As South Africa marks three decades since its first democratic elections, a historic moment that dismantled the apartheid system and ushered in Black-majority rule, the country is at a crossroads. Inequality is rife. Crippling blackouts have pushed the economy to a tipping point. The ruling African National Congress — the party of Nelson Mandela — is in crisis, at peril of losing nationwide elections this year for the first time since it swept to power. For many South Africans, the heady promises of that democratic transition have largely been left unfulfilled.
It is a moment of reflection and uncertainty, too, for the country’s film and TV industry, which amid the broader soul-searching is still striving to find its identity. “In many ways, you can say the industry is growing. It’s booming,” says Layla Swart of Yellowbone Entertainment, whose credits include the Canal Plus-Showmax epic fantasy drama series “Blood Psalms,...
It is a moment of reflection and uncertainty, too, for the country’s film and TV industry, which amid the broader soul-searching is still striving to find its identity. “In many ways, you can say the industry is growing. It’s booming,” says Layla Swart of Yellowbone Entertainment, whose credits include the Canal Plus-Showmax epic fantasy drama series “Blood Psalms,...
- 3/2/2024
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
If one is inclined towards making a sports film, one can take various paths. There is the route of the ‘dysfunctional team,’ then there is the route of ‘individual glory’; some have also taken the ‘nationalistic honor’ route in the film as well. The Queenstown Kings, the new film by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, mixes almost everything available in its attempt to turn out a good sports drama. There is a theme of fatherhood in the film, but more importantly, it’s the unifying power of a sport that is depicted with a light, humorous tone. What’s good about this film is that it has thoroughly fleshed-out characters, and they are nicely superimposed on the template of the sports drama.
The story is fairly straightforward, though the film begins on a very complex note. Malusi Mahamba, the legendary footballer, died while mentoring the local soccer team. News travelled, and his...
The story is fairly straightforward, though the film begins on a very complex note. Malusi Mahamba, the legendary footballer, died while mentoring the local soccer team. News travelled, and his...
- 11/18/2023
- by Ayush Awasthi
- Film Fugitives
A story about football, loyalty, and fatherhood, Netflix’s The Queenstown Kings is a brilliant tale about a small community in Nedbank, South Africa, where dreams were soaring high until the football legend Malusi Mkhuli Mahamba passed away. He was a legendary figure in the community, and his demise started the chain of events that brought the ‘prodigal son’ Buyile back into the community’s fold and gave him one last chance to bring his life back on track and be an example to his son Fezile. Directed by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, The Queenstown Kings covers a variety of issues and, through its upbeat storytelling, keeps us thoroughly entertained throughout its run time.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Film?
After the news of his father’s demise reached Buyile, he was obligated to attend his funeral. The call had come straight from his fierce mother, and he didn’t have a choice.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Film?
After the news of his father’s demise reached Buyile, he was obligated to attend his funeral. The call had come straight from his fierce mother, and he didn’t have a choice.
- 11/18/2023
- by Ayush Awasthi
- Film Fugitives
Amazon Prime Video has closed a multi-picture licensing agreement with South Africa’s Known Associates, the parent company of Johannesburg-based Known Associates Entertainment (Kae) and Cape Town-based Moonlighting Films, the company announced Thursday during the Joburg Film Festival.
The deal grants Prime Video exclusive SVOD access to over 20 South African feature films, including Zane Meas’ “Klip Anker Baai,” Marvin-Lee Beukes’ “Tickets,” Jahmil Qubeka’s “You Are My Favorite Place,” Dick d’vLz Reubïn’s “Gereza” and Norman Maake’s “Piet’s Sake 2.”
The slate also includes at least eight newly produced films in 2023, among them new features from Ian Gabriel (“Four Corners”), Alastair Orr (“Triggered”), Meg Rickards (“Tess”) and John Barker, who will be filming the sequel to his 2022 Toronto Film Festival premiere “The Umbrella Men” (pictured).
“We’re delighted to be bringing Prime Video customers this diverse and compelling slate of South African movies from the dynamic team at Known Associates,...
The deal grants Prime Video exclusive SVOD access to over 20 South African feature films, including Zane Meas’ “Klip Anker Baai,” Marvin-Lee Beukes’ “Tickets,” Jahmil Qubeka’s “You Are My Favorite Place,” Dick d’vLz Reubïn’s “Gereza” and Norman Maake’s “Piet’s Sake 2.”
The slate also includes at least eight newly produced films in 2023, among them new features from Ian Gabriel (“Four Corners”), Alastair Orr (“Triggered”), Meg Rickards (“Tess”) and John Barker, who will be filming the sequel to his 2022 Toronto Film Festival premiere “The Umbrella Men” (pictured).
