Here's Father Geek in Austin, Texas with another great report from Dr. SOTHA and Rigobert Song for this week's Africa-AICN column...
DR.SOTHA back from another grueling session in the labs. Nurse Hollis found
a genuine 4 foot Alaskan cockroach in the cranial workshop. I of-course
took this as a sign to inject the creature with nitro-acid and gasoline,
which of-course caused the creature to become aggressive and hostile. After
this we set the creature loose in the phobia wards, which resulted in
patients (permanently or otherwise) cured from their respective fears. One
good deed a day, goes a long way.
For diagrams and j-peg files of the Alaskan cockroach e-mail us at
africaaicn@hotmail.com
Hollis, 'that' ain't no roach.
SOUTH AFRICA
For diagrams and j-peg files of the Alaskan cockroach e-mail us at
africaaicn@hotmail.com
Hollis, 'that' ain't no roach.
SOUTH AFRICA
SOUTH AFRICA
* Just an opener from me DR.SOTHA.I think this is a fantastic article on the phenomenon of Big Brother around the world, I do however disagree with a few things. Firstly, I think at some point the contestants forget that the cameras are there after a few days, weeks or months, which lends (eventually) to a 'realistic' portrayal of personalities in the house. Secondly, sex always sells, and if the contestants decide to do it, than that is their own strategic or moral choice. As a viewer do we care which? I'm thinking no.
Taken from www.artslink.co.za: There's no escaping it - Big Brother has annexed our consciousness, both sub and otherwise. True confessions: I don't have M-Net. I'm decoder-and-dish-free. But there's still no escaping Big Brother, a look at contestants trapped for 106 days in a house. They have to carry out specific tasks, be eliminated by public voting, a process that will produce a lone survivor who'll win a million rands. What does one call this kind of project? Not a series because it's on air 24 hours a day, nor, strictly speaking, a TV programme because it extends beyond the technological barriers of TV into print and the Internet. Or a reality show, because it's got zilch to do with reality - these contestants are set-up in an unnatural situation. In a way, they're held hostage in amicable surroundings: there aren't guy with guns fighting a political cause waiting outside the walls of the specially built house. Sure, the contestants are spied upon, 24 hours a day, but they know the cameras are there.
Reality would be, as a friend pointed out, drilling a hole in a wall dividing you from your neighbours and spying on them without their knowing. Then we might be truly astounded at what people get up to in their off-guarded hours. So when a newspaper asked whether we gave a damn about Big Brother, my reaction was similar to Rhett Butler's in Gone With The Wind: frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. But Big Brother was ubiquitous. Normally sane friends stopped watching movies and regular TV and became steadfast voyeurs, watching the drama unfold in the house. It annexed their conversation.
It was front-page news, and became a kind of meta-story in print. Look at the contestants, there they are in a neat row of rainbow faces, spruced up in a yuppie way for their 106 days of fame. Their star signs have been published, their personalities summed up along with comments from friends and family. Psychologists have been quoted for scientific perspective. We're also on first name terms with them. Hi, meet Irvan, he's a bit effeminate, is he, snigger, perhaps gay? And Margaret the extrovert, and Riaad who Nina thinks, ugh, is bored. You gotta have fun in this place, fit in.
There's even our own JR, the Bad Brad who might have what was once described as a shady past but who does wonders for the show. Without him, things would get pretty boring, and - hey, they'd even a have a dog if he hadn't cruelly nixed the suggestion, then did a cool bit of public breast-beating. He apparently even told one of the babes to take her top off before getting in the Jacuzzi . He's that kind of guy. He makes headlines. Why watch? My once sane friend suggests he's watching "a work of fiction in progress". Interesting idea. The set-up has put a drama in motion, and the frames of reference in newspapers and magazines has been soapies, dividing the characters into good, bad and indifferent, breathlessly reporting their doings as major news. And that's probably why we watch: we'd like to think that left alone, people would turn to melodrama as a means of expression. We can expect personal and emotional breakdowns, intrigues, fireworks. This doesn't say much for journalism, though.
