The Bridget Jones Phenomenon in South Africa
South Africa 2006 48min
Dir: Wendy Hardie
In this dynamic, pertinent and fun investigation, four talented, beautiful, independent and unmarried thirty-something women embark on a quest to see if they are the only women in Cape Town, or indeed the world, who are still single. And if so, why? Growing up on a rich diet of romantic fairytales, the four sassy, successful singletons sip cosmopolitans and wonder just what is keeping their knight in shining armour. Has woman’s lib literally given him the willies? Have men been left behind in the changing times? Is compromise as dirty a word as commitment? Would he rather sit in a Jacuzzi surrounded by buxom twenty-somethings? Despite an irreverent approach Hardie asks some hard-hitting, insightful questions, and not just, where have all the good men gone?
Courtesy of the SABC and the Director
JOHANNESBURG MON 17 6.45pm
CAPE TOWN WED 26 8.45pm MON 31 6.30pm
Bushman’s Secrets
South Africa 2006 64min Subtitles
Dir: Rehad Desai
Deep within the Kalahari live the original custodians of Africa. In this hostile environment, the San’s ancient knowledge ensures a symbiotic relationship with the harsh climate, plants and animals. But for centuries, the San were judged as inferior and their land exploited. Today they are still marginalised and, unable to hunt and gather, continue to live in poverty. Then one of their medicine plants, hoodia, is discovered as a miracle diet drug and has been patented by a giant pharmaceutical company. Just what does this now mean for the Khomani San – unknown riches or the plant vanishing from the landscape? The filmmaker walks through the Kalahari with a traditional healer, Jan van der Westhuizen, to explore the collision of corporate might and ancient ways.
Courtesy of Uhuru Productions
JOHANNESBURG FRI 14 6.30pm SUN 23 4.15pm
CAPE TOWN SAT 29 8pm WED 2 6.45pm
From Nkoko…with Love
South Africa 2006 48min Subtitles
Dir: Karin Slater
“What am I going to leave my grandchildren? How am I going to show them how I grew up?” asks the spry seventy-four year old Grace Masuku. As tribal matriarch of the Bakgatla ba Kgafela tribe and a retired headmistress, she answers her own question by instructing her six year old grandchild and travelling the region, sharing her conviction in the power of indigenous knowledge and the value of natural resources with the youth. As Masuku missions around her province, her diverse teachings range from Tswana ancestors, sex education, and healing plants that, among other things, delay puberty and prevent menopause. The compelling joy of this film is not just Masuku’s personality and knowledge, but her forthright ability to embarrass teenagers make them listen.
Courtesy of the SABC and the Director
JOHANNESBURG SAT 15 6.30pm
CAPE TOWN MON 31 6.45pm
Homesick
South Africa 2006 72min Subtitles
Dir: Asivhanzhi Mathaba
Cruising the nightclubs of a psychedelic Hong Kong is a young, vibrant and forthright South African singer called Precious Unathi Motsweni. Precious considers her current career path a stepping-stone to international recognition. That has already involved cosmetic surgery and a trip to Dubai. But the resolute pursuit of stardom continues and so we chase her from her agent’s office in Johannesburg to a studio in Hong Kong to another back in Johannesburg. But while Precious’ determined ambition is remarkable, her sensitive and giving nature emerges when she returns to her rural home. There we see Precious tackle her unresolved and painful history that includes a broken home, an indifferent father, a now sober grandmother, and a not so sober mother.
Courtesy of the Director
JOHANNESBURG THU 20 6.30pm
CAPE TOWN MON 24 6.45pm
OPENING NIGHT
WORLD PREMIÈRE
Johnny Appels – the Last Strandloper
South Africa 2006 24min Subtitles
Dir: Michael Raimondo
As the Atlantic breeze, this light and charming film sees Johnny Appels, and his merry band of hounds, daily teeter across the ancient slippery rock walls of Arniston’s fish traps, catching the fish and octopus left behind by the tide. Living according to the rhythm of the ocean, Appels loves his life, making his living from nature’s bounty using an age-old method handed down from the original inhabitants, the Khoisan. But Appel’s life has not always been so fulfilling. His stint in Victor Verster Prison for stabbing and assault left a tattooed body with eyes in the back of his legs and a determination to return to the sea. When he received amnesty, he headed back to the shore and began the process of repairing himself and the traps.
Courtesy of the SABC and the Director
Screens with Our Daily Bread
JOHANNESBURG THU 13 8pm SUN 23 8.15pm
CAPE TOWN THU 20 8pm MON 31 8.30pm FRI 4 8.45pm
Mixed Blessings
South Africa 2006 48min
Dir: Gillian Schutte & Fumane Diseko
Although striving for raceless society, the reality of living in South Africa is very different. In this sincere documentary, two sets of interracial parents look at how their children view the issue of race. Although neither Fumane nor Gillian wish their children to be viewed as ‘coloured’, what will they ultimately think of themselves? And how will their own political, cultural and intellectual upbringing and sensitivities contribute to their children’s idea of self and interaction with the world. Ultimately the children must decide for themselves. But for now, Kai, son of Gillian and Sipho, is a happy, self-possessed little boy who thinks of himself as golden. And Rehumile, the eldest of Fumane and Francisco’s three children, applies a liberating attitude – she is Worldian, a person of the world.
