Nine South African feature films, 14 documentaries and 24 short films will be screened at the Apollo Film Festival, which runs from 2 to 5 October at the Apollo Theatre in the Karoo town of Victoria West. The Apollo Theatre is the last Art Deco cinema in South Africa and a heritage site.
Raising topical subjects that are particularly pertinent to South Africa, but have universal appeal, the films individually touch on crime, gambling, love against the odds, the rise to the underdog, the results of violence, a dark look at a dark past, the trepidations of match-fixing, the inspirational influence of football, horses and surfing and the choices that will make up tomorrow.
Feature films include Confessions of a Gambler, Bakgat, Hansie, Jerusalema and South Africa’s first stop-frame animation feature, Tengers. Michael Raeburn’s Triomf will open the festival.
Some of the documentaries to be screened are Daniel and our Cats, Inanda, My Heritage, More Than Just a Game and Betrayed.
The Apollo jury comprises world-renowned filmmaker Khalo Matabane, award-winning producer/director Bridget Pickering, and film journalist Theresa Smith. Guests of the festival include filmmakers Junaid Ahmed, Tiny Mungwe, Dylan Valley, Tendeka Matatu, Rina Jooste, Asivhanzi Mathaba, Frans Cronje, Meg Rickards and Michel J. Rix.
The Apollo Film Festival is sponsored by the NFVF and implemented by Encounters Documentary Festival, with the support of the Apollo Development Association, Apollo Theatre, Durban International Film Festival, Northern Cape Tourism, and the Tourism Enterprise Programme.
For more information please visit www.apollofilmfestival.co.za
