Father Geek signing in with SOTHA's latest issue of Africa-AICN. As usual there's a great review from Rigobert Song, too. The other night at Tarantino's little festival of films from his personal collection we were treated to a great lost film set in Africa. THE DARK OF THE SUN is a wonderful yarn about war and mercenaries in the Congo of the 1960's. It doesn't pretend to be a history lesson but is instead a fantastic action/adventure set against the more garish headlines of the era. It stars Jim Brown and Australian actor Rod Taylor and together they will knock your socks off! Catch this one if you can... Now on to the good Doctor and his regular report...
I think you'll all find it comforting, that despite all the crime, murder,
blackmail, sexual harassment, and the constant threat of jaywalking plaguing
the world, that I, DR.SOTHA, have managed to cure 'bolscue' - an absolutely
lethal disease that is transmitted via contact with walruses. Now I know
what you're saying, 'walruses, they're harmless'. Wrong, those tusks are
there for a reason. The victim comes down with severe sneezing. With my
anecdote, coined 'spiketusk', victims are cured within hours.
To order your very own 'spiketusk' e-mail me at africaaicn@hotmail.com
Nurse Hollis, there 'are' discounts for Nepal residents.
SOUTH AFRICA
To order your very own 'spiketusk' e-mail me at africaaicn@hotmail.com
Nurse Hollis, there 'are' discounts for Nepal residents.
SOUTH AFRICA
SOUTH AFRICA
* Now celebrating its 22nd year The Durban International Film Festival which takes place at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, University of Natal from September 17 to 30, is a unique phenomenon on the local cultural calendar. In a time when the television industry is centred in Gauteng and foreign production houses favour Cape Town as a location, the city of Durban lays claim to producing the country's largest and liveliest film festival. Hosted by the University of Natal's Centre for Creative Arts the festival this year presents a diverse world-class selection of over 70 films within a two-week festival format, most of them first-time premiere screenings in Durban. Cutting-edge genres and high-art films will share a platform with topical documentaries and selected mainstream blockbusters of tomorrow. Comedies, thrillers, jazz films, children's films, short films, animations and a touch of the macabre are also included. Films from 30 countries and 6 continents are represented, and the international nature of the festival is balanced with a highlighted component of the finest of South African and African cinema. A feature of the festival is the presence of visiting directors who introduce their films and discuss cinematic techniques and approaches in the seminar and workshop programmes designed to inspire developing local filmmakers. The successful response to the workshops in 2000 demonstrates the enthusiasm for film in KZN and resulted in the expansion of this component of the festival. Amongst the local directors already confirmed are William Kentridge who brings a selection of his animation films, and the award-winning director of Yizo-Yizo, Teboho Mahlatsi. Oliver Schmitz, who produced the ground-breaking "Mapantsula" in the "80's will introduce his new work "Hijack Stories", in the first-ever screening of this film on South African soil. Illustrious international directors will also contribute their experience and expertise. The workshop programme and outreach screenings are all part of a focused process to stimulate filmmakers, develop new audiences and broaden the appreciation of film in as inclusive a way as possible. Durban hosts excellent basic infrastructure, the region at large offers a fantastic range of locations, a rich African culture and heritage, and warm audiences. KZN deserves to feature more prominently in the development strategy of the film industry in South Africa and the Durban International Film Festival is part of the process of confirming public interest in film and filmmaking. A special talkshop motivating for the establishment of a Durban Film Office such as that in Cape Town and Johannesburg will be held. The primary screening venue for the festival is the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre with special showings at the Berea Cine Centre and outreach screenings in township areas where cinema facilities are non-existent. For full programme details visit www.und.ac.za/und/carts/.
