Father Geek here with our crew from Africa-AICN and their column for this week. Between the Road Runner E-mail shutdown and the SXSW film/interactive/music festival I was not able to post last week's column, alas I never even received it, but never fear loyal readers our good Dr. SOTHA as a really nice one for you this weekend, so sit back, read, and enjoy the news from our Capetown office...
I understand that Fathergeek was having some difficulties receiving e-mail
over the passed week. Allow me to sympathize, because here at DR.SOTHA's
lab, the chain of communication has been breached on several occasions by
some 'inadequate' nursing protocol. Take an example, Nurse Hollis, instead
of leaving my messages on my desk, decided to use her brain (despite me
telling her not to), and memorized each message by heart. As a result the
messages have taken on a subversive and carnal significance. I now have to
reverse a transsexual operation, re-adjust an Adam's apple, and patch-up a
nostril incision.
Send me your nurse's resume to Africaaicn@hotmail.com for a new and
thrilling position.
Nurse Hollis, you're going down.
SOUTH AFRICA
Taken from ScreenAfrica.com
Send me your nurse's resume to Africaaicn@hotmail.com for a new and
thrilling position.
Nurse Hollis, you're going down.
SOUTH AFRICA
Taken from ScreenAfrica.com
SOUTH AFRICA
Taken from ScreenAfrica.com
* Established South African director David Lister is to direct OLLIE, the first of UK company Peakviewing Transatlantic's films to be shot in South Africa this year. Written by former South African scriptwriter John Cundill (The Villagers), the film stars Oscar winner Marlee Matilin as a passionate conservationist. South Africans Ian Roberts and Ken Gampu co-star. Ollie is about the bond between human and elephant and the clash between conservationism and maintainable eco tourism. Principal photography commences on 26 March.
* The recent South African / Hollywood MediaXchange 2001 saw a delegation of high level South African producers meet with 18 top players in Hollywood, including Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., William Morris, Fox 2000 and Intermedia. Making up the South African group were Moonlighting Filmmakers' Philip Key, Eddie Mbalo from the National Film & Video Foundation (NFVF), Desiree Markgraaff from BOMB, Film Afrika's David Wicht, and Firdoze Bulbulia who represented the Gauteng Film Office. One of the most successful meetings reportedly was with Peter Guber at Mandalay Pictures whose recent producer credits include "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Donnie Brasco." The London, US-based MediaXchange has a long established partnership in South Africa between Katrina Wood and South African marketer to the entertainment industry, Dezi Rorich.
* Top South African rock band, Springbok Nude Girls has signed up to play at12th annual Splashy Fen Music Festival, which takes place from April 26 to 29 in Underberg in the southern Drakensberg. Hailed as one of the country's most wanted bands, the Nude Girls have played alongside the likes of Lenny Kravitz, Goo Goo Dolls, Fetish and The Cult as well as Yous N'Dour, Johnny Clegg and Hot House Flowers amongst others. Another band which has signed up for Splashy Fen is Saron Gas. Formed in May 1999 - Saron Gas emerged onto the South African rock scene and rapidly established itself as one of South Africa's top emerging bands.
* Presented by Humphrey Barclay, fondly known as the UK's 'King of Comedy', a Master Class workshop organised by SASWA (South African Scriptwriters Association) was held in Johannesburg last week. Seventy-seven of the city's top comedy talents, writers, producers, stand-up comics and broadcasters attended. Having worked in the UK, America and Australia, Barclay gave participants insight into the state of play in the international arena. This enabled him to speak with both authority and understanding about the local dilemma of producing sitcoms for the South African market. One key problem was identified: local broadcasters have to ensure that local sitcoms get sufficient budgets to be able to develop scripts before they are shot. Barclay will repeat the Master Class in Cape Town from Friday 16 to Sunday 18 March. Contact SASWA on saswa@global.co.za
* And now for a bit of comedy - let me present the South African Box Office: One of this year's Best Film Oscar contenders, Chocolat (starring Juliette Binoche), has made it to the number four position at the South African box office in its first week of release. Still at the top is "What Women Want", followed by "Cast Away" and "Pay It Forward". These three films all star Helen Hunt which makes one wonder if there are no other American actress around at the moment (Note: I just post this stuff - that's all - DR.SOTHA). At the number five spot is another new release, the Jason Bigg's comedy, "Loser" (You don't say - DR.SOTHA.)