For me, the drama, at the moment, works on the level of office politics with everyone doing a bit of backbiting while more or less getting along on the surface. There is also process of self-analysis among viewers - or should that be voyeurs? They've chosen to identify with certain contestants, and to reject others. These decisions involve a self-projection and a psychoanalysis of one's personal likes and dislikes, conducted through the willing participants under scrutiny. Who you like in the house says something about the kind of person you are, about what you expect as a behavioural norm. They're surrogates for our likes and dislikes. However, you are looking at a unpredictable script. Bad Brad, for example, can be voted out, and then who'll be the meanie? The process of elimination basically reduces everyone to their undesirability, to their annoying traits, to that kind of hard-feeling power in this cliché Darwinian structure that will allow only one, the fittest, to survive and win. We can watch and gloat.
The script will be fully written when the 106 days are over. The British director Mike Leigh does something similar with actors when workshopping a film: the script's only written after the film's completed, after the ad-libbing, the personal exploration of the subject, has been absorbed. I don't know if the contestants are exploring anything, except their own psyches - basically we're looking at people prepared to sell their privacy, themselves warts and all, for a million rands. And that presumably means nude pictures and sex too, if it's not censored, in which case, reality TV and Big Brother's a misnomer. And when the show's over, it's back to ordinary life for them, not another production.
The idea of Big Bother's scary in itself. In George Orwells' famous novel, 1984, Big Brother was a technological device that monitored what we did all the time. It became a symbol of authoritarian repression, of a society that wasn't democratic, that wasn't free. And here we can gaily join the Big Brother community on the Internet, can spy, in an ironic reversal, on others, can put ourselves in the role of oppressor, of.well, Big Brother, and decide the fate of the contestants. I don't know how I feel about this. But Big Brother is really post-TV, in the sense that television's not an important part of the project. The life it has beyond television is. The script has been set in motion, the narrative, but the developing story's told in fragmented form. You can't watch everyone 24 hours of the time. So the daily reports in the newspapers are important for those without access to pay channels or the Internet. The story's also carried electronically as it develops, on SMS via cellphones, through daily and weekly e-mail letters, through the log-on community - I succumbed, I'm now a member - and through words, competitions and promotions from the sponsors.
This is a major consumerist drive, and Big Brother's probably the ideal medium for this kind of society. I guess we're all nosy, curious, and would like to know what happens next door. Technological consumerism's alienating: we're in rooms with PC's, can do our banking, our buying, our work, everything, from digital equipment on a table that's become our immediate, our real, geography. I guess to connect to others in this kind of society, post-everything, you have to do it on a monitor or a small screen. That's life, these days.
* Cape Town-based Triggerfish Animation has received four nominations from the Chicago International Children's Film Festival (CICFF), now in its 18th year. Triggerfish specialises in stop-frame animation and has given the nominated work, which is made from wire, recycled tin and carved wood, a distinctly African feel.
* Since the announcement of the first artist - Cape Verdian barefoot diva Cesaria Evora - to perform at South Africa's third Womad festival, the artist list has been growing. The line-up now includes: Ismael Lo (Senegal); Pato Banton (UK); Yungchen Lhamo (Tibet); Blk Sonshine (SA); Cheikh Lô(Senegal); David Cox (UK); Mondetta (SA); Azanin Ahmad(Malaysia); Asian Dub Foundation (UK); Stanley Jordan (USA); Themba Mkhize (SA); Don Laka (SA); Paul Hanmer (SA); and Johnny Clegg Unplugged (SA). Womad takes place at the Bluegum Creek Estate in Benoni from 28 to 30 September.
