2004 Film Festival
Synopsis

Friday, 16 April 2004

Opening Ceremony

• UNDP Resident Representative
  Mr Bjorn Forde
• Director of the Film
  Mr Craig Matthew will introduce film

Ochre and Water - Himba chronicles from the land of Kaoko

Theme: Rights Based Development

Namibia 2001, 53 min
Dir: Craig Matthew and Joelle Chesselet

David and Goliath - a theme, which, in the face of globalisation, takes on new meaning. This time, Goliath is confronted by the Himba people of North Western Namibia's cultural identity: threatened by a hydro-electric dam development that would destroy the very basis of their unique and thriving pastoral nomadic culture, the Himba could lose their pasture along the banks of the Cunene River and hundreds of ancestral graves - crucial to their way of life. Surprisingly, their oral tradition of discussion helps their fight for survival.

Doxa Productions had the privilege to document this development saga over seven years. Intimate contact with and acceptance by the Himba people gave director /cameraman Craig Matthew the opportunity to reveal the complex web of relationships that define the Himba herders' culture within a global context, in a lyrical yet simple way. The editing and sound design by Ronelle Loots, and the soundtrack by the Kalahari Surfers, combining Himba elements and studio treatment, contribute to the film's compelling impact.

"Full of artistry, humanity and scientific accuracy, Ochre and Water is a lucid meditation on those thorny issues of development, post-colonialism and culture. It is the kind of film that can - and should - be watched over and over. Anywhere. " Neil Sonnekus , Film Critic, Mail and Guardian

Facing Death… Facing Life

Theme: Death Penalty

• Director of the Film
Ms Ingrid Gavshon will introduce film

South Africa 2002,
Dir: Ingrid Gavshon and Sharon Cort

In 1984, Duma Khumalo was sentenced to death by hanging for his alleged participation in the mob killing of a town councillor in Sharpeville, South Africa. The trial was a miscarriage of justice that was not exceptional in apartheid South Africa. The case of the Sharpeville Six (as Duma and his co-accused became known) did, however, capture the attention of the world - and bring to light the extent to which the South African justice system was deeply corrupt.

Duma Kumalo spent 3 years on death row (7 years in jail) and was given a stay of execution, 15 hours before he was due to be hanged for a murder he did not commit. His experience on death row heightened the sense of injustice that he felt growing up under apartheid in South Africa. Duma’s reprieve ended his waiting, but since, he has been struggling to make meaning of life after near death. As he says "… facing death is hard, but, facing life after facing death, is even harder”.

Sunday, 18 April 2004

A Luta Continua

Theme: HIV/AIDS

South Africa 2001, 26 minutes
Dir: Jack Lewis

“HIV is not a death sentence!” say the HIV+ group from Khayelitsha. They tell their stories in a series of short films which are then screened at taxi ranks and shopping malls in Cape Town’s townships. This powerful film about courage in the face of death includes footage of the group process, the short films themselves and their public screenings. Although they were too young to be part of the struggle against apartheid, they face a new struggle in their lifetime. They decide to call the film A Luta Continua — the struggle continues."

The Sky in Her Eye

Theme: HIV/AIDS

South Africa 2001, 11 minutes
Dir: Ouida Smit and Madoda Ncayiyana

"Award winner at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, this poignant short film shows a young girl in rural KwaZulu Natal, struggling to cope with her grief and confusion after losing her mother to AIDS. When a boy allows her to attach a picture she has drawn of her mother to his kite, this act of friendship and the shared joy of flying a kite together, makes the girl smile again."

We Never Give Up

Theme: Anti-Apartheid (TRC)

South Africa 2002, 70 minutes
Dir: Cahal Mclaughlin

"The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) unique attempt to combine justice with reconciliation has been hailed as a South African success story. We Never Give Up is a rich tapestry of stories told by eleven survivors who endure impoverishment despite having suffered the excesses of apartheid. Their heart wrenching stories represent the harsh experience of thousands of ordinary South Africans who participated in or were excluded from the TRC. The storytellers are members of the Khulumani Support Group, Western Cape, and are involved in a protracted battle to hold the South African government accountable to its promise to pay final reparations. The difficulties experienced by the storytellers raise pertinent questions about the efficacy of the TRC, the commission’s focus on cases that can be successfully concluded, and its ability to unpack the truth about human rights abuses."

