Winnie vs. Winnie

The biographic film Winnie is no stranger to controversy. During its casting phase there was much hullabaloo about the casting of African Americans Oscar Winner Jennifer Hudson and Oscar Nominee Terrence Howard. The two Americans play Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Nelson Mandela respectively. This, however, did not go down with many South Africans who felt that such iconic roles should be given to South African actors.

Fast forward a year or so later- Winnie is now in post-production and yet another fracas has erupted. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela herself has openly

scorned the production by calling it an insult. Her resentment towards a movie about her life stems out of the fact that the apartheid veteran was not consulted in the making of the film.

South African director James Roodt is responsible for production of Winnie and he has described the motion picture as the ultimate women’s movie and an amazing love story. Madikizela-Mandela, however, told CNN that it was disrespectful to make a movie about her struggle a romantic feature.
Madikizela-Mandela's lawyers wrote to the filmmakers last year threatening action to stop production but they went ahead. They in turn took the decision not to show Madikizela-Mandela the script.

FREEDOM fighting in Cinema

35 years later the events 16th of June 1976 are salient in the south African psyche. The Soweto Uprising, AKA "June 16", was a series of student-led protests in South Africa that began on the morning of June 16, 1976. Students from numerous Sowetan schools began to protest in the streets of Soweto, in response to the introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in local schools. An estimated 20 000 students took part in the protests, and roughly 176 people were killed. The 16th of June is now a public holiday named Youth Day. It is remembrance of the events in 1976.

As I sat home and enjoyed the holiday I began thinking about how the world of cinema has chronicled Africa's fight for freedom. Mapantsula, Battle for Algiers, Flame immediately come to mind. I would have appreciated watching these types of movies on national TV to celebrate the sacrifice made by our freedom fighters but it seems national broadcaster’s don’t share my sentiments.

FAVOURITE AFRICAN FILM

A while ago a posted the question- "What is your FAVOURITE AFRICAN FILM of all time?" on LinkedIn. Many responses were posted on this LinkedIn discussion and I am very impressed with the diversity of answers in terms of genre, country of origin and era of production. Taking a glimpse at what different people consider their favourite film is a testament that African cinema has come a long way and has now firmly established itself as market to be reckoned with. This was an education on the vastness of African Cinema. I am making it my personal mission to watch all these African gems of cinema i have not watched yet.

The following movies made it to the list (A DROP IN THE OCEAN)
Yesterday
District 9
Tsotsi
Neria
Yellow Card (My Choice)
White Wedding
Jerusalema
Jump the Gun
Moolaade
Chickn Buziness
Elolipop
Zeinabu Rudi Nyumbani
Otto the bloodbath
Heritage Africa
The flyers

Afro documentary making

Documentaries are part of cinema too and so rightly deserve a blog post too. Organisers of Toronto's Hot Docs will administer a $1 Million documentary fund geared toward nurturing emerging African film filmmakers.

the fright is in the air

Is it me or has there been a sudden influx of horror movies from the African continent? If it’s not about vampire it’s zombies or cannibals from the Kalahari.

Taharuki

Kenya and the US have teamed up to produce a fascinating short film named Taharuki aka Suspense. Taharuki is a 12 minute Kiswahili film set in the post-election violence of Kenya 2008. It is a fictional account of a man and a woman from different tribes working for an underground movement seeking to expose a child trafficking cartel.

The interesting thing about this film is that though set in Kenya it was entirely shot in Brooklyn, New York. Due to the very tight budget everyone volunteered their labour free of

charge. The location,a nursery, was donated for 24 hours.

The movie was written, directed and produced by Musangi-Omari and Co-produced Kia Barbee. The three roles in the movie are played by US-based Kenyan actors.

Durban International Film Festival

The Durban International Film festival is on the horizon and I very excited about it. DIFF is South Africa’s longest-running film festival, the Durban International Film Festival runs across 12 days at the end of July, presenting over 250 screenings of current films from around the world, with strong focus on South African and African cinema. Screenings take place throughout Durban including township areas where cinemas are non-existent. The festival also runs extensive seminar and workshop programmes to stimulate industry capacity. This Includes the participation of 40 filmmakers from Africa in Talent Campus Durban, a cooperation with the Berlin Film Festival, and the Durban FilmMart, a film financing initiative in partnership with Durban Film Office. DIFF is organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN).