Father Geek here, and proud to welcome back Dr. SOTHA and his nurses from Rotterdam's great film fest. He will be issuing reports on the fest over the next several days, but for now here is a GREAT regular Friday Africa-AICN column from him and Rigobert Song and the rest of their crew. Lots and lots of African film related news this week so I'll step aside and let them get on with it...

DR.SOTHA here for another Africa-AICN. Alot of this was supposed to be up last week, so my apologies go out to Rigobert Song, Fathergeek and all the readers. I've been at the Rotterdam Liposuction festival(you wouldn't believe what the new space-age syringes are capable of destroying.umm..I mean injecting..umm fuggedaboutit) and I thought while I was there, I might as well gander over to the Rotterdam Film Festival that was running congruently with RLF. I have plenty interviews with filmmakers and producers from all over Africa, and even from other continents. Expect reviews and decisive criticism of a slew of films I caught at the festival over the next few days.

Nurse, I honestly don't know why South Africa doesn't have a red light district.

In between sorting out my stuff from Rotterdam, this is Africa-AICN #34. Thanks to Rigobert Song for pressing me to finish it in time. Still, I get the feeling that the old professor needs a check-up with my new state of the art dissection scalpel (a similar device was used in Face-Off of which no one seemed to notice that I had patented it first). Professor Rigobert claims that my methods are questionable in the operating ward. Well let me just tell all of you, that if it were not for me, Jan Michael Vincent would still be on the pump passing on projects like Buffalo 66. So chew on that skeptics.

Email us here at Africaaicn@hotmail.com for all the latest latex samples.

Nurse, I don't know if we stock those samples yet.

SOUTH AFRICA

* A series of short films shot on 35mm and directed by six women from different regions of Africa is to premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. 'Mama Africa' is co-produced by Zimmedia, M-Net, Winstar and ITVS. Part of the series' significant pulling power has been the simple concept of telling universal stories from the perspective of African women. The Mama Africa brief allowed for a multitude of interpretations due to the diversity of creativity and cultures. Five of the six films are completed - they are Riches (Zimbabwe), HangTime (Nigeria), One Evening in July (Tunisia), Close Up on Bintou (Burkina Faso) and Uno's World (Namibia). The films have been pre-sold to the European broadcasters Finnish TV and Dutch NPI (Reviews of this series are forthcoming - DR.SOTHA)

* Although this is not a South African story, I thought I'd give you this sidestory about the director of 'Battle Royale' who I had briefly run into at the Rotterdam Film Festival, make your own minds up. A Japanese documentary filmmaker has completed work on a film about the shooting of director Kinji Fukasaku's new film Battle Royale -- but it's unlikely that it will be used to promote the movie, already a controversial hit in Japan. According to today's Yomiuri Shimbun the documentary by Toshiro Uratani includes scenes of Fukasaku shouting at two actresses "Boring! Your 'manzai' (interaction) is boring! Boring manzai is the worst!" In another scene Fukasaku is seen throwing a can of coffee against a table to scare the performers. In reporting on Uratani's film, the Yomiuri observed that Fukasaku's "tantrums on the set are as well known as the work he produces."

* The 9th Annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival unspools an impressive list of films from Thursday, 8 February through Monday, 19 February 2001 at the Magic Johnson Theatres and the adjacent Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in Los Angeles. The Pan African Film & Arts Festival is America's premiere Black History Month event and the largest festival in the United States dedicated to the exhibition of independent Black films. Over a 12-day period, the Pan African Film Festival will screen over 80 films. This year's list of films also features South Africa's award winning "Christmas at Granny's" by director Dumisani Phakatithe. The Opening Night boasts a special presentation of Fox Searchlight's new comedy, "Kingdom Come", starring Whoopi Goldberg, LL Cool J, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Vivica Fox, Cedric the Entertainer, Toni Braxton, Darius McCrary and Loretta Divine. The Opening Night Gala Screening and Reception, only, will be held at the new Hollywood Entertainment Museum and the adjacent Galaxy Theatres located at 7021 Hollywood Blvd in Hollywood. PAFF's 2001 Closing Night selection will be Screen Gems' romantic comedy "The Brothers", directed by Gary Hardwick, starring Bill Bellamy, Morris Chestnut, D.L. Hughley, Shemar Moore, Tatyana Ali and Jennifer Lewis. Closing Night is sponsored by Mervyn's of California.

