The 10th Annual Tribeca Film Festival, the renowned international film festival co-founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal & Craig Hatkoff that takes place in New York from 20 April to 1 May, will include a special event for the South African-made film, Bang Bang Club.
The special event is called Based on True Events and looks at how writers turn real life events into films and how much truth they should include or embellish to meet their cinematic ambition. Bang Bang Club, starring Ryan Phillippe, Taylor Kitsch and South African actors Frank Rautenback and Neels Van Jaarsveld, is the true story of four South African combat photographers who captured the last days of apartheid.
Steven Silver, the film’s director and screenwriter, will participate in the special event, along with Greg Marinovich, photographer and co-author of The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War. Others panelists are Adam Kassen and Mark Kassen, directors of Puncture; and Chris Lopata, screenwriter of Puncture. They will discuss issues such as who is the writer responsible to if his source material is based on true events, and where the line is between a great narrative film and the truth of events.
Two films with South African roots will also be screened at Tribeca – Paula van der Oest’s Black Butterflies and Mika Kaurismaki’s Mama Africa.
Black Butterflies is about the late, tragic South African poet Ingrid Jonker, while Mama Africa is a documentary on legendary South African singer and civil rights activist, Miriam Makeba.
For more information on the Tribeca Film Festival visit www.tribecafilm.com
