Well, Father Geek's a little early posting the normally Friday morning Africa-AICN column from Dr. SOTHA. You see tonight is the start of the second annual "Cannibal Film Festival" at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and I'm not at all sure that I'll be back here at Geek Headquarters before dawn.

At first I thought,"Coool, its fitting that I'm writing this column's intro right before going to the fest."

Then I got to really thinking about it, "Not one of the cannibal themed flicks at the fest is set in Africa."

A little more thought produced, "Not one of last year's cannibal movies was set in Africa either."

All of which begs the question, "where are all the African based cannibal motion pictures?" Do they actually exist in the 1st place? Is it a genre of the mind only?

If you know of any, help ol' Father Geek out here. Just E-Mail me your list of them to Cannibal Cinema of Africa and I'll see to it that the Alamo shows some at The Third Annual Cannibal Film Fest in 2001. All I can think of is the Shirley Temple short KID IN AFRICA from 1935 and that funnytastic Our Gang short YUM YUM EAT'M UP from around the same time period.

Now to our kindly Doc...

Hello my good readers, DR. SOTHA here working on a few bone cartilages, reel thiroids and so forth. Interesting to think that these procedures would have been illegal just a few weeks ago, but thanks to a new loophole in the medical textbooks, expect to see many a triple amphtesiac by-pass on ignominious rodents of the world. Yes these are exciting days, but enough about that, send all your trauma 1 props to our South African Offices...

Nurse Suzie Q, how many times do I have to tell you, we send the stiffs straight to the morgue.

SOUTH AFRICA

* South African actress Embeth Davidtz (Schindler's List) will star in the "Bridget Jones' Diary" with Hugh Grant, Renee Zellweger, Jim Broadbent and Colin Firth. Sharon Maguire is in post production on Helen Fielding's acclaimed novel. This is the story of 365 days in the life of one single British woman in her 30's who works in the publishing industry. She gains 74 pounds (and loses 72), smokes over 5,000 cigarettes, has an affair she might regret, and does other things people do, including going to parties where married friends by the busload worry about her state of "Singleton". It will be released by the team that brought you Notting Hill and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

* South African producer, Michael Gavshon won an Emmy Award last Thursday night at the ceremony in New York. Gavshon, who works for CBS s 60 minutes, won the Emmy for his programme on Roberto Benigni, the director of Life is Beautiful which won Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor in the 1998 Oscars. Gavshon said he found Benigni as delightful and compelling in real life as he is on the screen Gavshon has worked for 60 Minutes for eight years and is based in London. He previously worked for CBS news, Visnews and the BBC in South Africa. This is the third Emmy award that Michael Gavshon has won. In 1985, he won an Emmy award for Best News Coverage for his story of the notorious Trojan Horse incident in Cape Town. He was working as a producer for CBS news in South Africa at the time. He won a second Emmy while he was working for CBS news in Europe for his series of stories on the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

* Fancy yourself a writer, well how about a soap telefilm writer, well then Curious Pictures and Clear Media Company are looking for writers for Soul City Series VI. Aspirant writers must submit three scenes (no longer than seven pages in total) triggered by an opening teaser available from This Location. Submission deadline is 30 September 2000.

* Having amassed ($200K) in its first week at the South African box office, the submarine saga U-571 (good on ya Jonathan Mostow) is in the number one position, followed by Big Mommas House (a big one come awards time - DR. SOTHA), Road Trip (better than American Pie), The Perfect Storm and Gone in 60 Seconds.

* Co-production investors are already attaching money to the Sithengi Co-Production Forum. In particular, an initiative between SVT (Swedish Television) SABC3, the Swedish Institute and the Goteborg Film Festival has allocated a budget of R 500 000, which will be invested in the production of one African short film. The successful film will be selected from entrants to the Sithengi Co-Production Forum, shot during 2001 and premiered at Sithengi 2001. Co-production Registration Forms are available on the Sithengi web site: By Clicking Here and you can register online. There is no additional fee for co-production this year, but you must register as a full Sithengi delegate for entry into the project.