* The 'most beautiful and efficient bioscope in the Great Karoo' switches its lights on once more. Apollo Theatre, a classic Art Deco cinema in Victoria West which lay hidden behind a chainstore clothing shop for 20 years, is sparkling, as the star attraction in a story of Karoo vision and energy. As a cinema built in 1923 and upgraded in the 1950s, the Apollo is an authentic flickhouse down to the pompoms on the sateen swags. Its milkshake-green walls carry framed portraits of fresh young stars like Liz Taylor, Lana Turner and Errol Flynn. Stage curtains of ruby velvet swish open and closed at the push of a button in the projection room. How did such a historic treasure remain intact? A Greek immigrant, Andrew Aristides Bassil, arrived in Victoria-West in 1923 to run the Good Hope Cafe. A few years later, he built the Apollo Theatre behind his original business. In 1957, an upgraded Apollo re-opened. The local press immediately described it as "the most beautiful and efficient bioscope in the Great Karoo". But the passing years took their toll. Bassil died in 1973. The new owner, Cas le Grange, continued to show flicks but the venture sputtered to an end with television and platteland depopulation. Le Grange, however, was sentimentally attached to Victoria-West and to Apollo. So, instead of selling the building or turning it into a warehouse, he erected a brick wall between the foyer and the cinema and leased the ex-foyer to the clothing chain. Le Grange moved to Cape Town, and the spacious moviehouse lay in dusty darkness until writer David Robbins moved to Victoria-West. "I was staggered to find that none of this was being used," he said. He started the Apollo Development Association (ADA) and, thereby, the rebirth of Apollo, a project sponsored by De Beers and DACST. And now Apollo's first independent film festival opens on 26 September and runs until 6 October. Apollo will once again be the main attraction in Victoria-West's double feature of cultural past and confident future. For more details on the forthcoming independent film festival, email apollotheatre@intekom.co.za or go to www.heritage.org.za/apollo.
* The Jameson Audience Award, the first such accolade to be awarded at the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, was won by the South African film, The Great Dance: A Hunter's Story. Craig & Damon Foster's feature documentary about the San people in the Kalahari, walked off with both the Encounters Jameson Audience Award for Best Documentary, and Best South African Documentary at the recent Encounters Festival, held in Cape Town, South Africa. The Jameson Audience Award was created especially for Encounters by Jameson Irish Whiskey and 20/20 Filmworks. The Great Dance was produced by Ellen Windemuth and executive produced by James Hersov.
* "I amuse you, I'm here to fucking amuse you" - The South African Box Office hits out against constant criticism: The romantic antics of Renee Zellwegger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth in the comedy hit, Bridget Jones' Diary, are pulling in South African cinema goers as the film clocked up R2 939 618 (about the price of a strip of beef jerky in North America - DR.SOTHA) in its first week of release. In the number two spot at the local box office is the CGI humanoid offering, Final Fantasy, followed by a rampant John Travolta in Swordfish. Along Came A Spider and Crocodile Dundee are in fourth and fifth place respectively.
* South Africa's The Jupiter Drawing Room has just been ranked as one of the top five advertising agencies in the world by the prestigious US publication Advertising Age. Advertising Age's Creativity Magazine has released its annual ranking of the top winners at the most prestigious creative awards shows in the world. They are 1. Cliff Freeman & Partners (US); 2. Goodby Silverstein & Partners (US); 3. Arnold Worldwide (US); 4. BMP DDB (UK); 5. The Jupiter Drawing Room (SA); 6. TBWA / Chiat / Day (US); 7. Leo Burnett (UK); 8. Ogilvy & Mather (Singapore); 9. F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi (Brazil); 10. CLM BBDO (France). The ranking was based on the following shows - The Art Director's Club of New York, The Andy's, The One Show, the Cannes Lions, the Clios and the AICP show. The Jupiter Drawing Room is entirely home grown and one hundred percent South African-owned.
