More than 200 films from more than 95 countries and spread over more than 300 screenings at 26 venues will comprise the Durban International Film Festival, which runs from 23 July to 3 August.
South Africa’s longest funning film festival will once again provide a window into world cinema, bringing together established masters as well as innovative new talents.
Alongside the presentation of the some of the year’s finest films, the festival will run an extensive workshop and seminar programme giving the region’s aspirant filmmakers an opportunity to learn from and be inspired by some of cinema’s greats.
Opening the festival is the African Premiere of Ralph Ziman’s Jerusalema, a gritty gangster thriller set on the harsh streets of Johannesburg. The festival will close with Mike Leigh’s uplifting new comedy, Happy-Go-Lucky.
Says festival director Peter Rorvik: “DIFF provides access to many different cultures and provides a space in which the cinematic art form transcends national boundaries. The recent tragic events in South Africa give cause to highlight what has long been a central idea of the Durban International Film Festival: to create understanding and acceptance of different
cultures through the medium of film. A special programme of films focuses on the issue of xenophobia, and some of its attendant roots such as racism, migration and poverty.’
Under the banner Love Film, Hate Xenophobia, the festival will present films such as Darrell James Roodt’s Zimbabwe, which looks at the arduous journey a young woman makes from Zimbabwe to South Africa; Penny Woolcock’s Exodus which imagines a near-future England in which foreigners
are incarcerated in a ghetto; the moving Canadian film Family Motel about
Somalian refugees; Victims of Our Richness, which dissects the
exploitation and brutality experienced by desperate Malian migrants; and a
selection of specially commissioned films under the banner Filmmakers
Against Racism made specifically about the xenophobic attacks.
The selection of films will also see some of the world’s finest and most
critically-acclaimed directors represented by their new works including
Gus Van Sant (Paranoid Park), Abolfazl Jalili (Hafez), Buddhadeb Dasgupta
(The Voyeurs), Brillante Mendoza (Slingshot and Foster Child), Atom Egoyan
(Adoration), George Clooney (Leatherheads), Andrey Zvyagintsev (The
Banishment), Santosh Sivan (Before The Rains), Doris Dorrie (Cherry
Blossoms – Hanami), Fatih Akin (The Edge Of Heaven), Takeshi Kitano (Glory
To The Filmmaker), Jiri Menzel (I Served The King Of England), Eran Riklis
(Lemon Tree), Josef Fares (Leo), Bela Tarr (The Man From London), Harmony
Korine (Mister Lonely), Pen-ek Ratanaruang (Ploy) and Carlos Reygadas (
Silent Light).
Says Nashen Moodley, DIFF’s manager and programmer: “While the selection
boasts a number of festival regulars and favourite directors, the very
exciting thing about this year’s programme is the large number of new
filmmakers represented. The festival of 2008 will be one of discovery: an
introduction to and celebration of the next generation of cinematic
legends.’
Films from new directors, many of which are included in the feature film
Competition, include: 57000 KM Between Us by Delphine Kreuter, Ain’t
Scared by Audrey Estrougo, Ballast by Lance Hammer, Captain Abu Raed by
Amin Matalqa, Control by Anton Corbijn, Frozen by Shivajee Chandrabhushan,
Garage by Lenny Abrahamson, Gardens Of The Night by Damian Harris, A
Hero’s Welcome by Brigitte Maria Bertele, Munyurangabo by Lee Isaac Chung,
Seven Days Sunday by Niels Laupert, Sita Sings The Blues by Nina Paley,
and A Song Of Good by Gregory King.
The festival will once again shine a spotlight on the cinema of Africa
under the African Perspectives theme, presenting the World Premieres of
Nothing But The Truth by John Kani, which is based on his popular play; My
Black Little Heart by Durban’s Claire Angelique, a dark look at Durban’s
underbelly; and uMalusi, directed by Mlandu Sikwebu and produced and shot
by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka. Following successful screenings in Toronto and
London, DIFFwill present the African Premiere of Shamim Sarif’s The World Unseen.
Other South African films include Land Of Thirst, directed by Meg Rickards
and produced by Durban’s Vuleka Productions; the Ugandan-South African
co-production Divizionz, directed by Yes! That’s Us; The Bird Can’t Fly, a
Dutch-South African co-production directed by Anna Threes; the satirical
animation, Tengers by Michael Rix; Darrell James Roodt’s Zimbabwe; and
Michael Raeburn’s much-anticipated Triomf, a controversial take on Marlene
Van Niekerk’s acclaimed novel.
DIFF gathers together an expressive concentration of 71 South African
films, comprising 10 feature films, 29 documentaries and 32 short films
which indicate the steady growth of filmmaking in this country.
Underscoring the broader African presence of a further 38 films from the
continent will be the Ousmane Sembene Retrospective, a presentation of all
the major works of the late, great father of African cinema.