Courtesy of the SABC and the Director
JOHANNESBURG FRI 21 6.45pm
CAPE TOWN MON 31 8.30pm
The Mother’s House
South Africa 2005 76min Subtitles
Dir: Francois Verster
Charming and precocious, Miche Moses is a normal, conflicted teenager, but she lives in Bonteheuwel, on the Cape Flats where opportunity is frustrated by poverty, joy by anger, and love by violence. Miche’s mother, ex-Struggle activist Valencia, is proud and beautiful but unemployed, single and expecting her third child. Valencia’s mother, Amy, is a powerful, dominant matriarch who is the sole provider. As the birth of Miche’s sibling approaches, Valencia’s hormones rage out of control and so does her fiery temper and violent impatience. Navigating the tension that bounces off her at home, whilst doing her chores and schoolwork, Miche is pulled between her love for both her mother and her grandmother. At the same time, she must make her sense of the confusing and often violent world around her.
Best Documentary. Cape Town International Film Festival 2005. Premio Diocesi di Milano. Milan African, Asian and South American Film Festival 2005
Courtesy of the SABC and the Director
JOHANNESBURG SAT 15 2.15pm
CAPE TOWN WED 2 8pm
Mr. Devious: My Life
South Africa 2005 48min Subtitles
Dir: John W. Fredericks
From the seemingly endless gang violence of Beacon Valley, Mitchell’s Plain, emerges a young vibrant charismatic talent in the form of Mario “Mr. Devious” van Rooy. Shunning the cyclical debt of fame offered in Johannesburg, Devious returns to the Cape Flats determined to use his brand of hip hop activism to inspire the youth at risk and offer a creative alternative to juvenile offenders in prisons across the Cape. But, just as his message of non-violence is starting to get through, he is killed when rescuing his father from teenage muggers. Devastated by the loss of a close friend, the filmmaker explores Devious’ life, and the future of his legacy that now lies with his young widow and mother of his three children, Natalie.
Courtesy of the SABC and the Director
JOHANNESBURG SAT 22 8.45pm
CAPE TOWN FRI 28 8.45pm SAT 5 8.45pm
Rape for who I am
South Africa 2006 26min
Dir: Lovinsa Kavuma
South Africa is infamous for its rape statistics where a woman is raped every 29 seconds. But this insightful and revelatory film takes you into the marginalised society of black lesbians, and a worrying trend that seems to be on the increase. Bathini, Keva and Mary have been raped by men they knew – men who wanted to teach them how to be ‘real women’. The surprising thing is that these were not just homophobic men either, one rapist was gay. And others in the group talk of regularly being beaten by their partners. These women boldly tell their story and refuse to become victims of their sexuality. Our Constitution enshrines their right to equality, but society seems to be taking a while to catch up.
Courtesy of the Director
Rape for who I am shows with the following three Out In Africa Shorts:
Enraged by a Picture
South Africa 2004 15min
Dir: Zanele Muholi
A photographer, Muholi is celebrating her exhibition in Johannesburg. Efficiently confrontational, the exhibition causes a stir and provokes an outcry on a subject that is particularly taboo: being black and, in this case, being lesbian. Forthright and beautifully shot, each monochrome photo captures the present reality of the photographer’s subjects – the daily discomfort, double lives, abuse and hatred. The photographs present a window into their world. This absorbing documentary explores that world’s reality.
Ndim Ndim – It’s me, It’s me
South Africa 2005 8min
Dir: Martha Qumba
This is a fascinating portrait of brave, quietly persistent Funeka Soldaat who is an out lesbian and anti-abuse activist. Living in the controlled homophobia of her Xhosa-dominated community in Khayelitsha, Funeka’s single-handed education of those around her progresses slowly but surely.
Possessed by Demons
South Africa 2004 4min
Dir: Nokuthula Dhladhla
This is a personal account of a congregation’s medieval and masculine response to a lesbian in their midst. Their brutal quest to cast out her male demons hardens her resolve to live as God’s creation.
JOHANNESBURG MON 17 6.45pm
CAPE TOWN TUE 1 6.45pm
Senzeni Na What have we done
South Africa 2006 58min Subtitles
Dir: Portia Rankoane
Tsietsi Mashinini, the leader of the Soweto student uprising, was the apartheid government’s most wanted man in 1976. Forced into exile, he died under mysterious circumstances in Guinea Conakry, never to harvest the fruits of freedom in his homeland.
By means of rare archive and interviews with his close friends, comrades and family, the film goes beyond Tsietsi’s myth to discover what really happened to him in exile in West Africa. It depicts in detail the prelude to the momentous events that led up to June 16th 1976, and the unraveling of his political and social life after his marriage to beauty queen, Welma Campbell. It is both a celebration of, and a tribute to, a great revolutionary whose actions and those of his comrades, changed the course of history forever.
Courtesy of the SABC and the Director
JOHANNESBURG FRI 21 8.45pm
CAPE TOWN SAT 29 6pm THU 3 8.45pm
Soweto Blues
South Africa 2006 90min
Dir: Faith Isiakpere
On the 16th June 1976, thousands of children took to the streets of Soweto in a peaceful protest. The apartheid government’s violent reaction created chaos and carnage and irrevocably changed the political landscape in South Africa. Due to heavy press censorship at the time messages of liberation and resistance that erupted after this day filtered out through music, to be heard around the world. Hugh Masekela immortalised the events in his lament Extensive interviews conducted with members from South Africa’s golden hall of musical fame – including Masekela, Hotstix Mabuse, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Jennifer Ferguson, and also Sono Okosun, Lance Gewer, and Duma Nhlovu – explore very personal perceptions of what the uprising meant and how it altered the conscious of politics and society in South Africa.
Courtesy of the SABC and the Director
JOHANNESBURG SUN 16 5.45pm
CAPE TOWN SAT 22 6pm