NORTH AFRICA
* The Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) is accepting submissions for its 10th Anniversary Festival which will take place from 7 to 18 February 2002 in Los Angeles. PAFF is the largest and most prestigious Black Film Festival in the United States. PAFF showcases narrative and documentary features and shorts made by or about African Americans and all people of African descent. Awards are given for best narrative feature and short, best documentary, jury award, directors' award, audience favourite, best new acting talent and best first feature director. The deadline for submissions is 31 October. There is no submission fee. To obtain submission forms and guidelines telephone 323 295-1706 or email lapaff@aol.com
Another illuminating review by our Rigobert Song
African-American features and documentaries have challenged me over the last
6 weeks, and FROSH is no exception. It's a realistic portrayal of college
life, and particularly focuses on the struggles that minority students are
confronted with year after year. Before I get on with the review, remember
to e-mail me at rigobertsong@hotmail.com with your thoughts.
FROSH - Produced & Directed by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller -- 98 Minutes
Freshman year. What could be more challenging, disorienting, exhilerating,
depressing? Two award-winning filmmakers- one male, one female- returned to
college with their cameras. They spent a year living in a co-ed,
multicultural, freshman residence hall at Stanford University. They shot at
2:00 AM bull sessions, in co-ed bathrooms, classrooms and deans offices, and
on trips home during winter break. Their unprecedented cinema verite
documentary captures the freshman world of scary freedoms and new lifestyles
in all its thrilling anxiety. The students discover they face much more than
the traditional academic pressures. Campus life is wracked with unexpected
social conflicts:
Frosh traces a dramatic journey of social experimentation and intellectual curiosity, cultural clashes and spiritual crisis, academic pressure and adjustment problems, but ultimately, individual self-discovery within a diverse community. Nothing less than a contemporary American coming of age story, Frosh is a classic of student life. Frosh's frank and open approach to gender, racial, political, and academic issues common to all campuses will help prepare any student for the challenges of college life. Ideal for use in: Freshman year, residential life, counseling, and other student activities programs, and for training professional and para-professional staff. Ultimately, this a fascinating portrayal of the freshman year experience. An intimate look at real students living and working together. It beautifully dramatizes the importance of students and peers and of residential life." Variety called it " engaging and well-observed. Frosh fascinates in its reflection of the shifting 1990s cultural landscape." - Variety
* The Zimbabwean film, Yellow Card, has been selected by Kenya Airways to feature in their international In Flight Entertainment from August through October 2001. This arrangement was secured by Nairobi-based ACE Communications, the distributors representing the film in Kenya. The producers of Yellow Card believe that this is the first time that an African film will feature on a major international airline. Kenya Airways in collaboration with KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) is the second largest African Airlines (after South African Airlines) with international flights from Kenya across Africa as well as to Asia and Europe.
* The SACOD Forum 2001 will take place from the 22- 26 October 2001 in Lesotho. This is a call for entries for completed films and videos, of any length, that support the SACOD theme, produced after 1st January 1999. The objective of the Forum is to enable directors in Africa to make more effective programmes on social issues, such as social, political and developmental issues, intending to inform, educate, entertain and importantly, to motivate and stimulate our audiences to take action in a personal or organised way. For more visit www.sacod.org.za.
AFRICAN AMERICAN
* Samuel L. Jackson is in negotiations to star opposite Jennifer Lopez in Columbia Pictures' "Tick-Tock" for director Steve Norrington. Production is slated to begin by year's end. "Tick-Tock," written by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry, tells the story of an amnesiac who wakes up in the custody of the FBI and discovers that he is the prime suspect in a series of bombings in Los Angeles. Hofflund/Polone's Gavin Polone is producing the project. Columbia Pictures executive vp production Matt Tolmach is overseeing for the studio along with creative executive Rachel O'Connor. Jackson, repped by ICM and Artists Management Group, next stars in Paramount Pictures' "Changing Lanes" and the indie feature "51st State."