NORTH AFRICA

* Tunisian born writer Josef Rudra is working on a dark comedy set in the Sahara Desert. It is said to revolve around the antics of a Canadian archeologist, who takes it upon himself to hire five tribesmen from a nearby village to dig a hole right in the center of the desert. He believes there's an age old relic that would restore the natural balance of third world societies. "Golden Sand" is the title.

* Now onto Rigobert Song's North Africa round up. "Hi there readers, I've got another 2 African films for you to fall in love with, let's begin with "Woubi Cheri" the first film to give African homosexuals a chance to describe their world in their own words. Often funny, sometimes ribald, but always real, this documentary introduces us to gender pioneers demanding their right to construct a distinct African homosexuality. One needs a new language to create a new world; therefore this film begins with a vocabulary lesson. The main characters explain that a woubi is a male who chooses to play the role of "wife" in a relationship with another man. A yossi, is a bisexual man, perhaps married, who accepts the role of a woubi's husband. A toussou bakari is a lesbian. Controus are homophobes who oppose the woubia lifestyle. The film introduces us to a cross-section of Abidjan's woubi community. Vincent, an immigrant from Burkina Faso, is a traditional griot and sage. Laurent defied his father's wishes that he become an auto mechanic to open a patisserie in Abidjan. Bibiche and Tatiana are cross-dressing prostitutes. Barbara, a glamorous more mature transvestite, is the leader of the tight-knit group and President of the Ivory Coast Transvestites Association (I have some members here at the lab, far more entertaining then magazines in the waiting rooms - DR. SOTHA). Laurent recalls this community was like a new family. "Your real family was the one you created. Nobody had to hide anything."

The transvestites once called themselves "bats" because they hid together during the day and came out only at night. Even now, Tatiana says, "It's not easy for us to go out in the daytime. They throw stones at us. It's not easy for us here in Africa...But it's our right to be different. Without the right to be different, Africa is going nowhere." With the support of their emerging community. Her outspokenness, we learn, is not just intended for the sympathetic European filmmakers; on a trip into the country she explains the mechanics of gay sex in graphic detail to two obviously fascinated local women. It may be instructive to compare Woubi Chéri with an earlier release, "Dakan", the first African feature film on a gay theme. This film by a heterosexual Guinean director is a liberal's cry of protest against a society which refuses to see, let alone accept, homosexual relationships. In the absence of a supportive gay community, its heroes had no choice but to disappear. Woubi Chéri is the story of those who for economic or political reasons will not disappear but are creating an undeniable gay presence in the Ivory Coast. This is not to say that all homosexuals in the Ivory Coast are as flamboyant or "out" as the woubis in this film; there are no doubt as many homosexualities emerging in Africa as anywhere else. The very untraditional djémé, or feast, which ends the film will convince anyone this is gay liberation African style. Dressed in luxurious boubous, the woubis perform customarily women's dances before an appreciative crowd, straight and gay. Barbara summarizes the moral for all of us: "The third millennium will be about a mix of modern and traditional, different ways of life and sex." Remember to e-mail me at Rigobertsong@hotmail.com

Informative as it is entertaining "Woubi Cheri" and its directors Philip Brooks & Laurent Bocahut have carved out an informative and entertaining slice of Ivory Coast flamboyance, be it straight, bi or homosexual. Here's a little insert from a review that appeared in Vareity "Avoiding the trap of applying Western perspectives to a non-Western culture, this documentary skillfully spotlights a little-seen side of Africa, addressing serious issues while retaining a light and humorous air".

