Johannesburg

Award-winning director, Akin Omotoso, shows his softer side in new film, Tell Me Sweet Something

/ stelsinkins / Leave a comment
Akin Omotoso

Akin Omotoso

I caught up with Akin Omotoso to talk about his latest film, Tell Me Sweet Something, which was inspired by the director’s fondess for love songs, the romance classic Love Jones, and his desire to celebrate the city he loves — Johannesburg. Continue reading →

Award-winning doccie, The Shore Break, heading to cinemas and DVD

/ stelsinkins / Leave a comment
Nonhle Mbuthuma, is a young local eco-tour guide, and a staunch supporter of her people and the endangered environment on which their livelihood and culture depends. She wants to develop eco-tourism in order to protect her community’s homes, farms, graves and traditional lifestyle. Nonhle opposes the mining operations and highway construction in the Xolobeni area. The Shore Break unpacks the dilemma faced by a rural community on South Africa’s Wild Coast as to whether to support or resist a proposed titanium mining project that could fundamentally change their lives forever.

Nonhle Mbuthuma, a young local eco-tour guide, and staunch supporter of her people and the endangered environment on which their livelihood and culture depends, wants to develop eco-tourism in order to protect her community’s homes, farms, graves and traditional lifestyle. Nonhle opposes the mining operations and highway construction in the Xolobeni area. The Shore Break unpacks the dilemma faced by a rural community on South Africa’s Wild Coast as to whether to support or resist a proposed titanium mining project that could fundamentally change their lives forever.

Multi-award winning doccie The Shore Break is set to have cinema screenings in Jozi before becoming available on DVD and online. Continue reading →

Ninth Floor at David Krut Projects

/ stelsinkins / Leave a comment

David Krut Projects (DKP) Johannesburg is hosting Mary Wafer’s solo exhibition Ninth Floor from Wednesday, June 24 at 142 Jan Smuts Avenue in Parkwood.

Ninth Floor is a new body of paintings and etchings that continue Wafer’s interest in structural marginality and exclusion in contemporary South Africa.

Following her previous inquiry into the Marikana massacre, Wafer’s current research on John Vorster Square – the police station that embodied the violence of the apartheid system – explores moments along South Africa’s post-democratic timeline in order to interrogate cultural change (or the lack thereof).

The sinister, and in places deteriorating, facade of John Vorster Square, now Johannesburg Central Police Station, is, in this work, a signifier of the collective trauma embedded in many of our urban spaces. It embodies a shared anxiety that is a consequence of the brutality of daily life in South Africa.

The menacing presence of the police station is a monument to systemic violence, and is painstakingly explored in Wafer’s large oil paintings.

The title of the exhibition is a reference to the poem “In Detention” by Chris van Wyk.
For more information, contact ame@davidkrut.com or 011 447 0627.

British band Livingstone is touring South Africa in August

/ stelsinkins / Leave a comment

British rock band, Livingston, will be coming to South Africa in August.

Their tour will kick off at Oppikoppi The Fantastic Mr Vos Vos before show dates in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Eastern Cape and Durban. The band will also spend time on a farm in Newcastle to write and record their next album.

Having formed in the multi-cultural hub of London, Livingston is made up of singer Beukes Willemse and a guitarist/keyboardist Chris van Niekerk, from South Africa, guitarist/percussionist Jakob Nebel, from Germany, and bassist Phil Magee, from the UK.

Finding their feet with 2008’s debut Sign Language and 2012’s Fire To Fire (Universal Music Germany), the band achieved numerous successes including Top 20 in the German sales charts and Number 1 on the Amazon & iTunes Rock Charts. Their single Broken made it into the Top 20 and their second single Go was the official song for German national broadcaster ZDF during the winter Olympics of 2010.

The band also collaborated with Hugh Masekela and Till Brunner for a song for the Football World Cup in South Africa (2010); and were featured in the international blockbuster movie Chalet Girl featuring Bill Nighy, Felicity Jones, Brooke Shields and Ed Westwick.

Retreating to a hunter’s cabin in the woods, an unorthodox location for a band who had previously recorded at the hallowed grounds of Abbey Road and Sonic Ranch with producers such as David Botrill (Muse, Tool, Placebo), the band wrote, produced, recorded and mixed Animal entirely on their own. The result? Their purest work to-date. Livingston released Animal in the UK, Benelux and GSA in Autumn 2014, and followed the release with a successful tour.

