Father Geek here (finally) posting Dr. SOTHA's and Rigobert Song's Africa-AICN column for the week. As usual its loaded with info related to the African film industry. Dig in, there's some stories here you will find no where else...

DOC SOTHA here for another Africa-AICN. It seems the medical institute I work for have different definitions for the groundbreaking work I do. When I say experiment, they shout back disaster, when I say discovery they shout back disaster. When I say procedure, they shout back disaster. It's like I'm working for talentless studio executives, all I keep hearing is 'NO, WE CAN'T AFFORD THAT'. All I want is 10 million $$ to hook up an eel to an ECU monitor (It'll save electricity in the long run?) Would you be able to look Einstein in the eyes and tell him you can't fund his 'theory of relativity' thesis? No further questions.

E-mail me your grandparent's inheritance money to africaaicn@hotmail.com, and I'll make sure to give you gross points on the project.

Nurse, I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm sure I could raise the money another way.

SOUTH AFRICA

* The Big news this week in South Africa is the Academy Award nomination for homegrown documentary 'LONG NIGHT'S JOURNEY INTO DAY' which probes the apartheid era and appeals for amnesty. The film has been reviewed in previous Africa-AICN's by our very own Rigobert Song, check our archives. Here are the nominees in this category:

Documentary (Feature)

INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS: STORIES OF THE KINDERTRANSPORT (Warner Bros.) A Sabine Films Production Mark Jonathan Harris and Deborah Oppenheimer

LEGACY A Nomadic Pictures Production Tod S. Lending

LONG NIGHT'S JOURNEY INTO DAY (Seventh Art) An Iris Films Production Frances Reid and Deborah Hoffmann (SOUTH AFRICA)

SCOTTSBORO: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY A Social Media Production Barak Goodman and Daniel Anker

SOUND AND FURY (Artistic License Films) A Production of Aronson Film Associates and Public Policy Productions Josh Aronson and Roger Weisberg

* South African actor Arnold Vosloo, now living in Hollywood, reunites with the original cast members in the sequel to the 1999 worldwide hit Universal Pictures release The Mummy. "The Mummy Returns", starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Oded Fehr and Patricia Velasquez, will be released on Friday, 4 May 2001, one week earlier than previously scheduled in order to coincide with the launch of the America summer movie season. This time round, "The Mummy Returns" is set in 1935, 10 years after the events of the first film. The corpse of Imhotep (Vosloo) is resurrected in the British Museum. Imhotep walks the earth once more, determined to fulfill his quest for immortality. The original "The Mummy" was the eighth biggest hit of 1999 and number 31 on the list of all-time box office champs, having grossed more than US$404 million worldwide. It was also the top-selling live home video action tile of 1999, debuting at the top of the Billboard sales charts, where it held the number one spot for three consecutive weeks. In addition, The Mummy was the second best-selling DVD title of 1999, shipping more than one million units. (My question is: will Arnold Vosloo actually talk in this one? - DR.SOTHA)

* A new South African film, "Lyk Lollery", will be premiering this week. This Afrikaans comedy was produced by Abyss Productions and will premiere in Johannesburg this week. Lyk Lollery's storyline deals with three favourite South African topics - Rugby, dead bodies and television licences. Directed by Francois Coertze, the film features some of the country's most talented artists: Elize Cawood, David Dukas, Dorette Nel and Johnathan Pienaar take the leads with support from Miems de Bruyn, Wilson Dunster, Dot Feldman, Meme Ditshego and Marie Pentz. Filmed on location in Pretoria, the project was financed independently and shot by producers Francois Coertze and Dorette Nel. "Lyk Lollery" (Don't ask me to translate the title, b'cause I have no idea what the fuck it means - DR.SOTHA) is the second film from ABYSS Productions - their first "Desert Dinersis" available on video.

* Following the premiere of David Max Brown's documentary, "The Secret Safari", held in Johannesburg last week, ABC did a 90-second bite on the Australian news, with a follow up by BBC on its 6pm news. The film was also covered on BBC Radio Five, which thereafter did a simultaneous live interview with David Max Brown in Johannesburg, and his father in London. AP is doing a short slot for worldwide syndication on the reaction to the screening and will be interviewing participants.