Proteus

Theme: Gay Rights

South Africa 2003, 90 minutes
Dir: Jack Lewis and John Greyson

PROTEUS is South Africa's first gay-themed feature film. Shot on digital, Proteus is set in 1725, when a Khoisan convict and a Dutch sailor meet while working in the Robben Island prison garden of a Scottish botanist. Despite vast racial and cultural taboos, they begin a tumultuous affair. Ten years later, the botanist inadvertently triggers their arrest on sodomy charges. Based on a true story.

Monday, 19 April 2004

"Jenin, Jenin"

Theme: Global Conflict

Palestine 2002, 54 minutes
Dir: Mohamed Bakri

"Where is God,' an elderly man desperately wonders when surveying the debris in the Palestinian refugee camp Jenin. Banned in Israel the film, directed and co-produced by Palestinian actor and director Mohammed Bakri, includes testimony from Jenin residents after the Israeli army's Defensive Wall operation, during which the city and camp were the scenes of fierce fighting. The operation ended with Jenin flattened and scores of Palestinians dead. Palestinians as well as numerous human rights groups accused Israel of committing war crimes in the April 2002 attack on the refugee camp. Jenin Jenin shows the extent to which the prolonged oppression and terror has affected the state of mind of the Palestinian inhabitants of Jenin. Bitterness and grief are the prevailing feelings among the majority of the population. Many have lost loved ones or are still searching for victims and furniture among the debris. A little girl, who does not seem to be much older than twelve, tells her story but knows no fear. The ongoing violence in her day-to-day life only nourishes her feelings of hatred and the urge to take revenge. Banned in Israel, the film poses the sad question, what will become of a country, a people when its children are confronted with war and violence from a very early age?"

Kamuzu's Long Shadow

Theme: Governance

South Africa
Dir: Dan Jawitz

What is democracy in Africa? What makes an African dictator? In addressing these questions, this documentary focuses on one African leader - Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda of Malawi.

When Banda died in November 1997, he left behind a legacy of contradictions. He was the founding father of the Malawian nation, as well as its tyrannical ruler, saviour from colonialism, paternalistic overlord, teacher, and despotic kingpin. His regime spanned nationalism, independence, one-party rule, life-presidency, democracy, and the betrayal of that democracy. Recollections from his peers and patients, comments from the statesmen of the day, anecdotes from his official hostess, and the memories of those he detained establish a compelling portrait of the hero who became a dictator.

Kamuzu also probes post-Banda Malawi. Three and a half years after his death, the country is ostensibly very different. It is more disposed to the Global village, reaching out from its "splendid isolation" from the rest of the continent, and participating in all the great renaissance debates of our age. But Malawians themselves still live in the shadow of the 101-year-old Life President who made their country a nation. As this film heads for broadcast, President Chiluba of Zambia is angling for a third term of office. He told the filmmakers that Africa needs to "evolve into democracy." Malawian president, Muluzi, also campaigning for a third, unconstitutional term, commented that the question of leadership would be dealt with when his term ends. Daniel Arap Moi, President of Kenya, is also headed for a third term of office. Through opposing views and the reality of modern-day Malawi, the film seeks to find the blueprint of African leadership. Is Africa really better ruled by one lion instead of a thousand rats?

