AFTERGLOW
Producer/director: Amber (Arya) Lalloo
Country: South Africa
Feature / documentary: Documentary
Afterglow tells the story of Steve Fataar, the founding member of The Flames, a
band of brothers that become known in the early sixties as the South African
Beatles.
Following an overwhelming local response, they embarked on a successful
international tour that led to a record deal with The Beach Boys and a meteoric
rise through the American pop charts. The Flames were poised for stardom but
the pop machine was tearing the band apart with its mechanical production and
general hedonism. So in the early seventies Steve traded the absolute freedom
of Hollywood for his hometown Durban and tried to assume a normal existence.
Now in his seventies, the film finds Steve in the sunset years of a life defined by
a boyhood fantasy that came true. It will explore the lasting consequences of
one moment so big, it shaped everything that followed. A cinematic journey into
the life of a local legend Afterglow explores one man’s battle to make peace with
his past and casts light onto one of the most dynamic periods in popular culture
from a whole new source.
ALEX ON SEVENTH
Producer: Guy Bragge
Director: Engelbert Phiri
Country: South Africa
A stone’s throw from the excesses and privilege of Africa’s richest square mile –
Sandton, South Africa is a very tough neighbourhood – Alexandra – whose
socio-economics couldn’t be more diametrical.
Here, we meet a very pretty 86-year-old matriarch – Claire and Lulu her cat.
Claire and Lulu are passionate about the mean-looking and sculpted
bodybuilding young-men in Claire’s backyard gym. The tiny gym doubles up as a
tattoo parlour and fine art studio. The seemingly claustrophobic gym harbours
the aspirations of many who include Tumi, unpredictable like a volcano at rest is
an agonising fine artist, tattoo artist and body-builder. Bobo, is an introspective
body-builder, cum-commuter taxi driver and arm wrester and Gino, a complex,
multi-layered struggling boxer and single parent to an ambitious little girl.
Over two years, the film follows Claire, Lulu and the guys from the gym
navigating an escalating series of treacherous streets and decisions. The film
unveils and presents an intimate portrait of these protagonists with similar
problems yet different aspirations for their lives. They are human and filled with
contradictory characteristics and motivations. It is through their raw perspective
of life that the story of the other South Africa can be felt – not told.
ALISON
Producer: Amy Nelson
Director: Uga Carlini
Country: South Africa
In December 1994, two men raped, stabbed and disembowelled Alison after
they abducted her from outside her home. They then slashed her throat 16
times to make sure she was dead. But Alison defied death. And more than that,
she denied her attackers the satisfaction of destroying her life.
Nineteen-year-old Tiaan Eilerd found her next to the side of the road. He was a
veterinary student, which meant he had some medical knowledge. Dr Angelov
was on call at the Provincial Hospital. He was a thoracic surgeon and capable of
dealing with Alison’s severe throat injuries. Alison lived to tell a story that would
break a code of silence about rape and brutal assault. She was the first South
African to ever speak out publically about rape.
Just one year after the attack, Alison gave her first public talk. She spoke from
the heart, sharing the pain and ultimate inspiration she discovered within
herself during the attack and subsequent recovery. She is now one of the most
sought-after speakers in South Africa, has visited over 20 countries worldwide
to share her story to enraptured audiences and has received numerous awards.
BEYOND THE BARRICADES
Producers: Peter Goldsmid and Joost Verheij
Directors: Peter Goldsmid and Zanele Muholi
Country: South Africa
This is a personal journey into the “heart of darkness’ in which lesbian
photographer and activist Zanele Muholi investigates violent hate crimes against
LGBTI people in South Africa. Can she not only understand but also forgive? That
is the dramatic question that also provides the arc of the story.
We will meet survivors and their families as well as perpetrators – and Zanele
will photograph them. We will observe her as she works and tries to grasp the
issues, context and motivations. The impact on her will be emotional and
dramatic.
Her photographs will provide intense, brief, focused moments interpolated into
the narrative.
The journey starts in Umlazi, Zanele’s home, and ends up in “gay-friendly’ Cape
Town, whose dormitory townships of Gugulethu, Nyanga and Khayelitsha
regularly see horrific hate crimes. But it will include lighter moments,
documenting gay pride events and beauty contests.
We will meet the heteropatriarchy, gaining access to both men both in prison
and male and female traditional leaders.
We will revisit a crime scene with both the survivor and perpetrator.
The film’s climax will be a dramatic survivor-perpetrator encounter.
And the final questions: How has the journey changed Zanele or helped her
deal with her anger?
EGYPTIAN JEANNE D’ARC
Producer: Talal Al-Muhanna
Director: Iman Kamel
Country: Egypt
“Jeanne d’Arc Masriya’ (Egyptian Jeanne d’Arc) is a creative documentary that
explores issues of female emancipation in post-revolutionary Egypt.
