Thursday 1st September 10.30am. AFDA Student Short Films Biyale. Director: Sheila Khubheka This film is about a black South African trapped between her traditional culture and modern society values. A hard-hitting film that deals with female circumcision. Gigima. Director: Brett Melville-Smith This is a story about two street children that depicts tragedy as part of their day-to-day existence. Smal Street. Director: Lucky Moropane This student film takes a look at the lives of three young township men who embark on a journey to the city to find some girls. I Got Rage. Director: Miguel Balona A young man looses his job and becomes incapable of controlling his rage. His impotence to find a new career causes him to loose everything, including his wife and home. He needs to find a release for this explosive rage before he hurts someone. The Three Amigos. Director: Brent Quinn A series of 20 multi-award winning Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) designed to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. The animated PSA’s star three comedic characters to deliver a serious message encouraging the principle that condoms are our friends or amigos. 11.30am. Hopeville Mansions.Director: Sacha Celland-Stokes Two women, one white and one black, find themselves living as neighbours in the same block of flats. Their sons go to the same school and become friends. Both women have to learn how to fend for themselves, and they too become friends. Portrait of a Young Man Drowning. Director: Teboho Mahlatsi An impressive and bleak tale of Shadow, an ex-freedom fighter, and now the passive and tame executioner for the township he lives in. & Sacrifice. Director: Lance Gewer and Aldo Lee This film offers a scathing look at a white, Afrikaans family in disintegration. Within the nuclear family lies every form of human abuse and is a macabre and pessimistic view of transition and upheaval in grassroots South Africa. Husk. Director. Jeremy Handler An official selection in the Short Film Competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. Great performances from Nicola Hanekom as Lucy, Marcel van Heerden as her Pa and Gerard Rudolf as an unwelcome guest out to collect a debt at a decrepit house in the middle of the middle of nowhere. Murder is on the cards and director Handler plays the drama with eerie calmness and subtlety. 12.30pm. Aces. Director: Ntandazo Gcinga Aces leaves prison on parole after serving a long-term jail sentence for the murder of his stepfather, only to return a few hours later, the same day for a similar crime. This tightly focused story about the social and personal effects of crime asks whether a country’s democratic laws are incompatible with basic human compassion? AFDA Student Short Films: Bittersweet. Producers: Moya Phosa & Jared Stokes The touching tale of Mev. Lourens, a farmer’s wife, who bides her time away by producing apricot jam from her orchard. Her husband and sons have been sent to fight in the Anglo Boer war and she is all alone. Tragedy strikes when a company of British soldiers capture her and sends her to a concentration camp and destroys her farm. The story follows her struggle in the return journey to the life she once had. Stoffelina. Producer: Jasyn Marais Set in the turbulent 50’s Sophiatown, the story follows a young woman as she moves from a state of virtual bondage to some freedom and happiness. This animation showcases the vibrancy that existed in a very specific time and place in South Africa’s not too distant past. BREAK: 13.00pm 13.30pm. Old Wife’s Tale. Director: Dumisani Phakathi The charming tale of a married Afrikaans farmer who becomes attracted to a young widow and, on the advice of his Xhosa foreman, insists on his constitutional right to have two wives. & Stompie and the Red Tide. Director: Tamsin Macarthy A hobo, a “bergie” coming across the West coast awash with red crayfish, sees this as the fulfilment of Joe Slovo’s prophesy that South Africa would be free when the communists come into the country like a red tide. 14.30pm. Mozart – Music of the Violin. Director: Mickey Dube A middle-class black family live in a township. The mother’s pretentiousness makes life difficult for her children. She insists that her son becomes a violinist and her daughter her servant. A mishap brings some normality to the family. The Condemned Are Happy. Director: Jamie Uys An astonishing piece of propaganda which was designed to show that forced removals were for the good of those being removed – they are taken