“We’re delighted to be bringing Prime Video customers this diverse and compelling slate of South African movies from the dynamic team at Known Associates,...
- 2/2/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Showmax content chief Yolisa Phahle has revealed how co-producing with international partners has helped the South Africa-based streamer compete with fierce SVoD competition, as a first trailer for its epic fantasy drama Blood Psalms is today unveiled. You can watch it here below.
Blood Psalms, from creators Layla Swart and Jahmil X.T. Qubeka from Yellowbone Entertainment, is a big budget co-production with France’s Canal+ — the latest in several collaborations between the companies — and is billed as Showmax’s “biggest and most ambitious series, completely unlike any other African series you’ve ever seen” by Nomsa Philiso, Executive Head of Programming at the streamer’s parent MultiChoice. The fantasy drama, shot entirely in African languages, has touches of Game of Thrones, set 11,000 years ago in ancient Africa in a world of warring factions and magic.
The synopsis reads: “In Ancient Africa, one thousand days after the fall of Atlantis,...
Blood Psalms, from creators Layla Swart and Jahmil X.T. Qubeka from Yellowbone Entertainment, is a big budget co-production with France’s Canal+ — the latest in several collaborations between the companies — and is billed as Showmax’s “biggest and most ambitious series, completely unlike any other African series you’ve ever seen” by Nomsa Philiso, Executive Head of Programming at the streamer’s parent MultiChoice. The fantasy drama, shot entirely in African languages, has touches of Game of Thrones, set 11,000 years ago in ancient Africa in a world of warring factions and magic.
The synopsis reads: “In Ancient Africa, one thousand days after the fall of Atlantis,...
- 8/17/2022
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
New UK Sales Firm Strikes Slate Deal
Exclusive: New UK sales firm Mise En Scene has set a distribution deal with New York and European distributor Spi International which includes all six of the company’s first titles. Spi has picked up non-exclusive rights to What Lies Ahead, starring Rumer Willis and Emma Dumont; I Wrote This For You with Brennan Keel Cook; Eating Cars starring Lexi Pappas, Lauren Ashley Carter; Super November, starring Josie Long, Sean Biggerstaff and Heydon Prowse; Synchronicity, starring Sara Mitich and Ash Catherwood; and Reach, starring Garrett Clayton, Jordan Doww and Johnny James Fiore. London-based Mise En Scene was launched last March by Paul Yates and Netto Fernandes. Spi International and its aggregation service FilmBox operates a portfolio of 42 TV channels and digital services in multiple countries.
Crackle Plus Takes South African Feature
Exclusive: AVOD platform Crackle Plus has picked up rights to South African...
Exclusive: New UK sales firm Mise En Scene has set a distribution deal with New York and European distributor Spi International which includes all six of the company’s first titles. Spi has picked up non-exclusive rights to What Lies Ahead, starring Rumer Willis and Emma Dumont; I Wrote This For You with Brennan Keel Cook; Eating Cars starring Lexi Pappas, Lauren Ashley Carter; Super November, starring Josie Long, Sean Biggerstaff and Heydon Prowse; Synchronicity, starring Sara Mitich and Ash Catherwood; and Reach, starring Garrett Clayton, Jordan Doww and Johnny James Fiore. London-based Mise En Scene was launched last March by Paul Yates and Netto Fernandes. Spi International and its aggregation service FilmBox operates a portfolio of 42 TV channels and digital services in multiple countries.
Crackle Plus Takes South African Feature
Exclusive: AVOD platform Crackle Plus has picked up rights to South African...
- 1/27/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
MoJo also finalises deal with HBO on Chateua Vato.
Morris Ruskin, Jordan Walker-Pearlman and Joseph Mellicker’s new production and management company MoJo Global Arts has licensed US rights on last season’s South African Oscar submission Knuckle City to Showtime.
Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s film follows an aging professional boxer and his career-criminal brother who is about to be released from prison. The sons of a legendary fighter-turned-gangster team up to create one last shot at fame but encounter more than they bargained for. MoJo Global Arts represents Qubeka.
Ruskin brokered the deal on behalf of MoJo with Helen Huang on behalf of Showtime.
Morris Ruskin, Jordan Walker-Pearlman and Joseph Mellicker’s new production and management company MoJo Global Arts has licensed US rights on last season’s South African Oscar submission Knuckle City to Showtime.
Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s film follows an aging professional boxer and his career-criminal brother who is about to be released from prison. The sons of a legendary fighter-turned-gangster team up to create one last shot at fame but encounter more than they bargained for. MoJo Global Arts represents Qubeka.