Other themes and focus areas include New German Cinema, Indian Cinema, A
Focus On Italian Cinema, a selection of a number of films making up the
European Union Film Focus, as well as a series of films on music. August
is Woman’s Month in South Africa, and DIFF is pleased to present films
about women and films made by over forty women directors, including,
amongst others, 3 Women by Manjeh Hekmat and Unfinished Stories by Pouraya
Azarbayjani, both set in Iran; Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Frozen
River by Courtney Hunt about two single mothers; a Palestinian woman’s
struggle against Israeli paranoia and bureaucracy in Lemon Tree; Lucy
Walker’s Blindsight about six blind Tibetan students climbing Mount
Everest; Stephanie Black’s compelling unpacking of Bob Marley’s message in
Africa Unite ; and the world premiere of Karen Slater’s 50 Years of Love
which addresses the institution of marriage and its relevance in today’s
society.
The very popular Wavescapes Surf Film Festival returns to DIFF with
ripping hot surf screen action, which is the next best thing to being in
the tube itself. Wavescapes is based at the KwaSuka Theatre, with the
now-legendary outdoor screening at the Bay of Plenty Lawns on 27 July
launching Wavescapes with the film Highwater. Wavescapes, in partnership
with Save Our Seas, will also screen Shark Angels and closing film
Sharkwater, both films concerned with shark conservation. A special
pre-fest screening of Bustin’ Down The Door with renowned surfing hero
Shaun Tomson in attendance takes place on 3rd July at NuMetro Pavilion.
An especially strong documentary selection at the festival includes a
focus on environmental and economic issues. A highlight is Lisa Merton’s
Taking Root – The Vision of Wangari Maathai, about the Nobel Peace
Prize-winning Kenyan woman whose campaigning for a green Kenya drew
sometimes vicious response from government. Darfur – War for Water shows
how the war in Darfur is also about water. Also on the theme of water is
Flow: For the Love of Water, which focuses on how water and not oil is the
flagship concern of the future.
As the war in Iraq continues, filmmakers continue to engage with its
repercussions. In his extraordinary, prize-winning Standard Operating
Procedure, Errol Morris presents an examination of the US military abuses
in Abu Ghraib prison. Also featured is the Oscar-winning documentary Taxi
to the Dark Side (South African producer Don Edkins), and War, Love, God
and Madness by Mohamed Al-Daradji, about the difficulties experienced by
the filmmaker when shooting his Oscar contender Ahlaam in Baghdad in 2004.
An exciting increase in South African documentary production includes a
surge of activity in the KZN region. DIFF is screening Durban Poison, an
examination of the Stable Theatre in Durban, the first independent black
theatre in South Africa. KZN filmmaker Omelga Mthiyane will have three
films at DIFF: Flight Of The Dancer, Inanda – My Heritage and she was also
co-director on Between the Mountains and the Sea; while Tiny Mungwe
presents her debut Akekho uGogo. DIFF will also highlight KwaMashu – Still
My Home directed by UK-based Owen “Alik’ Shahadah and produced by Edmond
Mhlongo of K-Cap Productions; and Marc le Chat’s Stimela – The Search for
the Missing Chord, produced by Mandle Ndimande.
As the films unspool, a group of young African filmmakers will participate
in Talent Campus Durban, an intensive 5-day programme of workshops held in
cooperation with the Berlinale Talent Campus which forms part of the
Berlin International Film Festival. Under the theme “Producing African
Cinema for a New World’, participants will benefit from both theoretical
and practical approaches that enhance their cinematographic and creative
experience. The overall objective is to empower a new generation of
African filmmakers. In this period of social unrest wrongly targeting
“foreigners’ the Talent Campus Durban, with its 40 participants
representing 19 countries, can demonstrate the art of African
collaboration in action and celebrate the creative strength of diversity.
Festival funding partners SABC and National Film and Video Foundation will
maintain a strong participatory presence at BAT Centre where a packed
series of daily free seminars and workshops offer inspirational
opportunities across a range of filmmaking issues.
Principal screening venues of DIFF 2008 are Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre;
Nu-Metro Cinecentre – Suncoast; Ster Kinekor Musgrave, Cinema Nouveau –
Gateway; Ekhaya Multi-Arts Centre in KwaMashu; KwaSuka Theatre, and the
BAT Centre, with further screenings in township areas where cinemas are
non-existent, and a special programme of screenings at Luthuli Museum on
the North Coast.
Programme booklets with the full screening schedule and synopses of all
the films are available free at cinemas, Computicket, and other outlets.
Full festival details can also be found on www.cca.ukzn.ac.za or by
calling 031 2602506 or 031 2601650.
Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN) the Durban International
Film Festival is funded by National Film & Video Foundation, SABC, HIVOS,
Royal Netherlands Embassy, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic
Development, Stichting Doen, the German Embassy in South Africa,
Industrial Development Corporation, and the City of Durban, with valued
support from a range of other partners.