from poverty to a supposedly better life. Such an apologia seems astoundingly paternalistic today, but Uys’s naïve belief in the apartheid system was, if nothing else, sincere. The Three Amigos. Director: Brent Quinn A series of 20 multi-award winning Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) designed to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. The animated PSA’s star three comedic characters to deliver a serious message encouraging the principle that condoms are our friends or amigos. BREAK: 15.30pm 16.00pm. The Burden. Director: Ken Kaplan This film is adapted from a Dan Jacobson short story and achieved critical acclaim at the First Run International Film Festival in New York. The story follows three strangers through a night none will forget. Set in Hillbrow Johannesburg, the three have to solve the problem of a helpless drunk unconscious on the backseat of a taxi. & Corner Caffie. Director: Tim Greene A remarkably good-natured film where an argument in a café between the Greek owner and a black client trying to use the pubic phone escalates into an all out siege with the police surrounding the premises. The customers and the owner join forces to diffuse the situation. & AFDA Student Short Film: Flight of Feathers. Producer: Daniel Rumbak This is a magical love story about a young lonely woman who learns to follow her heart. She overcomes her fears and pursues the man she has loved since her youth. When Mkhululi bids Nomsa farewell he gives her a precious feather as a parting gift. Nomsa contemplates the feather and her future. She somehow knows that her destiny is calling her embarks on a journey that will take her out of the township and to the streets of JHB in her search for Mkhululi. 17.00pm. Die Tamat. Director: Munier Parker Two boys become friends, but because they are from different faiths and cultures their parents see only problems and forbid their association. But their friendship brings the adults together in surprising ways. Waiting for Valdez. Director: Dumisani Phakahi The poignant tale of a young boy torn between his love for his dying grandmother and his desire to sneak out to the cinema, where his favorite film is the western VALDEZ IS COMING, in which the hero is an idealist. BREAK: 18.00pm 18.30pm: Fiele se Kind. Director: Katinka Heyns Friday 2nd September 10.00am. William Kentridge, Artist – The End of the Beginning. Director: Beata Lipman. Lipman’s film explores the artist’s way of working as he starts drawing and filming a fresh animation, Felix in Exile. Kentridge is an eloquent communicator in words as well as images. He illuminates his philosophy and his sense of the present situation in South Africa. He bears witness. & Sales Talk. Director: William Kentridge The story of a 47-year long relationship between a white woman and an African maid. On the face of it, the film suggests this is a warmer than the usual maid and madam relationship, but when a door-to-door salesman calls, hidden fears are exposed. There are eight different endings, all shown, which depict the fears and expectations of the two women. This is internationally acclaimed fine artist William Kentridge’s sole live action film, and the dark humour so evident in his animated shorts is spectacularly evident. 11.00am. Six Feet of the Country. Director: Lynton Stephenson A pilot in a series of films based on Nadine Gordimer stories. Starring Sandra Prinsloo, Wilson Dunster and Fats Bookholane, the film follows a white businessman and his actress wife when they buy a farm 20 miles outside Johannesburg as a country retreat. Peace is the last thing they find! & Sacrifice. Director: Lance Gewer and Aldo Lee This film offers a scathing look at a white, Afrikaans family in disintegration. Within the nuclear family lies every form of human abuse and is a macabre and pessimistic view of transition and upheaval in grassroots South Africa. & Portrait of a Young Man Drowning. Director: Teboho Mahlatsi An impressive and bleak tale of Shadow, an ex-freedom fighter, and now the passive and tame executioner for the township he lives in. & 12.30pm. Aces. Director: Ntandazo Gcinga Aces leaves prison on parole after serving a long-term jail sentence for the murder of his stepfather, only to return a few hours later, the same day for a similar crime. This tightly focused story about the social and personal effects of crime asks whether a country’s democratic laws are incompatible with basic human compassion? & Lucky Day. Director: Brian Tilley Ian Roberts plays a white