* After a very successful start in 1999, the Dutch Diplomatic Representation in South Africa will be organising a 2nd Dutch Film Festival 2001 which will showcase a total of 17 recent feature films and documentaries in Cape Town and Johannesburg. The festival will have its first run in The Labia Theatre in Cape Town from 2-15 March, preceded by an official opening party on the 1st of March 2001. The festival will premiere "A Woman of the North", directed by Frans Weisz who will also be attending the festival as a guest of honour. Weisz will teach classes and is available for educational purposes. Subsequently, the festival will travel to Nu Metro Village Walk in Johannesburg from 16-29 March. One of the highlights of the festival will be the screening of Ajax, The Movie, and a documentary on soccer, which recently caused a stir in Holland when cinema owners refused to show the film after they received threats from supporters of rival Dutch soccer clubs. A new feature on soccer "The Black Meteor" by director Guido Pieters, portrays the life of black South African soccer player Steve Mokone ("Kalamazu") who travelled to Holland back in the Fifties to join the club Herakles and became a real star, nicknamed "The Black Meteor". SA-actor Jet Novuka, who plays the leading role, will attend the screenings.

* Robert de Niro's sadistic treatment of future "son-in-law" Ben Stiller is still drawing in the crowds at the South African box office as Meet the Parents retains its top position for a second week. It has made R2 990 643 since its release on 12 January. The re-release of the 70's horror film, The Exorcist, has gone to the number two spot in its first week. It is followed by Chris O'Donnell's mountainous antics in Vertical Limit, Sylvester Stallone playing the Michael Caine role (and starring opposite Michael Caine) in the remake of Get Carter, and Winona Ryder swooning all over Richard Gere in Autumn in New York. (I know you readers get no satisfaction out of reading this snippet, but I actually think its side-splitting, I mean wasn't Autumn in New York released like in the past millenium - ahh fuggedaboutit - DR.SOTHA)

NORTH AFRICA

* ArtMattan Productions has announced the US theatrical premiere of one of the most controversial and provocative films to emerge from vibrant North African cinema, Ossama Fawzi's "Fallen Angels Paradise". The film will begin its American commercial release on 1 February in an exclusive first-run engagement at the Anthology Film Archives in New York. Fallen Angels Paradise offers a raw and harrowing look at the underside of modern Egyptian society and the dramatic socio-economic schism which has sliced that nation into unequal worlds of haves and have-nots.

* My admiration for this man knows no bounds, Rigobert Song.

Rigobert Song

Sounds like DR.SOTHA had an interesting time in Rotterdam, I look forward to reading his didactic (cheap shot - DR.SOTHA) summary of the events. But first e-mail me at rigobertsong@hotmail.com and we can talk African film.

Ta Dona (Fire!) Director: Adama Drabo Mali, In Bambara with English subtitles

A Bambara proverb reminds us, "Everyone is in the hands of his mother." Ta Dona has been hailed as Africa's first environmental feature film because it outlines an authentically African development path - nurtured by tradition not abandoning it, cultivating the land and its people not plundering them. In 'Ta Dona', director Adama Drabo deliberately mixes traditional and modern African modes of seeing - supernatural myth and naturalistic narrative. Like Souleymane Cissé's Yeelen, Ta Dona is the story of a quest for secret knowledge by a young hero, Sidy, a modern agronomist working for the Ministry of Rivers and Forests. It revisits a perennial African theme also at the center of Yeelen: the responsibility to use expert knowledge (traditional and now scientific) for the communal good not personal power.

Sidy, while living in a remote village, undertakes the search for a secret Bambara herbal remedy, the seventh canari, which has been forgotten except by an aged, childless mid-wife living in the Dogon country. Sidy's quest for the past represents a new kind of anthropology, not documenting an irretrievably alien culture, but rediscovering, reinvigorating and then developing one's own heritage. Sidy exemplifies how the educated African elite can contribute to rural development in contrast to the corrupt class of African kleptocrats (ruler-thieves) who exploit rather than nurture their countries. The latter are exemplified by the local MP and father of Sidy's girlfriend, Samou Traore, (a thinly veiled reference to Malian dictator Moussa Traore.)

