THE WOUND. (2017) A MAGNIFICENT SOUTH AFRICAN LGBT DRAMA REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS.

Watch The Fantastic Portrait Of A Projectionist Short

When we go to the cinema we do seem to take things for granted and when changes happen we only seem to comment what we see in front of us if you like to say 'shop floor'. The ticket prices, snack prices, atmosphere of the cinema screen, quality of the film but everytime we do this we do forget probably the most important person....The projectionist. He or she is responsible of setting up the magic we pay to watch enfold in front of us but if your a lover of film (or cinephile as we call them at Cine and The People's Movies) they are also going through drastic changes thanks to the digital age.

35mm is dying been replaced by digital films, you could say it's the end of film, as many old films are too fragile to be transferred, you may not know if your local cinema has changed but where is 35mm film still running? Good question, Ridwaan Fridie, a projectionist from South Africa still is living the dream and he is the subject of Philip Bloom's fantastic short film documentary Portrait Of A Projectionist.

Portrait of Ridwaan Fridie. A film projectionist in the Labia theatre in Cape Town, South Africa for the past 24 years but with big changes on the horizon where does that leave Ridwaan?

If you love film in every way this short doc will go down a treat.

Portrait of a projectionist from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

source:Firstshowing

Raindance 2012:Orania Review

★★☆☆☆

    For those used to documentaries coming with narrators, music and handy voice-overs to point you in the way of a feeling, it might take some adjustment to get used to watching Orania. This German documentary focussing on the titled area of South Africa is something of a flashback to the slower pace of old television documentaries, a study of a topic where shots are held, there is no voiceover or friendly voiced interviewer probing the locals and no running monologue theorising what we’ve just seen on screen. The area in question lies in the Northern Cape of South Africa, a vast area surrounded by, well, nothing really. A community in the centre of this region  are isolated and cut-off from the rest of their nation, not imposed on them but rather by their own choice in an attempt to maintain the core values they hold dear. This is Orania and Orania is strictly whites-only South Africa. Decades after the ending of Apartheid, this small rural spot has been chosen to house numbers of Afrikaans, oppose to joining in the multiculturalism of the world outside in favour of building a nesting place for similarly minded Boers around the country. It’s a community headed by a group of elders, keen to install their values in the next generation of Afrikaans, an idea that was born by what they see as necessary to preserve their culture.

    It’s a culture that holds work and religion as the key pillars of their community, something that’s drilled into you upon arrival where the street signs are a flashback to 50’s style American small-town billboards, reading like a town manifesto ‘Self working, self reliant’, ‘winners never get discouraged, discouragers never win’ and ‘our ideal binds us together’. Ah yes, the ideal. What exactly is the ideal of Oranians? Racism is keenly discarded as part of it by all on camera, although there are clear signs that if it isn’t at least overt or violent it is definitely discrimatory and impassive. A local swimming pool owner jumps at the chance to prove his chumminess with his black delivery man but the stilted exchange and acknowledgment by both that he must not go within 25m of the towns borders only go to heighten the underlying prejudices. There’s also the intimidating billboard that reads “I speak and think in Afrikaans”. It’s more guarded within the older, establishing members of the community believing their country’s rainbow nation as a “recipe for disaster” a notion dating back centuries. They see their role as keepers of their European ancestors’ way of life, one threatened by the black locals who, centuries ago, were initially the employees of these ancestors. This refusal to accept any kind of multiculturalism is an intriguing line to follow, one frustratingly ignored or brushed over at times by director Tobias Lindner who perhaps sees that as a different sort of documentary which is feasible enough - Louis Theroux has already lived amongst a similar Boer community for television and you sense Lindner wants to bring us a more rounded view of life within the walls (metaphorical, they haven’t bricked themselves in. Yet).