Tuesday, 20 April 2004

Need to Know

Theme: Anti-Apartheid

• High Commissioner of the Republic of South Africa
  HE Komane will make a presentation

UK 1993, 25 minutes
Dir: Jann Turner

On the night of January 8, 1978, Dr. Rick Turner, a leading opponent of apartheid, died in his 13 year old daughter Jann's arms after being struck in his home by an assassin's bullet. His family left South Africa soon afterwards. His assassin was never identified.
Now, fifteen years later, Jann Turner returns to seek her father's murderer in a very different South Africa at a very precarious moment in its history. Unable to find the gunman after pursuing several leads, she nonetheless feels that "in making this film I have come to know my father and I have finally let go of him." But her quest reveals much about the political climate in her native country - will the new South Africa come to terms with its violent past?

Featuring an emotional meeting with Nelson Mandela, and interviews with ANC leader Joe Slovo and the family of Chris Hani, who was slain the week Turner arrived back, NEED TO KNOW is an account of the legacy of apartheid on one white South African woman.

My Father Richard Turner

Theme: Anti-Apartheid

South Africa 2003, 26 Minutes
Dir: Jann Turner

"My Father Rick Turner was made by Jann Turner to commemorate the 25th anniversary of her father's assassination. He was shot dead at his home in Durban on the 8th of January 1978, when he was just thirty-six years old. A great deal has been written and broadcast about his death and the continuing mystery of who killed him. The time is long overdue to tell the story of Turner's short and but momentous life. He was an activist, but above all a teacher, and the political debate and organisation that was generated amongst his students and friends was pivotal to building the anti-apartheid struggle. The most important years of his life were in the early 1970's when he taught politics and philosophy at Natal University. During this time, he became involved in the opposition to apartheid as a student leader and trade unionist. This moving portrait tells the story of his short life through the letters he wrote to his daughters and the testimonies of the people whose lives he influenced."

Between Joyce and Remembrance

Theme: Anti-Apartheid

• Director of Film
  Mr Mark Kaplan will introduce film

South Africa 2003, 48 minutes
Dir: Mark Kaplan

"The TRC amnesty hearings offered the world a snapshot of apartheid atrocities, but little is known of the impact on families of victims and whether real reconciliation ever took place at a personal level. This film unflinchingly confronts the complexity of these questions by following the lives of Joyce and Sikhumbuzo Mtimkulu, mother and son of slain student activist Siphiwo Mtimkulu. Central to their story are attempts by Siphiwo's killer Gideon Nieuwoudt to win them over, culminating in one of the most dramatic meetings of its kind ever filmed. In the end, a symbolic burial affects a kind of peace, but for Sikhumbuzo and his generation this may not be enough. This film goes to the heart of the success and failure of the TRC process."

Friday, 23 April 2004

The Great Dance – A Hunter’s Story

Theme: Rights Based Development – Cultural Rights

South Africa 2000, 75 minutes
Dir: Damon and Craig Forster
Exec. Prod: James Hersov

This is a film about the unique relationship between the San and their environment seen through the experience of hunting and tracking with a band of !Xo San in the Central Kalahari. The film follows a group of !Xo, focusing on the unique relationship between their lifestyle, the land and the animals they hunt. Hunting is fundamental to their culture, and in the film this issue is developed, culminating in "the chasing hunt".

The !Xo have been a part of this vast desert landscape since ancient times. !Nqate is one of them. Together with his friends Karoha and Xlhoase, they hunt as their ancestors have for thousands of years. "We are San bushmen, sons and daughters of the first people," he explains. "We know hunting. This is what we were born to do."

Through their eyes we perceive a world invisible to outsiders. The subtlest signs are imperceptible to the untrained eye, but they are enough to lead !Nqate to his prey. Tracks in the sand are only the beginning - the skills of the San hunter are virtually a sixth sense, a complex bond between man and animal.

The ultimate expression of this relationship is the "chasing hunt" - a run to the death. This incredible feat of skill, tenacity and endurance is rarely practiced and has never before been filmed. We join Karoha as he alone runs down his prey, tracking at high speed over difficult terrain and in 46ºC (120ºF) heat, until man or animal must collapse from sheer exhaustion.

This is the first time that anyone has photographed, filmed and documented in such detail, firsthand, this process where the "hunter becomes the hunted".