Thought-provoking line-up at film festival
MORE than 60 films will be shown at the annual Encounters Africa film festival. The festival starts on June 1 and runs until June 11 in Cape Town and Johannesburg. There will be several short films as well as featurelength documentaries from all around the world.
A South African athlete is zoomed in on in a film called The Fall. Here, Daniel Gordan takes a look at South African runner Zola Budd and American runner Mary Decker as Olympians in the 1980s.
There is also Winnie, about the life and times of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. The Sundance Award-winning film is by Pascale Lamche.
I Am Not Your Negro, the Oscarnominated documentary by Raoul Peck, is narrated by Samuel L Jackson. It is based on Remember This House, the unfinished manuscript by author, James Baldwin. In it, Baldwin’s view of America’s history of racism is under the spotlight.
Whenever an icon passes on, there are many people who scramble to know the full story. They try to figure out what really happened, especially if the icon was one who was prone to controversy.
Nick Broomfield is one of those people. His film, Whitney: Can I Be Me? will also be screened at Encounters Africa.
Skulls of My People is a compelling film by Vincent Moloi.
After the 1904 genocide of the Nama and Herero people of Namibia, German scientists took it upon themselves to take the skulls away with them.
This film centres on the Nama and Herero people’s quest to get the skulls back.
At the festival will be films that are set in or concentrate on places as far and wide as Gabon, Syria, Egypt, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Ferguson in the US.
The South African films are well represented too.
There is Dragan’s Lair, which makes its world premiere at the Encounters Africa fest. Director, Lucy Witt suffered rape and abuse at the hands of her stepfather and as an adult, she confronts him.
Another world premiere at Encounters comes in the form of Nomakhomazi Derwarvin’s Indwe, which takes a closer look at the events that led up to the women’s march on Pretoria in 1956.
There is also Aryan Kaganof ’s Metalepsis in Black, about the “Fees Must Fall” movement.
These are just a few films at the festival that will make you think.
For the full programme, visit encounters.co.za
The Encounters Africa Film Festival takes place at the Labia, the Nouveau V&A Waterfront, and Bertha Movie House inside Isivivana Centre in Khayelitsha in Cape Town, and the Bioscope and the Nouveau Rosebank in Johannesburg from June 1 to 11. Get your tickets at the cinemas.