* Movie star Charlize Theron's two dogs caused uproar on the set of her new film, "Sweet November". The puppies Denver and Delilah put the 'acting' dogs off their cues. Says Theron, "The trainer didn't necessarily ban my dogs but did hint that they might be a bad influence on the well trained dogs! I remember the day with the poodles one of my dogs couldn't stand it any more. I had to put him in the trailer. He was just like, 'Why can I not run with my mom on the beach. Why is she running with the other dogs?!' And I'd get back home or back into the trailer and I'd just be like sniffed 'Where were you, what were you doing; who are all these other dogs!'" Charlize star was very protective of her canine co-stars with co-star Keanu Reeves who remained in character around the animals. She says, "Keanu got so into his character that I sometimes got so mad at him because he would just be so mean to the dogs. He'd look at them and go, 'Dirty thing get away from me!' I would look at him and go, 'Oh you better stop right now. You are not Nelson Moss.'" (Ahem - The raging problems facing movie stars - DR.SOTHA)

* Call for SA participation at fests and expos - deadline extended The National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa (NFVF) will be promoting the South African film industry at three prestigious international events in early 2001. The events are: AFCI Global Locations Expo, Los Angeles (23 - 24 February); Fespaco Pan African Film Festival, Ouagadougou (24 February); and the Cannes Film Festival, France (9 - 19 May). The NFVF will be covering the cost of stands and generic South African marketing materials, as well as networking and marketing functions at each of these events. As a direct result of this intervention, attendance at these events is more practical, affordable and accessible than ever before for South African film professionals. Sithengi has been appointed to co-ordinate these missions on behalf of the NFVF. Interested parties are cordially invited to participate in these events as part of the South African delegation. Those wishing to participate or wanting to send brochures, fliers and VHS tapes to the events are asked to contact Sithengi's Operations Manager Martin Cuff email martin@sithengi.co.za

NORTH AFRICA

* Balindi Mupu is readying his new film 'BATE' about a group of renegade Malian foot soldiers that storm through the wrong African country, and find that they don't want to return to their native land's war. They start their own store selling army merchandise, making loads of money. When their Government find out, they send another troop to wipe them out, and the bloodshed begins. Mupu describes it as a parody on war in the vein of Altman's 'MASH'. Top notch Malian actors are being sought for the leads.

* Another RIGOBERT SONG powerhouse review.

Good day readers. You know I was having a conversation with a colleague of mine the other day, and he was asking why African films never have a magical realism/fantasy context to their narratives. He argued that African film was stuck on gritty realism, poverty, tradition etc. (and to a large extent it is), but then I pointed him out "Quand les etoiles rencontrent la mer", and he came back brimming with the possibilities of fantasy and magical realism in African Film. Read on, and you might do the same.

"Quand les etoiles rencontrent la mer" Directed by Raymond Rajaonarivelo - Madagascar In French and Malagasy with English subtitles - 85 minutes

This film is one of the most magical to come out of Africa--hardly surprising since Madagascar is unlike anywhere else on earth. Raymond Rajaonarivelo follows his epic first film on the Malagasy liberation struggle, Taba Taba, with a very different, poetic film exploring the relationship between traditional and modern concepts of human freedom. He writes: "In French magie and image are made from the same letters... In this film, there will be Magic as long as man is dependent on mysterious forces that overwhelm him, and Image when man has acquired enough power over space, time, and himself to no longer be afraid of his life."

As the title suggests, Rajaonarivelo frames his film around three visual symbols or leit motifs, sky, sea and, by implication, the land marooned between them or life between birth and death. Set among the island's high mesas, all the major characters dream of escaping this parched interior to return to the oceanic mother, Rano Masina or "sacred water" in Malagasy. Rajaonarivelo characterizes life in the arid highlands, whether in the superstitious village or the corrupt city, as unremittingly predatory. A recurrent dream of a gently breaking surf turning into pounding cattle hooves symbolizes the human tension between infinite and earthbound.

Destiny, or vintana, plays a key role in the belief system of the Merina people of these high plateaus. The day and month of a child's birth are believed to determine its fate; a child born during a solar eclipse, a liminal time when sun and moon are at war, is believed to possess especially destructive powers. Tradition demands that its father must place it in a cattle pen where it will be trampled to death. The hero of this film is such a child; his mother died in childbirth but he is rescued from his fate by a young, childless woman and named Kapila, "the lame one," because of an injury he suffered in the corral. He grows into a kind but frightened young man, in effect, a stowaway in life, who supposedly can only bring evil on those around him. His adoptive mother weaves the shrouds in which the Malagasy bury, exhume and then rebury their ancestors and Kapila wears one until his ultimate liberation.