farmer who picks up a black man by the side of the road and offers him a job. The fellow thinks it is his lucky day. The white man takes him back to his farm and presents him with a proposal that changes his feelings about just how lucky he is. A devastating yet scarily simple look at the phenomenon of family murders amongst panic stricken whites as apartheid crumbled. & Suffer Little Children. Director: Cedric Sundstrom In this stylishly evocative piece, Sundstrom examined the effects of religious teaching on impressionable children in a mining village during the depression in 1930’s Johannesburg. They re-enact in their games, the deaths of the martyrs, which they hear about in Sunday school. It is a short step from the stoning of St Stephen to the crucifixion and when one of the children is found nailed up, the town does not want to confront what has transpired. BREAK: 13.05pm 13.30pm. Skitterwit. Director: Danie Bester In the back room of a porn shop, where criminals stash the tools of their trade while doing time, the Boer War is still being fought - fueled as before by South Africa’s mineral wealth. Angels en Boereoorloe. Director: Wickus Strijdom In the back room of a porn shop, where criminals stash the tools of their trade while doing time, the Boer War is still being fought - fueled as before by South Africa’s mineral wealth. Triomfeer. Director: Jan Hendrik Beetge A retired policeman, living with his son in Triomf (Sophiatown) is forced to confront his demons when a lack stranger arrives and begins digging up the modest garden. Baas van die Plaas. Director: Rudi Steyn A young white man has to come to terms with passing the ownership of his family’s farm over to his black servant in a land redistribution settlement. The Three Amigos: Director: Brent Quinn A series of 20 multi-award winning Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) designed to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. The animated PSA’s star three comedic characters to deliver a serious message encouraging the principle that condoms are our friends or amigos. 14.30pm. On the Rocks. Director: Cedric Sundstom During a party priceless necklace falls from the penthouse window into the hands of some bergies who live in the rocks below. In the search, a husband learns more than he’s bargained for. & The Hidden Farms. Director: Ken Kaplan A drama offering unique insight into pre-democratic SA, Mtutu is imprisoned for striking a white man is self-defence. Sentenced to hard labour on a white owned farm, degradation and maltreatment culminate in his escape. & The Storekeeper. Director: Gavin Hood A shocking, visceral short piece by actor Gavin Hood, who went on to make the feature A REASONABLE MAN. A small shop in the middle of nowhere is protected with a bizarre, Heath Robinson style contraption of trip wires and a loaded rifle. Then a young child manages to climb through a window. With no dialogue but a well-crafted screenplay and dynamic photography and staging, this is a film that can play to a universal audience. BREAK:15.30pm 18.30pm. Die Storie van Klara Viljee. Director: Katinka Heyns Saturday 3rd September 10.30am. Ouma se Slim Kind. Director: Gustav Kuhn A touching story about a mentally handicapped boy ho overcame all touched the hearts of those he loved. Senter. Director: Rudi Steyn A young schoolboy is facing a new rugby season and he’s also facing a challenge that will not only change him, but an entire nation. Black Sushi. Director: Dean Blumberg Having just been released from jail, Zama is on the verge of falling back into crime - unless he can overcome the temptation and gain self-respect by mastering the painstaking and delicate ancient art of another culture - making sushi. Laduma. Director: Jasyn Marais A student movie that deals with soccer and friendship, loyalty and the fulfilment of dreams. Mkhonto wants to be a soccer star. Yet in a team game you cannot play alone. The Three Amigos: Director: Brent Quinn A series of 20 multi-award winning Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) designed to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. The animated PSA’s star three comedic characters to deliver a serious message encouraging the principle that condoms are our friends or amigos. 