Bryan Little’s celebration of local street dance culture, The African Cypher, has won the Audience Award at the recent Encounters South African International Documentary Festival. Under African Skies, the inside story of Paul Simon’s trip to South Africa to record Graceland and his return last year to celebrate its 25th anniversary, was named Best International Film.
All five screenings of The African Cypher were sold out, with a sixth screening added to meet demand.
Bryan Little is no stranger to the Encounters’ Audience Award, having won the same honour for Fokofpolisiekar: Forgive Them For They Know Not What They Do in 2009.
Joe Berlinger’s Under African Skies’ reveals how Simon’s trip to South Africa was heavily criticised at the time, as it undermined the cultural embargo against Apartheid. The bestselling, Grammy-winning album introduced African music to the world and has been included in numerous Best Album of All Time lists by the likes of Rolling Stone and Time.
Encounters ran from 7-24 June 2012 in two cities – Cape Town and Johannesburg – screening 52 documentaries from across the globe, including 16 world premieres. Overall, attendance was up by roughly 10% on last year.
“This year’s festival proved that there’s an audience hungry for quality documentary films,’ says outgoing festival director Mandisa Zitha. “Twelve different films sold out and we saw strong audience responses to a wide variety of films, including Under African Skies, An African Cypher, Marley, Saving Rhino Phila, Call Me Kuchu and Anne Frank Remembered.
“We were also very happy with our new partnerships with Al Jazeera English and The Fugard Theatre, which both worked incredibly well this year.’
To watch embedded trailers of the two award winners log on to:
UNDER AFRICAN SKIES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqSW6rKEkQw