NORTH AFRICA
* "Ali Zaoua", by the Moroccan filmmaker Nabil Ayouch, won the Yennenga Stallion trophy, for Best Film, at the 17th edition of Fespaco, the pan African festival of film and television of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) on Saturday, 3 March 2001. Second winner was "Sia, the Dream of the Python", by the Burkinabe cineaste, Dany Kouyate. It also received the Special Jury Prize for a feature film in competition at Fespaco. The young Nigerian filmmaker, "Newton Aduaka", won the third prize in the feature film category for "Rage", as well as the Oumarou Ganda Most Promising Newcomer category. "Aduaka" will receive assistance for distribution in the form of a one million CFA franc ($1 400) award from the French-speaking commonwealth organisation, La Francophonie. The special Paul Robeson prize at Fespaco for the Best Feature film from the diaspora, went to the Haitian filmmaker, Raoul Peck, for "Lumumba". Burkinabe filmmaker, Fanta Regina Nacro, was honored with the Special Jury Prize in the short film category for "Bintou."
* Kelly Hu (CBS' "Martial Law") has been cast as the female lead in Universal Pictures' "The Scorpion King" for director Chuck Russell. The project is scheduled to start shooting Wednesday in Los Angeles. "Scorpion" is a spinoff based on the character the Scorpion King, played by World Wrestling Federation star the Rock, in "The Mummy Returns." The story centers on how the Scorpion King came to conquer EGYPT. The character starts as a heroic peasant who defeats his enemies and overcomes huge obstacles to become the first pharaoh of EGYPT. Hu, who is skilled in karate and kickboxing, will play Cassandra, a prisoner of the evil Warlord, whom the Scorpion King must defeat. Her relationship with the Scorpion King evolves eventually to a love interest.
* Rigobert Song for your pleasure:
I have 2 more television shows to round out the coverage of top African small screen attractions. They're both different in tone and thematic content, but hopefully with the variety I've presented, First World simians will have a general understanding of the potential outbreak of one or more of these.
LOCAL VOTER
Local Voter explores an innovative approach to voter education and was telecast in preparation for the first local elections in which black South Africans participated, November 5, 1995. I've selected a 10 minute excerpt from this relentlessly upbeat but commendable "game show" format program broadcast from Soweto. It intersperses questions to the three contestants with brief video inserts explaining the structure of local government and stakes behind the elections. Believe it or not, they've managed to make a pivotal political election, into an entertaining way of participating and educating the largely ignorant voters. Imagine, a few months back, if a game show with three contestants were asked questions about the Gore/Bush election, with the grand prize (probably a toaster or something lavish), going to the person who predicted a landslide winner (theoretically speaking). The prize or toaster in question would then be handed out after the election. Obviously, this can only work around a political event, but it does put a spin on the mindless gameshow, by incorporating real and current issues floating around at that particular point in the public consciousness.
RHYTHM AND RIGHTS
Rhythm and Rights is the name of a fictional "call-in program" at a community radio station where listeners discuss whether their rights have expanded in post-apartheid South Africa. The program also draws attention to the new, under-funded community radio sector which was recognised, alongside public and commercial broadcasting, as a key component of a democratic media policy. In this program, the staff, a cross-section of the township population from old socialist revolutionaries to upwardly mobile executives, decides to do a show on "labor rights to deal with unemployment ö as high as 50% according to some estimates. Can private enterprise, they ask, be relied upon to resolve this massive problem? Okay, so this largely focuses on education as opposed to entertainment, but if you can get passed the rigid format, it does have some attractive quirks. Basically, it poses the question of what if to the African community, and allows them to find their own voice, in putting suggestions forward to the people that count. It also melds t.v. and radio together in an interesting and slyly observed package of 'issues' and 'cultures'. That's my wrap on 'television in Africa', if there's something you've seen on the small screen in Africa, and want me to take a look at it, please e-mail me at rigobertsong@hotmail.com Next week I'll be back to African film, digesting a few current releases that might be on their way to your theater.