The film's title and central metaphor, fire, suggest that only revolutionary change can purify Malian society. In fact a month after the film's premiere in February 1991, a coup, brought about by protests in which more than 100 students were killed, overturned the 23 year dictatorship of Moussa Traore, leading to free elections. Sometimes films have the ability to prophesize certain cultural, social and political events. A good example is 'Wall Street' that was released the same time the stock market crashed in 1988. Ta Dona achieves the same feat by foreshadowing an overthrow of the government before the cou de tat took place. What is remarkable about the film is the way it goes about dissecting an age old transgression, without offering any obvious and morally conflicting messages. Seeing this film 10 years on, it holds up astoundingly well, and offers a haunting death knell to third world subordination. I found this quote from Variety that bests sums it up "Incorporating dashes of local color into a contemporary tale of ancient mysticism and modern corruption, Ta Dona strikes an appealing balance between old and new."

Now for a RARE second Song...

* Mapantsula (The Hustler)

Mapantsula was the first anti-apartheid feature film by, for and about black South Africans. Filmed inside Soweto, scored to the urban beat of "Township Jive," Mapantsula has been called a South African "The Harder They Come." Mapantsula tells the story of PANIC, a petty gangster who inevitably becomes caught up in the growing anti-apartheid struggle and has to choose between individual gain and a united stand against the system. Mapantsula gives viewers an insider's tour of township life and a foretaste of the vibrant popular cinema promised by the new, democratic South Africa. The great thing about Mapantsula is its hard edged approach to the struggle of a multi-national society through a provocative narrative that evokes all the old controversial questions of power, white and black, and an astute sense of cultural awakening. It's a true realisation of a coming of age for a country ravaged by segregation and authoritarian resolve. Unfolding like an archetypal morality tale PANIC embarks on a mission to change his country along with his own psychological demons. Having played at various festivals across the world, it has been praised as a powerhouse film that unflinchingly reconstructs a conflict in history as deleterious and nocuous as they come. In fact, Spike Lee remarked after a screening, ""It's about time a feature film presents South Africa from a black perspective. Mapantsula does that and much more." The Los Angeles Times roared, "A moral drama in disguise...Our conscience and sense of outrage are ripped open." Directed by Oliver Schmitz in the throes of political and racial change, it has established itself as one of the most important, radical and haunting films to have ever come out of South Africa. If you're looking for an unrelenting, meticulously paced journey into the Heart of Darkness (The Apartheid era so to speak) and are sick of the distorted portrait offered by the bloodthirsty media over the last decade, Mapantsula offers all this and more and more.

* The acclaimed Amsterdam-born documentary film-maker Johan van der Keuken has died of prostate cancer at the age of 62. The recipient of many awards and plaudits for his films, van der Keuken last year completed "The Long Holiday" (Netherlands, 142 minutes), which he conceived after his illness was diagnosed in October 1998. The film opens with the director disclosing that his condition is deteriorating and that he is going on a journey to learn about suffering. That journey takes him, and us, to Kathmandu, Burkina Faso, Brazil, the USA and, finally, to the Netherlands, where he sees a retrospective of his own work. All is transient. The film won the Ecumenical Prize at last year's Berlin Film Festival.

* Now into its 4th year, the Festival of the Dhow Countries is a cultural extravaganza of cinema, music and arts from all over Africa, the Gulf States, Iran, India, Pakistan and the Indian Ocean islands. The next event takes place in Zanzibar from 29 June to 14 July, 2001 and will feature a hundred films, with awards for the best feature films and documentaries. Fifty music groups will be performing in a variety of historic and magnificent locations around Zanzibar's Stone Town, along with dance and theatre acts, poets and other artists from the region. As always the Festival will feature seminars and workshops, special activities for women and young people as well as mini-festivals in many of the villages and rural areas. The Festival is organised by ZIFF (Zanzibar International Film Festival), a non-profit NGO based in Zanzibar that operates throughout the year training local people and building capacities towards their shared vision of creating a thriving cultural industry for the region. Programming for the 2001 Festival is well underway. For more information check the website www.zanzibar.org/ziff.

* Metin Huseyin's "It Was An Accident". This is a gangster film starring Chiwetel Ejiofor as an ex-con trying desperately to stay clean for the sake of his girlfriend, played by Thandie Newton. It is premiering at a number of festivals and garnering positive word of mouth.

* Korean star Joon-Hoon Park has been cast in a major role in Jonathan Demme's THE TRUTH ABOUT CHARLIE, an action mystery set to start shooting on Mar 9 for 13 weeks in Paris. The film also stars Mark Wahlberg and THANDIE NEWTON (Zambia.) Although Korean actors have appeared before in Hollywood films, Park is the first to win more than a supporting role. The actor reportedly came to the attention of Demme at a screening of NOWHERE TO HIDE at Sundance last year. According to Korean press reports, Park's fee will be $355,000, more than the entire budget of most Korean films.

