travel, anthropology, and music; to feature films and social or historical documentary. The first title to be released is the award-winning documentary, The Great Dance - A Hunter's Story.

* Get ready to bust a gut with the South African Box Office: The Renee Zellwegger / Hugh Grant / Colin Firth romantic comedy, Bridget Jones Diary, continues to hold pole position at the South African box office. It is followed by Swordfish, new entry Thirteen Days (Kevin Costner) and another new entry, Down To Earth (Chris Rock). Longtime stayer, Shrek, is at number 5. (Has Thirteen Days premiered in North America yet? Yeah right - DR.SOTHA)

* This year, for the first time, Sithengi, in collaboration with the South African Scriptwriters Association (SASWA) held successful Pitch Training Workshops in Cape Town (95 participants) and Johannesburg (60 participants). After the workshops, four pitching sessions were set up where participants had to put their pitching skills to the test before a panel of producers. This process strengthens feasibility of projects for pitching at the Sithengi Pitching Forum in November. The Cape Town panel included Chris Roland, Jeremy Nathan, Steven Markovitz, Stanley Edwards and Sithengi's Michael Auret. The Johannesburg panel included Joel Phiri, Kobus Botha, Ingrid Gavshon, Jane Lipman and Brent Quinn. In Cape Town, 13 projects out of 24 pitched received interest at the first pitching session. At ! the second session, only three out of 17 generated interest. Meanwhile in Johannesburg, 20 projects were pitched, of which nine received interest. The second pitching session takes place on 2nd September.

NORTH AFRICA

* Rigobert Song for your pleasure:

Hello readers and welcome to another wonderful documentary about the African-American experience, ‘For My People - The Life and Writing of Margaret Walker’, which is powerful, important and life-affirming - and it’s only 28 minutes. Before I get on with the review, remember to e-mail me at rigobertsong@hotmail.com with your comments on African film.

"For My People... The Life and Writing of Margaret Walker"

Produced & Directed by Judith McCray - Narrated by Ruby Dee - 28 minutes

"For my people everywhere Singing their slave songs repeatedly Their dirges and ditties Their blues and jubilees..."

For My People: The Life and Writing of Margaret Walker gives the long-overdue recognition to one of the seminal figures of American literature. Margaret Walker has been described by scholar Jerry Ward as "a national treasure" and by Nikki Giovanni as the "most famous person nobody knows." Her signature poem, For My People, written when she was 22, set a tone and a level of commitment which African American literature has been responding to ever since. For My People combines conversations with Margaret Walker, com! mentary from leading scholars and readings from her poetry to make a powerful argument for the centrality of her work to 20th century American literature. At the heart of her poetry are the rhythms of African and African American speech and music - gospel, spiritual, ballads and folktales. In contrast to most contemporary poets, she did not aspire to a "personal" poetry but "to write the songs of my people - to frame their dreams into words, their souls into notes."

Margaret Walker has participated in virtually every significant African American literary movement in this century. Born in Birmingham in 1915, she was deeply influenced by the Harlem Renaissance, receiving personal encouragement from Langston Hughes and W.E.B. Du Bois. During the Depression, she joined Illinois WPA Writers Project and worked alongside Saul Bellow, Studs Terkel, Arna Bontemps and Richard Wright, becoming Wright's close friend and biographer. In 1942, she was the first African American to win the coveted Yale Younger Poets award.

Margaret returned to the South, teaching at Jackson State for forty years and establishing there one of the first Black Studies center in the nation. Her epic novel Jubilee, published in 1966, took 30 years to write; it was based on the life of her own great grandmother and pays tribute to the solidarity of a slave family. During the '60s she was an outspoken political activist and a mentor to a new generation of writers in the Black Arts movement including Nikki Giovanni and Sonia Sanchez. Now this important film makes Margaret Walker's poetry and inspiring presence available to yet another generation of writers ad readers. Poet, teacher, activist, Margaret Walker is someone to who the over-used epithet "role model" can truly be applied.

* Africa in the Picture - The Celebration of African Film will be held from 29 August to 9 September in Amsterdam and three other cities in the Netherlands. More than 100 films from Africa and the African diaspora will be presented at eight different locations in the Netherlands. For the first time Africa in the Picture has been programmed according to theme and geographic location. Also, specific themes have been programmed for people with specific interests. Two of those themes are The Image of Slavery and Madame Africa. The latter programme is open for women only and comprises films that are only directed by women.

* Two exciting new training opportunities have been created for amateur or wannabee wildlife filmmakers. The Wildlife Filmmakers Bush School will be held in the Maasai Mara in Kenya, with places for nine people for 10 days. The time will be spent practising filming in the bush, with personal camcorders and borrowed equipment. There will be a full-time team leader, guides, and local specialists - a professional camera operator (BBC Big Cat Diary), editor etc. For those who wish to do it underwater, the Wildlife Filmmakers Aqua School will take place in the superb diving resort of Pulau Mabul, Sipadan, Malaysia, with places for 10 - 14 people for 12 days. !