* Will Smith and James Lassiter's Overbrook Entertainment has teamed with Absolute Entertainment to produce a remake of the 1980 comedy feature "Nine to Five" at Fox Searchlight Pictures. The new version will feature three black women at a black workplace, with Jada Pinkett Smith potentially taking on one of the roles. Rob Edwards, who worked on Will Smith's television series "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," is writing the script. The original film, released by Fox, starred Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton as secretaries who take revenge on their boss by trapping him in his home and assuming control of his department. (I can't see it, but maybe that's just me - DR.SOTHA
* London-based Film Four ("Sexy Beast") has optioned writer Randall Sullivan's Rolling Stone magazine article "The Murder of the Notorious B.I.G." for Killer Films ("Boys Don't Cry") to produce. The article, published June 7, is now being expanded to a book by Sullivan titled "LAbyrinth," which also was optioned by Film Four. The article and book follow detective Russell Poole's investigation into the murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls, the implication of Death Row Records' Suge Knight and the origins of the Los Angeles Police Department Rampart scandal. Both will be used as underlying source material to create a film about police, gang and hip-hop culture in Los Angeles during the mid-1990s. "The goal is to create a sophisticated urban thriller with the depth of an epic social drama much in the way Martin Scorsese did with his Italian street films such as 'GoodFellas' and (as Sergio Leone did with) 'Once Upon a Time in America,' " said Film Four's James Wilson, who is overseeing the project and will co-produce.
* Ice Cube has come aboard to star in the MGM comedy "Barbershop" for first-time director Tim Story. George Tillman and Robert Teitel's State Street Pictures is producing the project with the rapper-actor's production company, CubeVision. "Barbershop" will begin production early next year, after Ice Cube wraps a starring role in "Friday After Next," the third installment of the New Line franchise slated to go in the fall. "Barbershop," described as a cross between "Diner" and "Car Wash," is about a day at a barber shop on Chicago's South Side. Cube will star as Calvin, the shop's proprietor. Mark Brown wrote the script, with a rewrite by Don D. Scott. Brown also will produce the project along with Tillman and Teitel. CubeVision's Matt Alvarez is executive producing with Brown's manager Larry Kennar.
* More Ice Cube coming at ya. New Line has picked up the pitch "From the Old School," which actors Ice Cube and John Witherspoon will write as a vehicle for Witherspoon to star in. Ice Cube will also produce the project with Matt Alvarez under their New Line-based CubeVision. The project reunites Ice Cube and Witherspoon, who worked together on the studio's first two installments of the Ice Cube-created "Friday" franchise -- "Friday" and "Next Friday." "School," billed as an urban "Grumpy Old Men," follows four elderly black men who foil a local thug's attempt to replace their longtime corner store with a strip club. New Line executives Stokely Chaffin and Matt Moore are overseeing the project.
* And now something for the 'survivor' in all of us: Disgraced singer Fabrice Morvan of 80s miming duo Milli Vanilli has been attempting a comeback career. The Girl You Know It's True band were chosen by Eurodisco producer Frank Farian to lip-sync to other singers' vocals, until it was later exposed that Fabrice and the late Rob Pilatus - who died of a drug overdose in 1998 - were miming. Now Morvan, 35, is touring America with the Malibu Rum Showerpalooza, a travelling karaoke booth in a shower stall with fake shower sights and sounds. Malibu Rum spokesman Stuart Kirby explains, "We asked ourselves, who in the music community sings but is almost in a position to make fun of themselves? Fabrice immediately popped to mind." The show opened in an Indianapolis, Indiana last Wednesday and will move on to Milwaukee - Wisconsin, Chicago - Illinois and Minneapolis next week.
* Despite continued criticism by the NAACP that networks are still doing too little to promote racial diversity in front of and behind the cameras, another study has indicated that recent gains by African-Americans on TV may be substantial. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, a study by media-buying group Initiative Media indicates that on average, 16 percent of all major characters on the six networks are black, with Fox and NBC doubling the number of major African-American characters in their shows during the past season.