* Ambatana Educational Trust, a new production house in Nairobi, Kenya is currently in pre-production on a kids TV programme. The production will include a number of animated characters, one of which will be a live actor with prosthetics and make-up. This character is a talking African mask which will be hanging on a wall in the set. A lot of the technology used is a groundbreaking combination of stop animation, 3-Cell, 2-D, 3-D and motion cine.

* American actress Mia Farrow took her global crusade against polio to the heart of the battle this week, as she visited an orphanage in Nigeria. The former wife of Frank Sinatra and Woody Allen's ex-girlfriend was struck down by the disease when she was nine years old. And one of her adopted children, Thaddeus, also contracted polio as a child and is now paralysed. Farrow, UNICEF's newly-appointed ambassador for polio eradication, says, "In the West, most people think that polio is a relic of the past. But millions of children remain at risk in some of the world's poorest countries. Far from forgetting these countries, we must focus even more attention on them until every child everywhere has been immunized. Then, and only then will this virus die out. Accompanied by her 13-year-old son Seamus, Farrow will spend five days in the African country. She will join thousands of health professionals and volunteers as they prepare to immunize every single Nigerian under the age of five - an estimated 37 million children (I admire the sentiment, but 37 million? - DR.SOTHA.)

AFRICAN AMERICAN

* After making her acting debut in Warner Bros.' ``Romeo Must Die,'' Aaliyah's been working Tinsel Town big time and it's paying off. The 22-year-old, who's been rocking the R&B and pop charts for the past few years now, has been added to the cast of the subsequent installments of ``The Matrix'' sequels for Warners/Village Roadshow Pictures. The first of the sequels is slated to start production in March in Australia and the third installment is scheduled to be shot immediately following the second. While the story lines for both ``Matrix'' sequels are top secret, Aaliyah will play Zee, a character that will probably be more prominent in the third installment. Original cast members Laurence Fishburne, Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss will be back for the sequels. Jada Pinkett Smith has been added to the cast as Niobi, the love interest for Fishburne's character. Aaliyah recently finished shooting the big-screen adaptation of the Anne Rice novel ``Queen of the Damned,'' in which she plays the title role. She will also play a lead role in the remake of "Sparkle

* After wowing audiences as Cinderella, Brandy may sign on the dotted line to play another classic character -- Dorothy. The singer/actress is reportedly in advanced negotiations to play the lead character in Fox TV Pictures' "The O.Z." -- a hip-hop version of ``The Wizard of Oz.'' (What next a hip-hop version of the 'Green Berets' with Will Smith playing John Wayne's role? - DR.SOTHA) If Brandy does sign on, she could join Queen Latifah (Glenda the Good Witch), Busta Rhymes (Cowardly Lion), Little Richard (the Wizard), Ginuwine (the Scarecrow) and R&B group IMX (the flying monkeys) -- all of who have agreed to do the project. However, no deals have been signed. So, what could possibly be the new take on the classic children's tale? The new 'O.Z.' casts Dorothy as a successful, but lonely hip-hop musical producer in Los Angeles. After a devastating earthquake, Dorothy and her doggie Toto find themselves in a strange, wondrous land called the Big O.Z. As for the music, the honors will go to Kenneth ``Babyface'' Edmonds and his wife, Tracey.

* "The MC Hammer Story" Hits VH1 Music cable network VH1 will produce an original movie which will chronicle the rise and fall of rapper MC Hammer, "The MC Hammer Story." The movie will trace Hammer's humble beginnings as an Oakland A's bat boy to his mega-success with the 1990 cross-over hit, "U Can't Touch This." While Hammer, rose to the top faster than any rap act in music history, he ultimately went bankrupt. Now the rapper, who was profiled on VH1's popular "Behind the Scenes," has turned to gospel rap and even has his own gospel show on a religion-based cable network.

* The third annual Hollywood Black Film Festival, scheduled January 31 through February 4 in Culver City, California. The film, "Caveman's Valentine," starring Samuel L. Jackson and directed by Kasi Lemmons ("Eve's Bayou"), will open the festival. In the film, Jackson portrays a Juilliard-trained musician-turned-schizophrenic homeless man attempting to solve a murder. Closing the festival is the feature "Lockdown," directed by John Luessenhop and starring Richard T. Jones and Bill Nunn. The film is about a competitive swimmer who is wrongly convicted of a crime. The festival will feature 45 films, including features, documentaries, student works and shorts.

