BOOK! TRI continents FILM festival – Joburg this weekend!
UPDATE
Film-maker REHAD DESAI gives us his picks for this weekend’s festival
ANGOLA – SAUDADES FROM THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU
Dir: Richard Pakleppa
Angola 2005
65 min
World Premiere
Friday 16th Sept. 8pm
Pakleppa brings us a story of the people, told directly from the streets. It captures a unique moment in Angola’s history, a country coming to terms with the realit…
y of peace and democracy at a time in which all kinds of forces are emerging from the rubble and decay. Despite its abundant natural wealth and the flagrant displays of wealth by the political and military elite, this is a country where the person on the street encounters daily struggles to put a meal on the table. Conscious of this inequality and injustice, the films central character, MCK, a politicised street rapper, uses his songs as a protest against the corruption and cronyism that surrounds him. MCK is supported by a diverse and dynamic cast of characters, all struggling to make sense of their paradoxical environment.The film generates a kaleidoscopic structure that follows the rhythms, and irrepressible energy, of people determined to make a living, despite the fact that some are making a killing.
REBEL MUSIC AMERICAS
Dirs: Marie Boti and Malcolm Guy
Canada 2004
79 min
African Premiere
Friday 16th Sept. 5.45pm
From Tierra del Fuego to the Rio Grande the Americas are in turmoil, and in the midst of the social and political movements rocking the region, are some amazing rebel musicians. Theirs is the music of the other America, the America of the South – popular, dynamic, rebellious and often….”anti-American”. It’s the rhythms and voices of displaced communities in Columbia, of “los piqueteros” blocking access to a refinery in Buenos Aires, of indigenous Mexicans hunted down at the US border, of peasants staging vast land occupations in Brazil. Rebel Music Americas follows the adventures of four radical musicians, taking us into the heart of the political and social movements shaking contemporary Latin America.
THE AGRONOMIST
Dir: Jonathan Demme
USA/Haiti/France 2004
91 min
Saturday 17th Sept. 4.15
Academy Award winning filmmaker Jonathan Demme presents a heart-wrenching biography of a Haitian national hero – journalist and freedom fighter Jean Dominique. Demme first met and filmed Dominique in 1986. As owner and operator of Haiti’s first and only free radio station, Dominique was a thorn in the side of his country’s repressive governments. His outspoken opposition forced him into exile in the early 90’s in New York, where Demme
continued to interview him over the years. Fighting tirelessly against Haiti’s injustice, oppression and poverty, Dominique’s shocking and still-unsolved assassination in April 2000 gave the director the impetus to assemble more than a decade’s worth of material into a celebration of this dynamic man and his legacy.
THE TAKE
Dir: Avi Lewis
Canada 2004
87 min
Weds 14th Sept. 8.15
Sat 17th Sept. 10pm
A revolution has been televised, not the revolution, but an exhilarating example of what unity and hard work can achieve. The Take is a feature length documentary that beautifully captures the will and strength of the collective. Directed by Avi Lewis, and written by Naomi Klein, it focuses on the struggle of thirty Argentinean workers on a mission to reclaim and collectively run their closed down factory. Part of a wider movement of Argentinean workers and communities reacting to economic crisis and exploitation, the thirty workers of the Forja auto-parts factory work day and night to ‘occupy, resist and produce’ in order to restore dignity and meaning to their lives. Lewis and Klein succeed in exploring the human consequences of neoliberalism, not only its ravaging effect on a nation, but on communities, families and individuals.
Best Film, Human Rights and Justice, Vermont International Film Festival
Grand Jury Prize, AFI International Film Festival, Los Angeles
PARADISE NOW (FEATURE FILM)
Dir: Hany Abu-Assad
Palestine/Netherlands/Germany/France
2005
90 mins
Friday 16th Sept. 8.15
A tense and gripping fiction feature, Paradise Now mirrors the harsh reality of everday life in Palestine. It follows the journey of Khaled and Said, two young Palestinians who are chosen to be suicide bombers on a mission in Tel Aviv. Both men grapple with the ethical, moral and religious implications of what they are doing and but when the operation does not go off as planned tensions rise even further. The two ‘living bombs’ lose sight of each other, and in this separation are forced to act independently. Holding onto the courage of their convictions, they must face their fate alone. Director Hany Abu-Assad’s returned to Palestine for the making of
this film, which was shot in Nasbul under grave circumstances. His depiction of these everyday struggles bring home the urgency and desperation of his peoples struggle.