* A diverse line-up of movie titles, plus a variety of allied events, makes the programme of Apollo Theatre's first independent film festival a tempting reason to travel to Victoria West. Here is the program:
Wednesday 26th September; 10.00: Christmas with Granny. Dumisani Phakathi. 1999. 26 mins -- Die Besoeker. Ross Devenish. 90 mins -- 14.30: Paljas. Katinka Heyns.1997. 125 mins -- 20.00: Portrait of a Young Man Drowning. Teboho Mahlatsi. 11 mins. -- The Guguletu Seven. Lindy Wilson. 105 mins
Thursday 27th September; 10.00: An Old Wife's Tale. Dumisani Phakathi.1998. 26 mins -- Mamza. Johan Blignaut. 1985. 96 mins. -- 14.00: Marigolds in August. Ross Devenish. 87 mins -- Home Sweet Home. Norman Maake. 2000. 35 mins -- 19.30: Fiela's Child. Katinka Heyns. 1987. 105 mins
Friday 28th September; 10.00: Boesman and Lena. Ros Devenish. 1973. 102 mins -- 14.00: Angel. Barry Berk. 1997. 26mins -- Chikin Biznis - The Whole Story. -- Ntshaveni Wa Luruli. 1999. 96 mins -- 19. 30: Scorched Earth. Herman Binge. 107 mins
Saturday 29th September; 10.00: Tojan. Johan Blignaut. 1986. 78 mins -- The Great Dance: A Hunter's Story. Craig & Damon Foster. 77 mins -- 14.30: Pure Blood. Ken Kaplan. 2001. 96 mins -- 17.00: The Furiosus. Liza Key. 52 mins -- 18.00: Official festival opening. Cocktails --19.30: Street party
Sunday 30th September;11.00: The Sexy Girls. Russell Thompson. 1999. 96 mins -- 14.30: Jobman. Darrell James Roodt. 1989. 97 mins -- 17.00: God is African. Akin Omotoso. 2001. 100 mins -- 20.00: Independent films
Monday 1st October; 11.00: Independent film discussions. Speaker: Professor Paul Cilliers. -- 14.00: Paljas. Katinka Heyns. 1997. 125 mins -- 17.00: Die Besoeker. Ross Devenish. 1977. 90 mins -- 20.00: Independent films
Tuesday 2nd October; 1100: Independent film discussions. Speaker: Mike Dearham The Battle of the Image -- 1400: Tojan. Johan Blignaut. 1986. 78 mins -- 1700: Boesman and Lena. Ross Devenish. 1973. 102 mins -- 2000: Independent films
Wednesday 3rd October; 11.00: Independent film discussions. Speaker: Joe Manong. Being black in Hollywood -- 14.00: Fiela's Child. 105 mins -- 17.00: Marigolds in August. Ross Devenish. 1979. 87 mins -- 20.00: Independent films
Thursday 4th October; 11.00: Independent film discussions. Speaker: to be announced -- 14.00: Nice to Meet You, Please Don't Rape Me. Ian Kerkhof. 1995. 78 mins -- 17.00: Wasted. Ian Kerkhof. 1996. 100 mins -- 20.00: Independent films
Friday 5th October; 1100: Independent film discussions. Speaker: Helena Nogueira. -- The Making of 'Ingrid Jonker: Her Lives and Time'. -- 1400: Mamza. Johan Blignaut. 1985. 96 mins. --1700: Jobman. Darrell James Roodt. 1989. 97 mins -- 2000: Ingrid Jonker: Her Lives and Time - The Director's Cut. Helena Nogueira. 110 mins.
Saturday 6th October; 10.00: Independent film awards: selected showings -- 14.00: Independent film awards: selected showings -- 18.00: Awards ceremony. Cocktails -- 20.00: Closing dinner and party in town hall. Announcement of M-Net's New Direction winners for 2001
* Laugh it up with the South African Box Office: The Tim Burton remake (that's re-imagination, geez - DR.SOTHA), Planet of the Apes (Mark Wahlberg / Helena Bonham-Carter), has knocked Bridget Jones' Diary from the number one spot at the South African box office. In its first week of release, "Apes" made R2 762 860 (about the price of a super sized big-mac meal in North America - DR.SOTHA) Following on in third and fourth places are Swordfish and Down To Earth. Shrek proves its staying power by remaining at number five, after 10 weeks on circuit, having amassed a cool R14 598 487.
NORTH AFRICA
* Rigobert Song in another giant review:
Hello readers and what a 'homecoming' I have for you today. A touching, often profound meditation on black farmers - the seemingly extinct species that continue to defy racist laws in North America. Remember to e-mail me at rigobertsong@hotmail.com with your African film thoughts.
HOMECOMING - Produced & Directed by Charlene Gilbert -- 56 minutes -- Funded by: ITVS Closed Captioned
Homecoming is the first film to explore the rural roots of African American life. It chronicles the generation-old struggle of African Americans for land of their own which pitted them against both the Southern white power structure and the federal agencies responsible for helping them. Director Charlene Gilbert weaves this history together with a fond portrait of her own Georgia farming family into what she calls, "A story of land and love."
