The first feature film produced by the Out in Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival,
While You Weren’t Looking, has released at selected Cinema Nouveau
theatres and at Ster-Kinekor Maponya Mall. The film won The
Pink Apple Audience Award in Zurich and earned director Catherine Stewart
California’s QFilms Jury Award.
While You Weren’t Looking is Stewart’s feature film directing
debut, though the South African Film and Television Award winner has worked on a
number of television projects including The Road, Isibaya, The Lab, Home
Affairs, Tsha Tsha and Jacob’s Cross.
The film is set twenty years into the new South Africa as ageing academic Mack
(Lionel Newton) looks for Salute, a young freedom fighter he sheltered and loved.
Salute (Fezile Mpela) has moved on: he is now Joe, married with a child, and rising
in government and political party structures.
Affluent mixed-race lesbian couple Dez (Sandi Schultz) and Terri (Camilla
Waldman) struggle to maintain their own desires and ambitions while looking out
for their teenage daughter, Asanda (Petronella Tshuma). As their daughter falls for
Shado (Thishiwe Ziqubu), a girl from a different background, Dez and Terri must
cope with their own hypocrisies and secrets, which threaten to unravel the
seemingly perfect world they’ve crafted.
While You Weren’t Looking was shot by Amelia Henning on location in
and around Cape Town in just 24 days. The soundtrack includes music from the
likes of Toya Delazy, Zaki Ibrahim, Spoek Mathambo and Umlilo.
While You Weren’t Looking is showing at Cinema Nouveau theatres at
Rosebank Mall in Johannesburg, Brooklyn Mall in Pretoria and Gateway in Durban,
as well as Ster-Kinekor Maponya Mall. It releases at Cinema Nouveau V&A
Waterfront in Cape Town on Thursday, 8 October.