    We arrive in Orania with new a family including Mum, teenage son and minibus driver Dad. The father comes with aspirations of a fruitful business ferrying the locals around and out of town “transport is the bond between Orainia and the new South Africa.”, until he realises the locals’ pesky lack of interest in the new South Africa gets in the way. He also takes to the airwaves to reel in new clients where he is warned to address the issue of ‘foreigners’ on the bus – his Afrikaans speaking only admission is still deemed too liberal for some. The radio station itself is seen as the voice of Orania, becoming a mainstay in the film coming across a  perfectly pitched parody of a hospital radio station from the fifties and often delivering the funniest moments: two old ladies read a ‘recipe of the day’ about Quince and there’s a no-panic approach when the internet goes down (again) meaning the already-on-air weather report is unknown, “Oh well, let’s speculate” continues the presenter as he proceeds to look out the window and report what it looks like.

    This dated looking life continues in the distinctly 80’s school video looking introductory video that the teenage son has to watch, one that explains what is expected of him – a lot of work on farms – and ending with the sign off “Orania is not for sissies”. His friendship with his charismatic housemate – a former Johannesburg resident with a few records to his name - is the easiest to enjoy in the film and his subsequent ban from Orania serves to ruin it for us as well as him. You can sense that Lindner was just as upset knowing his best character was no longer in town but has his fingers in enough other story pies to go back to.

Unfortunately none can quite hold our attention as easily and heightens the sense of a lack of focus in the film. Orania the place is a potentially fascinating area of interest sadly Orania the film seldom peeks this interest.

Matthew Walsh

Rating:12
Release Date: Friday 28 September (18:30- World Première) Tuesday 2 October (12:45)
Directed by: Tobias Lindner
Cast: n/a

Watch the Fantastic 'SWEETHEART' Trailer for 1950s style apocalypse

The Minster For Funny Walks John Cleese Stars in South African Movie SPUD

source TWITCH
He may not be a mega filmstar but he's an iconic comedian from the legendary Monty Python Team, John Cleese is now starring in a South African Family movie SPUD.
The movie is based on a popular schoolboy comedy based on books of the same name and the amazing thing about the cinemas in south africa there not dominated by Hollywood blockbusters, its this movie! I think we can say South Afriacan cinema is on the ascendacy after 2009's sucess of District9 which put the nation of the cinematic map which lets them now hire international stars, you could say this is a little bit like Burt Lancaster and his bit for Scottish film in Local Hero?

South Africa, the early 1990s. John "Spud" Milton has embarked on his first year at an elite, boys-only private school. Cursed with parents from well beyond the lunatic fringe, a senile granny, and a dormitory full of strange characters, Spud has to forge a new life for himself in this foreign and sometimes hostile environment. Surrounded by names such as Gecko, Rambo, Rain Man and Mad Dog, Spud takes his first tentative steps along the path toward manhood. Armed with only his wits and his diary, Spud takes us from illegal night swimming to the cricket field, from ghost busting to teacher baiting. He also invites us into the mind of a boy struggling to come to terms with a strange new world; a boy whose eyes are being opened to love, friendship and complete insanity.

 trailer after the break...

A First Look At District 9's Sharlto Copley's directorial debut SPOON

source Twitch
Sharlto Copley broke into hollywood movies in 2009 as the lead character of District 9 soon we will also see him playing murgdock in the 2010 movie version of the classic 1980's tv show A-Team, but Copelys ambitions where not always to be in front of the camera.
Copley actually started life in film as a producer but just like alot of peoples dreams they take a different direction sometimes in the wrong way but alot of times in the right direction and you could say Copely has went in the right way. Yes he may have made more of a name for himself for the few movies he has appeared in but with that stardom it can help you go back and make things possible you wanted to do previously and now we have SPOON.
The movie has been described as:

"thriller with supernatural overtones about a man with a medical condition that causes him to black out during moments of extreme stress and leads him to make a remarkable discovery about himself"
Spoon is played by British tv star Daniel Boyd (Green Wing, ReGenisis, Smack The Pony) with the legendary Rugter Hauer playing his dad Victor.
The movie has been in production for a while but finally its at the stage can start to enjoy or at least understand what the movie is all about. After the break you can watch the first teaser trailer, not much happens but enough to get you interested in following the trailers to make sense of the movie.