The next film I'd like to introduce to you has attained a sort of cult status in parts of the world, having been released almost 2 decades ago.. "Wend Kuuni" (God's Gift). It's a landmark in African filmmakers' attempts to "return to the sources" of their culture, to recover a "usable" African past to solve the problems of the African present. Kabori adapts the measured rhythms of traditional African storytelling to create an authentically African cinematic language (see also Three Tales from Senegal). He retells an ancient fable about a mute, memoryless orphan, driven from his homeland, who is renamed Wend Kuuni ("God's Gift") by the grateful village which adopts him. Kabori uses this simple tale to demonstrate that traditional Mossi values can still provide answers to many problems besetting modern Africa, fractured by rural dislocation, refugees and political conflict. Many filmmakers place this high on the list of influential African film with its director Gaston Kabori. Try and find it. Here's a quote from the New York Times as they described it "A gentle fable recalling a time of peace and plenty."

AFRICAN AMERICAN

* Spike Lee recently told the "New York Post" that his mother was his biggest influence. "My mom made me read Dickens and Ralph Ellison and Zora Neale Hurston when I was 13. When I was in college, she would send me back my letters, correcting my grammar in red ink. She gave me high standards, telling me 90 percent wasn't good enough. I had to be twice as good as my white classmates." Lee went on to say that at the age of 18, "That's when I decided to become a filmmaker. I went all around the city, shooting everything I could see," said Lee, now 43. Lee will be releasing yet another one of his controversial films in October called "Bamboozled," a spoof film about a black sitcom. Lee has been taking heat for using minstrel type advertisements to promote the film.

* According to the "Hollywood Reporter," Halle Berry is in negotiations to star opposite John Travolta in Warner Bros.' "Swordfish." Sources told the Tinsel Town trade magazine that Berry might receive an estimated $2.5 million for the starring role -- which would be her biggest payday yet. "Swordfish" is about a charismatic spy (Travolta), who enlists a computer hacker's help to steal billions in government funds. Berry would play a woman who works for Travolta as an undercover agent. (Is this Travolta's big come back, because it sure as hell doesn't look like it'll be "Numbers", you can always get a second Doctor's opinion? - DR. SOTHA)

* Samuel L. Jackson has been named as one the "Best Dressed" celebrities by "People" magazine. One of the judges and designers Dana Buchman says the 6'3" actor, "Knows what he's doing." Singer Sisqó, who was also a judge, added, "He's figured out a way to dress (a way) that nobody else can." Jackson, 51, knows how to work his style by mixing radically monochromatic evening wear with streetwise Kangol caps. In short, the man looks good. He knows it and we know it too. (Well what else did you expect fools - DR. SOTHA)

* Shemar Moore has been cast as one of three male leads in Fox's TV movie ``The Marriage Clause.'' The movie is about three friends, who try to pay off a loan shark, by each of them trying to marry a wealthy woman within a month. It is expected to go before cameras in mid-September. Meanwhile, Moore just wrapped ``The Brothaz'' -- a film that's being called the black man's "Waiting To Exhale." It's expected to hit theaters sometime next year.

AFRICAN COAXIAL

* It was announced at IBC that Dubai-based independent production company Network Productions has been given the green light to build a new US $16 million production studio complex within Dubai Media City.Working with its technical partner Omnix International, Network Productions will incorporate its current facilities into a new three studio television complex that will support five TV channels and work as an overflow facility for broadcasters using Media City. It is expected that the facility will be up and running within eight months

Q and A time, and I'm pleased to announce that Tempa Terra received his prize last week (Nurse Lotte volunteered to show him around her apartment) for correctly answering last weeks question Marcel Camus directed the Oscar winning Black Orpheus. Now, for both Nurse Lotte and Nurse Suzie Q, to both give you a tour of a famous South African hotel room, the question is (cue epic, grand "who wants to be a millionaire" James Horner score). Who directed the dark drama "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" with Diane Keaton starring.

End of the Line cats. Pupils dilated. Temperature peeking. Irregular heart beat. Prepare to evacuate web, but before you do send all hopes for a better future to My Capetown Clinic and Nurse Betty will se to it right away.

DR. SOTHA OUT