Ruskin brokered the deal on behalf of MoJo with Helen Huang on behalf of Showtime.
- 7/31/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
The decision by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in November to disqualify Genevieve Nnaji’s “Lionheart” from the international feature Oscar race marred an otherwise promising awards season for Africa, which still saw its total number of submissions reach a record-breaking nine. The ensuing controversy brought filmmakers, including Ava DuVernay, into the fray, and prompted the Academy to defend its decision on the grounds that entries must be mostly filmed in a language other than English, Nigeria’s official language.
But the dust-up also served to underscore broader structural challenges for African filmmakers dreaming of Oscar glory. Production across the continent has been steadily rising, with such debutantes as Niger, Malawi and Mozambique recently entering the awards race. Yet most countries lack either the financial resources to mobilize a selection committee — an often expensive proposition — or the political resolve to pursue an award that many perceive as...
But the dust-up also served to underscore broader structural challenges for African filmmakers dreaming of Oscar glory. Production across the continent has been steadily rising, with such debutantes as Niger, Malawi and Mozambique recently entering the awards race. Yet most countries lack either the financial resources to mobilize a selection committee — an often expensive proposition — or the political resolve to pursue an award that many perceive as...
- 12/5/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Earlier this month, the Academy announced that 93 countries submitted films for its International Feature Film category at the 92nd Academy Awards. Ten of these came from Africa, a new record for the continent.
It remains to be seen whether any of these titles will be shortlisted in order to make the final list of five nominees. Of the 10 films, Senegal’s “Atlantics,” Mati Diop’s 2019 Cannes Grand Prix winner acquired by Netflix, probably has the strongest chance.
The last time a film representing an African country won this category was South Africa’s “Tsotsi,” by Gavin Hood, at the 78th Oscars in 2006. It’s one of just three wins from African countries, which also include Algeria’s “Z” by Costa-Gavras in 1969 and the Ivory Coast’s “Black and White in Color” (“La Victoire en chantant”) by Jean-Jacques Annaud in 1976.
In 2018, eight submissions included African first-timers Mozambique (“The Train of Salt...
It remains to be seen whether any of these titles will be shortlisted in order to make the final list of five nominees. Of the 10 films, Senegal’s “Atlantics,” Mati Diop’s 2019 Cannes Grand Prix winner acquired by Netflix, probably has the strongest chance.
The last time a film representing an African country won this category was South Africa’s “Tsotsi,” by Gavin Hood, at the 78th Oscars in 2006. It’s one of just three wins from African countries, which also include Algeria’s “Z” by Costa-Gavras in 1969 and the Ivory Coast’s “Black and White in Color” (“La Victoire en chantant”) by Jean-Jacques Annaud in 1976.
In 2018, eight submissions included African first-timers Mozambique (“The Train of Salt...
- 10/12/2019
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
Expanded shortlist of 10 films to be announced on December 16.
The Academy on Monday (7) confirmed that 93 countries have submitted films for consideration in the international feature film category for the 92nd Academy Awards.
Ghana, Nigeria and Uzbekistan are first-time entrants with Kwabena Gyansah’s Azali, Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart, and Umid Khamdamov’s Hot Bread, respectively.
Earlier this year, the Academy board voted to rename the category formerly known as foreign language film, and expand the shortlist from nine to 10 films.
The shortlist will be announced on December 16. Nominations for the 92nd Oscars will be unveiled on January 13, 2020, and the Oscars...
The Academy on Monday (7) confirmed that 93 countries have submitted films for consideration in the international feature film category for the 92nd Academy Awards.
Ghana, Nigeria and Uzbekistan are first-time entrants with Kwabena Gyansah’s Azali, Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart, and Umid Khamdamov’s Hot Bread, respectively.
Earlier this year, the Academy board voted to rename the category formerly known as foreign language film, and expand the shortlist from nine to 10 films.
The shortlist will be announced on December 16. Nominations for the 92nd Oscars will be unveiled on January 13, 2020, and the Oscars...
- 10/7/2019
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the full list of countries that have submitted a pic for consideration for the new International Feature Film Oscar category.