Beginning with the return journey to Cairo of a filmmaker long absent from her
own country, the film weaves a series of intimate portraits composed of
interviews, poetic voice-over and dance; exploring themes of oppression, guilt
and faith with Egyptian women, many of them artists. Reflecting on Carl Theodor
Dreyer’s 1928 film The Passion of Joan of Arc – in which the female figure is
martyred by the patriarchal forces surrounding her – “Jeanne’ is a contemporary
commentary that melds various expressive elements to arrive at the core of the
filmmaker’s enquiries into the circumstances of women in Egypt today.
HOME EXPULSION
Producer/director: Kayambi Musafiri
Country: Rwanda
In 2013, government officials in Tanzania ordered the deportation of over seven
thousand ethnic Rwandans, claiming that they were in the country illegally and
were a threat to the security of the country. Ethnic Rwandans, many whose
families had lived in Tanzania for generations, left behind family members, land,
houses, livestock, and other property because of the government policy.
This documentary focuses on four individuals who are victims of this mass
expulsion as they adapt to their new situations. It begins with Christopher
Rubamba Matata, 63-years-old, a musician living in a refugee camp in Rwanda.
Matata provides a historical account of the thousands of Rwandans who
immigrated to Tanzania.
The next portrait is of Kayinamura Angel, 18-years-old, born and raised in
Tanzania to Rwandese parents. She lives with her neighbours after the
government razed her family’s house during the expulsion. The third portrait
follows Vena Kamihanda, 50, Angel’s mother, wheelchair bound and living in a
refugee camp. The film ends with Agnes Alida, 45, a radio hostess in Tanzania.
Separated from her Rwandese husband and one of their children during the
deportation she is unable to locate them.
IN SEARCH OF AFRICAN DUENDE: THE UGANDA FLAMENCO
PROJECT
Producer: Keren Cogan
Director: Caroline Kamya
Country: Uganda
In En Busca del Duende Africano we open up both the practice and history of
flamenco through its undeniable but little known connection to Africa.
This journey follows a small group of young Ugandans over a period of twenty-
four months. Their aim, to put on the first Flamenco dance performance in
Uganda at the National Theatre in Kampala. Against the backdrop of the poverty
of inner city Kampala, the individual obstacles that each young Ugandan must
overcome; some of whom are refugees, and orphans; form the spine of the
documentary. Their stories are interspersed with a narrative history of black
Africans in Spain, and how their oppression together with the persecuted
Gypsies and Jews, led to the birth of Flamenco.
KULA: A MEMORY IN THREE ACTS
Director/producer: Inadelso Cossa
Country: Mozambique
Kula was a name of PIDE brigade in the 60s during the Portuguese colonial
regime in Mozambique, where political prisoners were interrogated and tortured,
forced to reveal their connections with liberation movements. Today, 35 years
later, those former political prisoners decided to go back to the same place to
represent their memories as a treatment to their post-torture trauma.
THE COLONEL’S STRAY DOGS
Producer: Steven Markovitz
Director: Khalid Shamis
Country: South Africa
In 1981, seven Libyan exiled revolutionaries gathered to form the National Front
for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL). My father was one of these “Stray Dogs’ and
their main objective was to use armed warfare against the Gadaffi. But soon the
Front found itself mired in political wrangling, infighting, personal loss and
dissipation.
The NFSL’s main mission was to rid Libya of Gadaffi, but it was the people inside
Libya who eventually chased him out and killed him. Suddenly there was a void
of power and these stalwart revolutionaries in exile rushed back home to be
part of their new country, taking up positions in and around the interim
government. However, it soon became apparent that they had jumped into a
volatile situation and were not the only ones vying for power. Unnamed armed
militia, Islamic extremists, politicos, peasants and returning exiles now all
compete for a piece of the pie.
A luta continua, but victory is far from certain.
When all efforts are focused on the freedom of a faraway land, what is sacrificed
and what is achieved in the process? Now that the future of Libya hangs in the
balance, does the expectation of freedom ever live up to the dream?
THE SOUND OF MASKS
Directed and produced by Kofi Zwane and Sara de Gouveia
Country: South Africa
A visual account of Mozambique’s past and present as told through dance. The
Mapiko dance is part of their culture that has been going on for centuries. What
makes it different from a regular ritualistic dance is that it’s always changed and
adapted to tell the story of what people are going through at any specific point
in history. The result is a living, breathing visual archive of a people’s journey
through colonialism, independence, civil war and ultimately democracy.
After the war, most of the Makonde were given land and areas as a reward for
their struggle. One of these areas in Maputo – the Zona Militar – forms the
scene for our film. As a result of the forces of capitalism, these ex-combatants
and their families are being kicked out to make way for condominiums and
plazas for the wealthy. This is the current struggle of the people versus their
government. And like in all past conflicts, the Mapiko dance is interpreting this
story and rallying people to fight against it. Through the experiences of people
from different generations of the dance, a parallel emerges between how
people have struggled through change in the past and continue to adapt in the
present.