* A computer error was being blamed for a split-second flash of an African woman holding a basketball that appeared at at least two points during the season finale of HBO's Six Feet Under last week, the New York Times reported. The shot touched off speculation on the Six Feet Under website about what the subliminal images meant, with many commenting that they were intended to be symbolic. "What a brilliant directing/producing technique!" one fan wrote. HBO, however, told the Times that the images were not inserted intentionally into the movie by the producers of Six Feet Under, and that they apparentl! y came from the movie The Air Up There that had aired on HBO the same day (Geez, it’s not a sin to insert African tribal images, take a stand HBO - DR.SOTHA)

AFRICAN AMERICAN

* Michael Jackson has landed Marlon Brando to appear in a video promoting his latest single, "You Rock My World," according to the London tabloid, The Sun. The newspaper noted that it was not known how much Brando would be paid, although various reports have suggested that between $30 million and $45 million was spent to produce Invincible, the record album containing the single, making it the most expensive album ever released. The video will reportedly also feature Benicio Del Toro and Chris Tucker. According to the New Y! ork Daily News, which cited an industry insider, the video, originally budgeted at $2 million, wound up costing $4 million. (Edgar Allen Poe my ass - DR.SOTHA)

* The national chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, Roy Innis, has come to the defense of suspended Variety editor Peter Bart. In an interview with the online media magazine Inside, Innis indicated that he agreed with remarks made by Bart about blacks that appeared in a Los Angeles Magazine article that led to his suspension. "I find such allegations of his bigotry to be false and absurd," the CORE chairman said in a written statement. "We have lost the meaning of racism in this society because of hypersensitivity and hypocrisy," he added.

* Miracle Pictures has paid mid-six figures to pick up the comedy pitch "Razhel Watkins: Hip Hop Detective" from writing trio Freddie Gutierrez, Wesley Jermaine Johnson and Scott Taylor. Independent producer Nelson George ("CB4") came up with the idea for the project, with the writers developing the story and characters. The pitch tells the story of a low-rent, gadget-carrying, hip-hop detective who attempts to solve the high-profile murder of a notorious white rap star. Miracle's Jason Zelin is producing "Detective" along with George, Melissa Maxwell and Kathryn Arnold. Miracle's Tony Cataldo, Patrick Aluise and Finley Glaize also are producing.

* Only weeks before the scheduled release of HARDBALL, the director was forced to remove more than 20 uses "of a certain curse word" so that the film could be released with a PG rating instead of an R, the Los Angeles Times reported. Until that time, Paramount had adamantly maintained that it would make no cuts in the film, which concerns a Chicago Little League team in which the members spout four-letter words. Reportedly based on an actual team, Hardball had earned the ire of the team's coach, who denied that the members used foul (no pun intended) language. He also accused the studio of perpetuating racial stereotypes of black children. Director Brian! Robbins told the Times that he feels "OK about the new version." However, he added, "We discussed the ratings issue before we made the film, and I just wish this could have been decided back then, instead of at the last minute."

* If you don’t feel nauseas after reading this report, than go back to hell, do not pass go, and do not collect $200. The death of soul star Aaliyah will save her movie Queen Of The Damned from going straight to video. The vampire flick is in post-production and is described as "unwatchable." Warner Bros pushed the release date back to 2002, and website E! Online reports that the movie was going straight to video instead of cinemas. Aaliyah's death could mean the film will appear in cinemas after all. And though Aaliyah will appear as a vampire queen, somebody else will be talking for her. The day after her plane went down , Aaliyah was due to fly to Los Angeles to loop her dialogue with New York speech therapist Sam Chwat, ! who was helping her with an Egyptian accent. A spokesman for the film studio says, "It was always on the theatrical schedule. We haven't determined the tragedy's impact on production."

* Lewis Black is taking his brand of black humor into the domestic comedy arena. Black, a regular on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," has signed a development deal with Castle Rock Television. Castle Rock TV president Glenn Padnick said he aims to develop a family sitcom around Black so that "he can complain on behalf of all of us." Padnick described the project as "an angry version of 'The Cosby Show.' " Black is just starting to meet with prospective writers for the project.

* The question facing Lions Gate Films as it prepares to release "O" on 1,434 screens nationwide today is whether the marketing push behind the picture has managed to dispel the cloud of controversy that kept the project shelved for more than two years. Following the Federal Trade Commission's report on Hollywood's marketing practices to teens, tackling an R-rated film that carries the stigma of a long-delayed release and the perception that it contains graphic sequences of teen violence would seem daunting. But Lions Gate Films Releasing president Tom Ortenberg downplayed the controversy associated with "O." While the film does revolve around high school students confronted with racism and violence, Ortenberg said it handles its subject matter with great care. "The picture deals with school violence," ! he said. "I don't think that in and of itself should be controversial. I think the film has a strong anti-violence message. It offers a pretty good critique of school violence and does so in an extremely entertaining yet responsible fashion."

* James Brolin has been cast opposite Dana Carvey in Revolution Studios' "Master of Disguise" for first-time helmer Perry Andelin Blake. Production begins Sept. 24. The project is about a man who finds out that his family members have been world-renowned masters of disguise for 2,000 years. He quickly must learn his heritage from his grandfather and rescue his parents from an evil black marketer. Brolin will play Fabbrizio, the man's father who was once Europe's greatest master of disguise.

* British actor Jason Statham first starring role in a Hollywood film has ended in humiliation - after he was replaced by rapper Ice Cube.The Snatch star had been hoping to "do a Vinnie Jones " by making the jump from Guy Ritchie's gangster movies to stardom in Tinseltown. Statham was sure he had got the big break he needed when he was sent a script by director John Carpenter. The movie-maker - best known for lensing Halloween and Escape From New York - wanted Statham to play the lead role! in his new sci-fi horror pic, Ghosts Of Mars. Jason was set to feature as heroic James "Desolation" Williams, in the big budget chiller opposite sex symbol Natasha Henstridge. But just as cameras were ready to roll, studio bosses financing the film got cold feet and decided that Statham wasn't a big enough star to top the billing and ensure good box office returns. They re-cast the lead role to Ice Cube and relegated Statham to a much smaller part as sidekick cop Jericho Butler. Jason said, "John Carpenter saw me in Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and set up a meeting. He wanted me to play the prisoner the cops have to transport in Ghosts of Mars, but the studio insisted he cast a higher-profile actor."

DR.SOTHA REVO & OUT