PROSITUTION BEHIND THE VEIL
Dir: Nahid Persson
Denmark/Sweden/Iran 2004
53 min
African Premiere
Sunday 16th Sept. 6.15
After fleeing Iran in 1982, the year that Ayatollah Khomeini ascended to power, director Nahid Persson returns to her homeland to discover an Iran marred by poverty and social injustice. Prostitution Behind the Veil documents the desperate lives of Mina and Fariba, two young single mothers, addicted to heroin and reduced to prostitution to survive. These women are
both victims and products of their disintegrated society. Although there is nothing unique about their lives, the subversive nature of their existence seems so incongruous with our perceptions of life in an Islamic state. Prostitution Behind the Veil shows us that poverty and hopelessness manifest themselves in the same way throughout the world. But it also reveals a regime that legislates oppression against women through an Islamic practice
called ‘sighe’. With the consent of a Mullah, an Iranian man can buy a second wife – his ‘sighe’ – for a fixed price and period of time, is such a practice not the legitimisation of prostitution by Islamic law?
Golden Dragon, Krakow
Gold Nymph as Best Current Affairs Documentary, Monte Carlo Film Festival
International Premier Award, One World Media Awards
Prix du Public Meilleur , Creitel, Festival Filmes de Femmes, France
Prix AFJ (Association des Femmes Journalistes) Creitel, Festival Filmes de
Femmes, France
THE HERO (O Herýi) Feature Film
Dir: Zeze Gamboa
France/Angola 2004
97 min
Sunday Sept 18th 2.15pm
Winner of the 2005 World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance
Festival, The Hero marks a new era in Angolan cinematography. First-time
feature director Zeze Gamboa offers a compelling portrayal of contemporary
life in Angola, since the end of the gruelling war in 2002. Through the
films central characters we encounter the everyday struggles of post-war
Angola – Vitýrio, war hero and land mine victim, struggling to regain a
worthy place in society; Little Manu, endlessly yearning for his father to
return from war; Joana, the compassionate, idealistic schoolteacher, seeking
social justice amidst post-war turmoil; and Maria Barbýra, one of the
multitude searching for her lost child. This endless searching dominates
their existence, causing their lives to intersect in the most unexpected
situations. Using this imaginative screenplay, Gamboa manages to subtly
explore the numerous issues of post-conflict society, and pays tribute to
the exuberant spirit of Angola.
World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Festival
Capital Focus Award, Washington DC
Best Film, Pan African Festival
Best Picture, Fespaco
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29 August
The TRI Continents Film Festival is finding a home all over the place – in the townships, the rural areas, university campuses, Bloemfontein and of course in the city. It’s coming to a Cinema Nouveau in September near you if you live in Johannesburg and Cape Town… the selection is WORLD CLASS.
JOHANNESBURG 9 – 18 September ROSEBANK CINEMA NOUVEAU
CAPE TOWN – 18 – 25 September V&A Waterfront
The Take
And Thereafter
Paradise Now
Rebel Music Americas
Concrete Revolution
Riot-On!
Daughters of the Wind
Men Who Would Conquer China
Marrabentando
Rooms of Melancholia
Concrete Revolution
Weapons of Mass Deception
Zimbabwe at the Crossroads
Darwin’s Nightmare
Homecoming
Hero
Thirst
Darwin’s Nightmare
Juchitan
Queer Paradise
Beauty Will Save the World
Shouting Spirits
A Shadow of Hope
X9
Bride Kidnapping In Kyrgyzstan
No More Tears Sister
A Decent Factory
Taking Back The Waves
Angola Saudades
Prostitution Behind
The Agronomist
Concrete Revolution
Sisters in Law
Tin Soldiers
Queer Paradise
Beyond Sorry
Prostitution Behind The Veil
Justiýa
Beauty Will Save The World
Episodes