AFRICAN AMERICAN
Taken from the Hollywoodreporter:
* Rap impresario Sean "Puffy" Combs was acquitted Friday of toting an illegal handgun into a crowded Manhattan hip-hop club by a jury that believed the Grammy-winning multimillionaire's repeated claim of innocence. He was also cleared of a bribery charge. When the verdict was read, Combs and his attorneys hugged tightly, with lawyers Benjamin Brafman and Johnnie Cochran burying their heads against Comb's shoulder. Combs' bodyguard, Anthony "Wolf" Jones, was acquitted of the same charges as Combs. Rapper Jamaal "Shyne" Barrow, a Combs protege who had been charged with attempted murder, was instead convicted of two counts of assault in connection with the shooting of two people in the club following a scuffle involving the Combs entourage in the early morning hours of Dec. 27, 1999. It was a stunning victory for Combs, 31, who presides over a $300 million empire -- Bad Boy Entertainment -- that encompasses music, movies, clothing and restaurants. He founded the company just seven years ago. The high-profile trial stretched nearly seven weeks, with jurors hearing from 59 witnesses and examining more than 130 pieces of evidence. Combs dressed in a conservative dark suit each day of the trial and his mother was in the gallery behind him. Combs was the key defense witness, spending a full day testifying that he never carried a weapon on the night of his arrest and instead thought he was the target. "I thought I was being shot at," Combs told the jury.
* Gary Anthony Williams (Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle") and Neil Patrick Harris ("Starship Troopers") have been cast in Imagine Entertainment/Universal Pictures' live-action comedy feature "Undercover Brother" for helmer Malcolm Lee. "Brother" is based on an animated comedy series created, written and produced by John Ridley (U-Turn) on Urban Entertainment's Web site, www.urbanentertainment.com. Ridley wrote the script and is executive producing the project, which follows a man (Eddie Griffin) who, though he appears harmless, secretly works for the all-black brotherhood in its never-ending battle against the white Establishment. Williams, who voices many of the characters on the Web site's animated series, has been cast as Smart Brother, the resident brain of the brotherhood who is a walking encyclopedia constantly calculating the white Establishment's latest plots. Harris will play Lance, the brotherhood's token white man, hired because of affirmative action, who later becomes enlightened when he watches "Roots." Comedian Dave Chappelle ("Blue Streak") has also joined the cast. He will play Conspiracy Brother, an intense secret agent who finds conspiracies in the most outlandish things.
* The producers of NBC's Friends, under fire for their failure to feature minority actors, have hired Gabrielle Union, costar of last year's box-office hit Bring It On and a onetime regular on the defunct TV series "City of Angels", for an upcoming guest appearance. In an interview for TV Guide Online, Union remarked, "the good thing is that [the producers] are trying by hiring me. Their color-blind casting shows me that they are attempting to make an effort towards diversity." Gabrielle is set to become part of a love triangle with David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc. Gabrielle Union, who has picked up a large following after her role in Bring It On, will come between buddies Joey Tribiani and Ross Geller. Gabrielle says, "I'm this random girl that they both find attractive and I date both of them, unbeknownst to the other."
* Rapper-actor Pras toplines the low-budget indie comedy feature "Go for Broke" for Jean Claude La Marre, who directs from his own script and will take a role in the project. Principal photography started Monday in and around Los Angeles. Pras stars alongside Michael Goorjian ("SLC Punk!") and LisaRaye in the story of a pair of loser best friends (Pras and Goorjian) who find themselves in a heap of gambling debt. Miraculously, they purchase a winning lottery ticket, only to have it stolen by a woman (LisaRaye) while she is robbing the burger joint in which they are eating. Singer Bobby Brown, Glenn Plummer and Ed Lauter round out the cast. Full story
* Bai Ling ("Anna and the King") and rapper-actor Treach (HBO's "Oz") of the hip-hop outfit Naughty by Nature will star in the indie drama "Face" for first-time feature helmer Bertha Bay-Sa Pan and New York-based Beech Hill Films. The low-budget feature "Face" centers on three generations of Chinese women caught between the conflicting cultures of their homeland and the influence of life in America. Ling stars as a young woman who is forced into marriage and subsequently chooses to leave her infant daughter in her mother's care in New York. Years later, she returns to find her independent daughter involved in a relationship with a black DJ (Treach), causing controversy in her family.
* The Independent Feature Project/West Los Angeles Film Festival has unspooled its picks for the 36 films to screen as part of the seventh annual fest, scheduled to run April 20-28. The lineup includes 21 world premieres, two North American premieres and three U.S. premieres. The closing-night film, set for April 28 at the Directors Guild of America, will be Allison Anders' "THINGS BEHIND THE SUN" starring Kim Dickens, Gabriel Mann, DON CHEADLE and Eric Stoltz. The opening-night film, also to be shown at the Directors Guild, has yet to be announced. Also not announced are three centerpiece premieres. Screenings will take place at the Directors Guild, Harmony Gold, Laemmle Sunset 5 and the Los Angeles Film School theaters.
