Two South African films have scooped top honours at the 14th Annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival (PAFF) in Los Angeles.
Mark Dornford-May’s ‘Son of Man’ won the Festival Award for Best Feature, while Donovan Marsh’s ‘Dollars and White Pipes’ won the Jury Prize for Best Director – First Feature.
The award for ‘Son of Man’ promises to be the first of many, as Dornford-May’s film that translates Jesus’ life to modern Africa, as he incites revolution during a military dictatorship, was chosen for the World Cinema competition category at the Sundance Film Festival in the US earlier this year.
Marsh’s ‘Dollars and White Pipes’ is based on the rags-to-riches life story of Bernard Baaitjies who grew up in Hanover Park and stars a host of Cape talent, among whom are Clint Brink (Generations), Joey Yusuf Rasdien, Shaun Arnolds, Genevieve Howard and Nikki Nelson.
“Dollars And White Pipes is an original South African story. It deals with important social issues, while at the same time being very entertaining,” producer Anant Singh of Videovision (‘Yesterday’) said at the time of the film’s local release.
The PAFF is attended by some 150 000 people, and is the largest event in Black History Month in the United States.
Known as the largest and most prestegious Black film festival in North America, PAFF screens over 150 films from the U.S., Africa, the Caribbean, South America, the South Pacific, Europe and Canada, made by or about people of African descent.
Story courtesy of iafrica.com