11.30am. Six Feet of the Country. Director: Lynton Stephenson A pilot in a series of films based on Nadine Gordimer stories. Starring Sandra Prinsloo, Wilson Dunster and Fats Bookholane, the film follows a white businessman and his actress wife when they buy a farm 20 miles outside Johannesburg as a country retreat. Peace is the last thing they find! The Fox Has Four Eyes. Director: Jamie Uys Uys’s prequel to Dingaka has actor Ken Gampu leaving the countryside to seek vengeance in the urban metropolis for the murder of his daughter. The film is beautifully shot, and is interesting for its propagandistic approach as it tries to prove that the white man’s law is superior to the African philosophy of an eye for eye in matters of justice. 12.30pm. Old Wife’s Tale. Director: Dumisani Phakathi The charming tale of a married Afrikaans farmer who becomes attracted to a young widow and, on the advice of his Xhosa foreman, insists on his constitutional right to have two wives. BREAK: 13.00pm 13.30pm. Suffer Little Children. Director: Cedric Sundstrom In this stylishly evocative piece, Sundstrom examined the effects of religious teaching on impressionable children in a mining village during the depression in 1930’s Johannesburg. They re-enact in their games, the deaths of the martyrs, which they hear about in Sunday school. It is a short step from the stoning of St Stephen to the crucifixion and when one of the children is found nailed up, the town does not want to confront what has transpired. & Transit Café. Director: Catherine Stewart Vuyo, a rural good-for-nothing, journeys to the city for the first time to fetch his brother’s widow and child. He’s robbed and cheated and does the same to those he’s come to find. To win back their trust he looses his heart 14.30pm. Husk. Director. Jeremy Handler An official selection in the Short Film Competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. Great performances from Nicola Hanekom as Lucy, Marcel van Heerden as her Pa and Gerard Rudolf as an unwelcome guest out to collect a debt at a decrepit house in the middle of the middle of nowhere. Murder is on the cards and director Handler plays the drama with eerie calmness and subtlety. & Inja. Director: Steven Pasvolsky Set in apartheid-era South Africa, this 17-minute Oscar nominated film is an intense film that is simultaneously heartbreaking and thought provoking. It’s about a young black boy whose white boss, seemingly inexplicably, orders him to participate in beating a new, adorable puppy. The tables turn years later when all three are unexpectedly thrown into a life-threatening situation. & A Drink in the Passage. Director: Zola Maseko A screen adaptation of an Alan Paton story, this little gem tells of a celebrated black sculptor who recalls the curious events which led him to share a drink of brandy with a white family on the gangway outside their flat, during the height of apartheid. BREAK: 15.30pm 16.00pm. William Kentridge, Artist – The End of the Beginning. Director: Beata Lipman. Lipman’s film explores the artist’s way of working as he starts drawing and filming a fresh animation, Felix in Exile. Kentridge is an eloquent communicator in words as well as images. He illuminates his philosophy and his sense of the present situation in South Africa. He bears witness. & Sales Talk. Director: William Kentridge The story of a 47-year long relationship between a white woman and an African maid. On the face of it, the film suggests this is a warmer than the usual maid and madam relationship, but when a door-to-door salesman calls, hidden fears are exposed. There are eight different endings, all shown, which depict the fears and expectations of the two women. This is internationally acclaimed fine artist William Kentridge’s sole live action film, and the dark humour so evident in his animated shorts is spectacularly evident. 17.00pm. Sol Plaatje – A Man For Our Time. Director: Jane Thandi Lipman A film to offer South Africans a tangible memory of a remarkable man. Sol Plaatje, like many black people at the time, suffered the depredations of war along with the British troops, He recorded his experiences in a diary, writing the only first hand account of black experience of the Boer War known today. During the siege of Kimberley he worked as a court interpreter and journalist, filing dispatches for English newspapers … his was a life of firsts in a remarkable career. BREAK: 16.00pm 18.30pm. Paljas. Director: Katinka Heyns Sunday 4th September 10.30am. Stompie and the Red Tide. Director: Tamsin Macarthy A hobo, a “bergie” coming across the West coast awash with red crayfish, sees this as the fulfilment of Joe Slovo’s prophesy that South Africa would be free when the communists come into the country like a red tide. & The Hidden Farms. Director: Ken Kaplan A drama offering unique insight into pre-democratic SA, Mtutu is imprisoned for striking a white man is self-defense. Sentenced to hard labour on a white owned farm, degradation and maltreatment culminate in his escape. & Waiting for Valdez. Director: Dumisani Phakathi The poignant tale of a young boy torn between his love for his dying grandmother and his desire to sneak out to the cinema, where his favourite film is the western VALDEZ IS COMING, in which the hero is an idealist. 