South African continental pay-TV channel M-Net will be offering its catalogue of local TV series, films and documentaries for buyers and distributors attending MIPTV featuring MILIA, the premier market which takes place in Cannes, France from 7 to 11 April.
“Nothing, But the Truth’ is the 80-minute debut feature from acclaimed South African actor and writer John Kani. This gripping story is a forthright indictment on the Truth and Reconciliation process in post-Apartheid South Africa, yet also serves as poignant memoir of a fractured family trying to come to terms with the past and present.
“Cool Earth Series’ (75 min), an M-Net / Carte Blanche Production, provides an African perspective on global warming. It investigates stories from around Africa and the rest of the world, unique stories which aim to increase awareness about the crises around global warming and climate change.
The backdrop to Katinka Heyns’ “Feast of the Uninvited’ (8 x 52 min) is the South African Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), fought between the British Empire and two Boer republics in Southern Africa. This drama series focuses on the lives of those who had to endure and suffer through it. To Captain Brooks, Harry the Welsh miner, the wealthy Van Wyk family and people like Daantjie van Wyk and his beautiful wife, Magrieta, the war became the ultimate test of who they really were.
From Oscar-nominated director Darrell Roodt (“Yesterday’) comes the six-part mini-series “Ella Blue’. Set in 1961, the series tells the story of a woman’s physical,
emotional and spiritual journey through the process of race classification during the reign of the Apartheid government in South Africa. Ella and her family have lived peacefully for generations in a remote fishing village on the Cape Coast, until the day it is announced that a Government Census Official is arriving to classify every person according to their colour.
Andrew Timm’s 13-part sitcom “The Coconuts’ is about a white South African family which ignores the warning of a mysterious old man not to park their holiday caravan in the burial grounds of his ancestors. They laugh him off and wake up the next morning totally transformed into black African people. “The Coconuts’ is a “high concept’ South African sitcom hinging on a fantastical premise, but dealing with day-to-day characters,relationships, prejudices and stereotypes.
At MIPTV, M-Net offers Season 2 (13 x 48-minutes) of the phenomenally successful drama series, “Jacob’s Cross’, directed by Neil Sundstrom. The series tells of one man’s quest to build the next great African empire. A gripping exploration of African identity, legacy and belonging – the story centres around Jacob Makhubu, the son of a South African mother and Nigerian father – a high powered executive in a Nigerian-owned oil company based in Johannesburg.
David Lister’s “Known Gods’ (26 x 48 min) is set in the lush, beautiful and mountainous South African wine valley and follows the adventures of four wine-making families. These families are surrounded by history, mystery, love … and murder.
Season 2 (52 x 30 minutes) of Gary Rathbone’s “Futbol Africa’ will be available at MIPTV. This dynamic series was first established in February 2006 as a magazine show focusing on all aspects of African Soccer. No other programme dealing with the subject of African football anywhere else in the world, provides the depth and detail of the game and the people who currently define it. The series is presented in English and has available a Portuguese version.
South Africa’s first-ever dedicated skateboard series, “Kurb’ (13 x 24min) by Johan Beukes and Jamie O’Brien, brings you the “ins and outs’ of skateboard passion. Delivered as a dynamic and fast-paced package, each episode takes an in-depth look at top skateboarders and also offers the viewer a slice of the country’s skateboarding history with archival footage dating back to the year 2000. Footage includes “never-seen-before’ events such as Tony Hawk’s visit to South Africa. The programme boasts of a powerful sound-track that blends music from acoustic and electro to metal and rock.
Julian Shaw’s 52-minute documentary “Darling’ places the popular and acclaimed South African satirist and social activist, Pieter-Dirk Uys in a whole new light. Never shy of tackling even the most controversial of national issues, Uys uses his inimitable skill as a mimic and raconteur to highlight and politicise key social issues of importance to South Africans and the world at large. “Darling’ won 2nd Prize: Audience Award in the Panorama Section of 2008 Berlin International Film Festival.
Sharon Farr and Lee Otten’s “The Bram Fischer Story – Love, Communism, Revolution & Rivonia’ (80 minutes) is a powerful documentary that reveals the personal journey of Bram Fischer – the white South African attorney responsible for saving Nelson Mandela and other top ANC leaders from execution during the Rivonia Treason Trial. This is a deeply moving account of a man who spent his early years entrenched in the aristocracy of Afrikanerdom and later catapulted to become a South African Communist Party leader in the struggle against apartheid.
In “Search for Glory’ (52 min), Rod Hay examines the meaning of soccer to the continent of Africa and its people. A high energy film that examines African prospects in the run up to the 1998 World Cup in France, including footage of past African soccer highlights. “Search for Glory’ documents the history and commitment of African football through the years. Through unique on-field moments, and off-field analysis and interviews, it traces Africa’s winners and losers at club and individual level,