Parallel to his protective adopted mother, Kapila encounters at key moments a wrathful, blind old woman, who taunts him that he cannot avoid his destructive destiny and gives him a staff of vengeance. She may be a bilo, a dead spirit possessing Kapila's body, or the ghost of one of his ancestors (perhaps his dead mother) or just a mpaamosavy or sorceress. No doubt, she also represents a repressed part of Kapila's psyche, a shadow self, enraged that society has stigmatized him as the source of calamity.

As in any quest narrative, Kapila must embark on a journey to discover his true identity and purpose in life. Rajaonarivelo's crippled hero has resonances with other myths, most obviously Sundjata and Oedipus. Kapila leaves his mother and flies on the wings of a hawk over a vast wasteland to his natal village. There he confronts his father, The Poet, a madman who believes he can fly away from human cruelty and his own guilt. He tells his son: "Nature is as beautiful as a woman yet she has something against us; she inhabits us and forces us to do things we find revolting. Your powers too are only an instrument of her will."

The villagers, led by a hypocritical Christian priest and a traditional diviner, hunt Kapila like an animal. He survives again through the love of another young woman, Fara, a beautiful, fair-skinned métisse, an outsider marked by difference like himself. Disgusted with the cycle of hate, Kapila climbs the mountain of the ancestors, of tradition, and throws away the sorceress' cane, the source of his magical powers. This unintentionally unleashes a purifying deluge which destroys the village.

In thus repudiating his destiny Kapila has ironically fulfilled it. His and Fara's love and commitment to living literally and symbolically annihilate the old cycle of destiny; the villagers by clinging to their belief in destiny insure that it comes true. In the closing sequence reprising the opening, Kapila's father again tries to kill his son by stampeding the cattle, but when they see Kapila embracing Fara they turn upon his father trampling him to death. As he wished, he is cremated in the same corral where Kapila was wounded, freed at last to rejoin the wind and the stars.

In the film's final shot, Kapila and a visibly pregnant Fara at last stand on the shore, the threshold between land and water and between destiny and desire, the place where the stars and the sea meet. Kapila has paradoxically discovered his own identity only by rejecting his connections with his past - his adoptive mother, his father, even his ancestral homeland. His destiny has, in a sense, been to break free of destiny. He and Fara, outsiders joined by love not custom, have given birth to a new world governed not by magic and fate but by love and imagination. Here's an excerpt from Variety if you're still not convinced: "This trim, accessible yet visionary film fascinates in its unflinching realism and its spiritual dimension questioning the role of chance in human life."

AFRICAN AMERICAN

* Anthony Hopkins is set to play a Cia boss in a $113 million comedy-thriller. The 63-year-old will star alongside American comedian Chris Rock in the Joel Schumacher directed movie "Black Sheep", which starts shooting in Prague soon. Black Sheep's executive producer, Matthew Stillman says, "It's a fish-out-of-water comedy with a difference. This is one film shoot that promises to be a hoot." Hopkins will portray a hardman (Gee that's a stretch - DR.SOTHA) who has to transform a dumb lowlife Chris Rock) into a top agent, in a bid to foil an international conspiracy.

* And what would an African-American column be without some controversial Spike Lee comments: Spike Lee insisted Tuesday that black actors are still being forced to play demeaning roles in films despite the supposed progress initiated by the civil rights movement. Speaking at a news conference at the Berlin Film Festival, where his latest film, "Bamboozled", is entered in competition, Lee remarked: "I can give you examples of films where there has been no progress made. Look at black characters in The Green Mile, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Family Man. These are films being made today." Switching to the Florida elections, Lee said later: "Black people were stopped by the police in Tampa Bay from voting. ... If someone wants to be delusional and say 'Here we are in America in 2001, we've made so many great strides, everything is OK', go ahead and live in that dream-world." (Talkbackers please feel free to add your comments - DR.SOTHA)

* Actress Halle Berry insisted on waiting before she wed her long-time love Eric Benet - because she feared depression if their relationship failed. Berry married Benet two weeks ago in Los Angeles, California. It was the second marriage for Halle, who was previously wed to baseball star David Justice. She admits, "It was a big step. But Eric is the right guy for me. We took our time because I wanted to make sure we would stay together. When my first marriage ended, I was so depressed I tried to commit suicide." (Is this before you saw your part as Storm in X-Men or after? - DR.SOTHA)

That's all folks. Join us next week for more. Still working on more Rotterdam reports for y'all.

DR.SOTHA REVO & OUT