11.30am. Transit Café. Director: Catherine Stewart Vuyo, a rural good-for-nothing, journeys to the city for the first time to fetch his brother’s widow and child. He’s robbed and cheated and does the same to those he’s come to find. To win back their trust he looses his heart & The Storekeeper. Director: Gavin Hood A shocking, visceral short piece by actor Gavin Hood, who went on to make the feature A REASONABLE MAN. A small shop in the middle of nowhere is protected with a bizarre, Heath Robinson style contraption of trip wires and a loaded rifle. Then a young child manages to climb through a window. With no dialogue but a well-crafted screenplay and dynamic photography and staging, this is a film that can play to a universal audience. 12.30pm. Lucky Day. Director: Brian Tilley Ian Roberts plays a white farmer who picks up a black man by the side of the road and offers him a job. The fellow thinks it is his lucky day. The white man takes him back to his farm and presents him with a proposal that changes his feelings about just how lucky he is. A devastating yet scarily simple look at the phenomenon of family murders amongst panic stricken whites as apartheid crumbled. & Corner Caffie. Director: Tim Greene A remarkably good-natured film where an argument in a café between the Greek owner and a black client trying to use the pubic phone escalates into an all out siege with the police surrounding the premises. The customers and the owner join forces to diffuse the situation. & On the Rocks. Director: Cedric Sundstom During a party priceless necklace falls from the penthouse window into the hands of some bergies who live in the rocks below. In the search, a husband learns more than he’s bargained for. 13.30pm. The Burden. Director: Ken Kaplan This film is adapted from a Dan Jacobson short story and achieved critical acclaim at the First Run International Film Festival in New York. The story follows three strangers through a night none will forget. Set in Hillbrow Johannesburg, the three have to solve the problem of a helpless drunk unconscious on the backseat of a taxi. & Inja. Director: Steven Pasvolsky Set in apartheid-era South Africa, this 17-minute Oscar nominated film is an intense film that is simultaneously heartbreaking and thought provoking. It’s about a young black boy whose white boss, seemingly inexplicably, orders him to participate in beating a new, adorable puppy. The tables turn years later when all three are unexpectedly thrown into a life-threatening situation. & A Drink in the Passage. Director: Zola Maseko A screen adaptation of an Alan Paton story, this little gem tells of a celebrated black sculptor who recalls the curious events which led him to share a drink of brandy with a white family on the gangway outside their flat, during the height of apartheid 14.30pm. AFDA Student Short Films Bobby & Eric. Producer: James Carrol Another animation episode of Bobbie and Eric. Hapless gardener, Eric, just can’t get a break after being told by his baas to clean up the great Dane, Bobbie’s, poop in the garden, chaos ensues. SA/X. Producers: Jasyn Marais & Meril Rasmussen The movie is a comedic mockumentary, set in Johannesburg. SA/X is a story about young people in South Africa ten years into our democracy. It shows the lighter of how we feel we fit into society. Our lives are filled with so much conflict without even trying which in turn leads to an exciting, dynamic, and growing young culture. This story details the food, the bad and the just plain funny attitudes and characters found in our country today. Tagline… welcome to the democracy. Modderkoffie. Producer: Jared Stokes A story of friendship and what happen when questions without answers are raised can friendship survive all hardships Cut. Producer: Ahron Geminder A mother must choose between her two sons…to save her family or let the drug-addicted son continue on his path of destruction. END: 15.50pm
Posted on Monday 8 Aug 2005
Festival Daily
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