Vocalist Beukes Willemse says that the band is looking forward to their time in South Africa: “We are absolutely ecstatic to be touring SA. It has been a dream for so long that it seems quite unreal that it is actually happening. Cant wait!”

  • Watch the Livingston EPK here and get ready for a BIG sound South Africa!: https://youtu.be/TaiA_QgKp9c
  • Listen to the single Chemicals off the album at https://soundcloud.com/livingstonmusic/livingston-chemicals-radio-edit

Social Media inks:

http://facebook.com/livingstonmusic
http://youtube.com/livingstonlondon
https://twitter.com/livingstonmusic
http://livingstonmusic.co.uk

Video Links (ANIMAL singles):

“Chemicals” https://youtu.be/CXhDsz46_NI
“Human” https://youtu.be/ZOu5zJ4idsA
“The Hunter” https://youtu.be/99N4MX12gg8
“Reckless” https://youtu.be/5pBxP_EBlXc

Livingstone are coming to SA in August.

Livingstone are coming to SA in August.

Ayanda to open the Durban International Film Festival

/ stelsinkins / Leave a comment

//

Fulu Mugovhani plays Ayanda in the film of the same name.

Fulu Mugovhani plays Ayanda in the film of the same name.

THE highly anticipated South African film, directed by Sara Blecher and produced by Real Eyes in association with Leading Lady Productions, will open the 36th Durban International Film Festival (Diff), which takes place from July 16 to July 26.

Set in the vibrant Afropolitan ­community of Johannesburg’s Yeoville, Ayanda is a coming-of-age story of a ­21-year-old Afro-hipster who embarks on a journey of self discovery when she has to fight to save her late father’s legacy, a motor repair shop, when it is threatened with closure.
She’s thrown into a world of greasy overalls, gender stereotypes and abandoned vintage cars, once loved and now in need of a young woman’s reinventive touch to bring them back to life.
“Ayanda is a story about women, made by women,” says director Blecher. “The film is set in a vibrant and diverse Johannesburg and gives audiences a colourful and vivid view of South Africa right now. With a youthful cast, it has energy and street style.
“At its heart, however, the film looks at what it’s like for a young girl to grow up without a father, and how she and others around her have to learn how to let go of the things and people they love to move forward.”
The film stars Fulu Mugovhani (of Scandal fame) in the title role, Nigerian actor O.C. Ukeje and South Africans Ntathi Moshesh, Kenneth Nkosi, Jafta Mamabola, Thomas Gumede, Sihle Xaba and Vanessa Cooke.
“We are pleased that this feel-good film will open this year’s festival,” said Pedro Pimenta, director of the Diff.
“The opening film of this, the most prestigious international film event in SA, needs to reflect a clear priority established by the festival to reach and develop local audiences.
“The recently published National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) report on audiences in this country is very informative and revealing in that while the industry has been successfully structured and supported from all quarters to allow a regular flow of SA content, much still needs to be done for this content to reach local audiences. By once again opening the Diff with a strong SA film, we endorse this objective.”
This is the second opening night film at Diff for Blecher. Her film Otelo Burning, a gripping story about township kids who discover surfing, opened the 2011 Diff, won numerous international awards and was screened at festivals all around the world.
“We are very proud of Ayanda and are thrilled to have it selected as the opening film at this year’s festival. The film had a very successful screening in Cannes last month and we look forward to screening it to festival goers in Durban,” said Blecher.
Co-producer of the film Terry Pheto added: “Ayanda celebrates the diversity of our country and revels in the fact that we are a multicultural, colourful and ­exciting melting pot of Africa. With this film we have tried to capture the Afropolitan nature of our country and the energy of its people.”
Ayanda had its world premiere in Los Angeles on June 13, where it was screened in competition at the prestigious Los Angeles Film Festival.
The film, which was originally titled Andani and the Mechanic, was a project in the 2013 Durban FilmMart, the co-production and finance forum of the Diff, and the Durban Film Office. It is one of five titles that have been part of the DFM process over the years that will be screened this year at Diff. The festival includes more than 200 theatrical screenings and a full seminar and workshop programme, as well as the Wave­scapes Film Festival. Other attractions include the eighth Talents Durban ­(presented in co-operation with the Berlinale Talents) and the sixth Durban FilmMart co-production market (presented in partnership with the Durban Film Office).
• See http://www.durbanfilmfest.co.za