* Robert Brown, who stars opposite Sean Connery in the current film "Finding Forrester," never acted a day in his life and despite the success of the critically acclaimed film, Brown also says he doesn't plan on pursuing acting. Brown, 16, recently told "Parade" magazine, "I never wanted to be an actor and still don't plan to pursue an acting career. I only went to audition as an extra, hoping to make some quick money to pay my $300 cell-phone bill. The film casts Brown as a gifted writer/basketball player, who is befriended by a washed-up novelist played by Connery. Brown, who was born in Harlem, plans to go to college and major in engineering. And unlike his character in the film, the high school junior excels at football.

AFRICAN COAXIAL

* Television viewers across Africa will tune into the launch of the African Broadcast Network (ABN), a new pan African broadcaster. The first countries to experience what ABN has to offer are Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Zambia. Nigeria can look forward to viewing ABN on 15 March and other countries are due to follow. According to Mike Fenwick, chief operating officer of ABN, will be utilizing the most advanced satellite link up technology ever used in the history of African broadcasting.

"Our programmes will comprise the very latest material from suppliers like Warner Brothers, Universal and MGM. This will ensure we attract and retain viewer attention in a competitive pan-African broadcasting environment," says Fenwick. "ABN has already started the process of developing locally produced African product and will meet its commitment of having 20% local content within the first year"

ABN's first broadcast in Africa will go out on the evening of the 29th January 2001 during primetime slots and viewers can expect to tune into programmes never before seen on African Television. The continent's first experience of ABN's programming will include the smash-hit soap opera, launched in the US last June called Passions (I want to know now who watches this in the States? - DR.SOTHA), and a new comedy series about an undercover cop called Damon. ABN promises both programmes will make compelling family viewing that will appeal to all Africans. ABN has entered into a number of joint ventures on the continent, signing up with national broadcasters in Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia, with Nigeria, Zimbabwe and many other countries due to follow shortly. Commenting on the significance of ABN's partnership with the African broadcasters, Fenwick says: "One of our major strategies at ABN is to bring in good international programming to African viewers as well as ensuring we develop the African broadcast industry by helping local broadcasters like KBC in Kenya, with training and the co-funding of local productions. It is a win-win situation for the station, the viewers and for ABN". "We are committed to including locally produced content in all our prime time slots, which is why we have played a key role in the setting up of the African Media Foundation (AMF). It's a non-profit organisation with a unique selling point namely that it will focus on the development and the transferring of skills pertaining to the African broadcasting industry. It will participate in production-oriented training initiatives and in the development of commercial broadcasting skills. We intend to increase our percentage of locally produced programming to 20% towards the end of our first year of operation and to 40% by the end of 2006". Revenue generation is a major worry particularly for African broadcasters and Fenwick believes the ABN partnership will play a crucial role in attracting revenue to local stations. He says; "The launch of ABN truly heralds a new era for African broadcasters because ABN will bring much-needed international advertising revenue to the station by targeting the international advertisers who have traditionally been out of the reach of most African broadcasters." During its initial broadcast period, ABN will deliver a one hour, weekday slot on each of its partner broadcaster's networks and this will increase to two hours a day by the end of its first year of operation and to three hours a day by the end of 2002. ABN's role in the development of pan-African communications has been recognised by Modern African Growth and Investment Company LLC, which has provided funding for the new television network. Modern Africa's investors include blue chip companies like Microsoft, Societe General and AIG-SunAmerica. ABN is a UK registered company with offices in London and Johannesburg and affiliate offices in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

* SABC Education is preparing to air its new 13-part documentary series, "Positive", Each episode of Positive sees a team capturing through the lens, the daily lives and hopes, together with fears, of all those individuals living with the Aids disease, or those trying to assist victims. The camera team tours the country in a travel doc format enlightening the viewer with essential need to know information. The broadcast of the Positive series begins flighting every Tuesday evening at 20h30 on SABC 2, from January 23rd 2001.The SABC Education Department's programmes are supported by mass below the line strategies. The key objective of the Positive series is to support behavioral change and promote care-giving for people living with Aids by sending a message of hope and encouragement. One of the presenters, Muso, is herself HIV/Positive. The programme is produced Robyn Hofmeyer of Effect Media Company. An intensive radio spot campaign, in 11 languages, has hit the airwaves in order to increase the expected viewership of the series on SABC2.

More reports coming your way over the next few days, so don't fuck with that browser.

DR.SOTHA REVO AND OUT