Like so much African American history, the Black farmers' story is one of perseverance in the face of prejudice and perjured promises. As part of radical Reconstruction, Congress allotted 45 million acres of land to former slaves but he rapid reimposition of white supremacy meant that little land was ever actually distributed. Despite formidable obstacles, one million African Americans, mostly former sharecroppers, managed to purchase over 15,000,000 acres of land by 1910.
This achievement was threatened by the agricultural crisis of the '20s and '30s which led to a raft of farm foreclosures and, eventually, to the system of federal farm loans and subsidies on which all farmers depend today. But the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture was a white man's club, often working hand in glove with local bankers and big landowners to dispossess Black farmers of their land. For example, during the '30s the Southern Tenant Farmers Union had to force the Farm Security Administration to include African American farmers in their tenant purchase program. It was through this program that the filmmaker's grandfather purchased his land, the farm her cousin now owns. Black farmers are currently suing the U.S.D.A. successfully for discriminatory loan practices over the last three decades. As a result of these policies, there are only 18,000 Black farmers left in America and it is predicted there will be none in the next century.
Homecoming, is also a mediation on the unfinished work of redeeming the land African Americans worked as slaves for hundreds of years. August Wilson asserts that African Americans are a rural people who after the Great Migration found themselves in an alien urban milieu. This film argues that Black farms, though small in number today, can continue to provide African Americans with a sense of cultural stability and family unity in the 1990s. In a country which has never tried to make African Americans feel at home, this film, like the farming families it celebrates, offers a real "homecoming."
* The producers of the 9th Annual African-Diaspora Film Festival (ADFF) have announced that actress/filmmaker Sheryl Lee Ralph will be one of the highlights of the 17-day event. Ralph made her film debut in 1977's Piece of the Action (Sydney Poitier / Bill Cosby) and is also a singer, dancer, writer and director. ADFF was created in 1993 and each year highlights more than 50 featured films and their filmmakers from all over the world, to depict the diversity and richness of the global Black experience. TheADFF will be held from 23 November to 9 December. For more info visit: www.nyadff.org.
AFRICAN AMERICAN
Rod Dreher, the former lead film critic of the New York Post, who now writes a conservative opinion column for the newspaper, has told the New York Observer that since his Aug. 31 column criticizing the elaborate funeral for singer/actress Aaliyah appeared, his phone has been flooded with angry, threatening complainers, virtually all of them calling him a racist. He subsequently recorded this message on his office answering machine: "If you're calling about the Aaliyah column, press 1 to leave a death threat. Press 2 to leave a bomb threat. Press 3 if you want to get me fired. Press 4 if you wish to use profanity. Press 5 if you wish to use racist rhetoric. Press 6 if you want to use anti-Semitic slurs. And please remember to speak as grammatically as you can." The Observer reported that the Post took the threats seriously enough to beef up security at its newsroom and offices. Dreher told the newspaper that his column was "about celebrity worship, not black celebrity or anything like that."
* Warner Bros. has denied last week's New York Post report that the studio had planned to release the Aaliyah starrer Queen of the Damned straight to video and now had second thoughts about that decision in the wake of the enormous news play that the actress-singer's death in a plane crash received. "We had always planned to release the film theatrically in 2002," a spokesperson for the studio said Tuesday. She also dismissed as "absurd" another claim appearing in the Post, that the studio was planning to redub Aaliyah's dialogue with the voice of another actress.
* Jack Nicholson and Julie Andrews are among the winners of this year's Kennedy Center Honors, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced Wednesday. Other winners include pianist Van Cliburn, composer/conductor QUINCY JONES, and opera singer Luciano Pavarotti. The awards honor "the unique and extremely valuable contributions" the winners have made to the nation's culture. In announcing this year's selections, Kennedy Center Chairman James A. Johnson described Nicholson as "one of the most brilliant and celebrated film actors of our age" and Andrews as "a beloved actress whose performances in films and the musical theater are treasured by millions of Americans." The awards are scheduled to be presented on Dec. 2 at ceremonies that are expected to be attended by President and Mrs. Bush. They are scheduled to be televised by CBS later during that month.