Here are the 93 nations and their hopefuls, in alphabetical order:
Albania, The Delegation, Bujar Alimani, director;
Algeria, Papicha, Mounia Meddour, director;
Argentina, Heroic Losers, Sebastián Borensztein, director;
Armenia, Lengthy Night, Edgar Baghdasaryan, director;
Australia, Buoyancy, Rodd Rathjen, director;
Austria, Joy, Sudabeh Mortezai, director;
Bangladesh, Alpha, Nasiruddin Yousuff, director;
Belarus, Debut, Anastasiya Miroshnichenko, director;
Belgium, Our Mothers, César Díaz, director;
Bolivia, I Miss You, Rodrigo Bellott, director;
Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Son, Ines Tanovic, director;
Brazil, Invisible Life, Karim Aïnouz, director;
Bulgaria, Ága, Milko Lazarov, director;
Cambodia, In the Life of Music, Caylee So, Sok Visal, directors;
Canada, Antigone, Sophie Deraspe, director;
Chile, Spider, Andrés Wood, director;
China, Ne Zha, Yu Yang, director;
Colombia, Monos, Alejandro Landes, director;
Costa Rica, The Awakening of the Ants,...
Here are the 93 nations and their hopefuls, in alphabetical order:
Albania, The Delegation, Bujar Alimani, director;
Algeria, Papicha, Mounia Meddour, director;
Argentina, Heroic Losers, Sebastián Borensztein, director;
Armenia, Lengthy Night, Edgar Baghdasaryan, director;
Australia, Buoyancy, Rodd Rathjen, director;
Austria, Joy, Sudabeh Mortezai, director;
Bangladesh, Alpha, Nasiruddin Yousuff, director;
Belarus, Debut, Anastasiya Miroshnichenko, director;
Belgium, Our Mothers, César Díaz, director;
Bolivia, I Miss You, Rodrigo Bellott, director;
Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Son, Ines Tanovic, director;
Brazil, Invisible Life, Karim Aïnouz, director;
Bulgaria, Ága, Milko Lazarov, director;
Cambodia, In the Life of Music, Caylee So, Sok Visal, directors;
Canada, Antigone, Sophie Deraspe, director;
Chile, Spider, Andrés Wood, director;
China, Ne Zha, Yu Yang, director;
Colombia, Monos, Alejandro Landes, director;
Costa Rica, The Awakening of the Ants,...
- 10/7/2019
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
Durban–Cologne-based Rushlake Media has acquired world sales rights for “The Sound of Masks,” by Portuguese filmmaker Sara Gouveia, and “In Search,” by Kenyan director Beryl Magoko. The announcement was made Thursday at the Durban Intl. Film Festival, where both documentaries are screening.
Rushlake’s Philipp Hoffmann says the two films will bolster the company’s growing slate of premium African content. “Both ‘In Search’ and ‘The Sound of Masks’ perfectly fit our focus of high quality African films and African stories,” he says. “I’m really proud I can help to bring these outstanding films to the international markets and audiences.”
“In Search” (pictured) is Magoko’s highly personal exploration of female circumcision, a life-threatening ritual undergone by many girls across Africa. Evoking her own experiences as a child in Kenya, where circumcision was considered a rite of passage, she embarks on a journey that simultaneously leads her into the past and the future.
Rushlake’s Philipp Hoffmann says the two films will bolster the company’s growing slate of premium African content. “Both ‘In Search’ and ‘The Sound of Masks’ perfectly fit our focus of high quality African films and African stories,” he says. “I’m really proud I can help to bring these outstanding films to the international markets and audiences.”
“In Search” (pictured) is Magoko’s highly personal exploration of female circumcision, a life-threatening ritual undergone by many girls across Africa. Evoking her own experiences as a child in Kenya, where circumcision was considered a rite of passage, she embarks on a journey that simultaneously leads her into the past and the future.
- 7/18/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Durban–Dudu Nyakama is an aging boxer whose best fighting days are behind him. But for a man whose only glory has come in the ring, a big prize fight offers the one shot at saving his family, dragging him into the criminal underbelly of the gritty township he’s spent his whole life trying to escape.
In “Knuckle City,” by South African director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, there are only three ways out of a place known as South Africa’s boxing Mecca: through the ring, in a pine box, or in the back of a squad car. For his fourth feature, Qubeka returns to his childhood home of Mdantsane to explore how poverty and toxic masculinity perpetuate the cycle of violence that ensnares so many of its inhabitants. Inspired by classics like “Raging Bull” and “Mean Streets,” “Knuckle City” opens the 40th edition of the Durban Intl. Film Festival on Thursday night.
In “Knuckle City,” by South African director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, there are only three ways out of a place known as South Africa’s boxing Mecca: through the ring, in a pine box, or in the back of a squad car. For his fourth feature, Qubeka returns to his childhood home of Mdantsane to explore how poverty and toxic masculinity perpetuate the cycle of violence that ensnares so many of its inhabitants. Inspired by classics like “Raging Bull” and “Mean Streets,” “Knuckle City” opens the 40th edition of the Durban Intl. Film Festival on Thursday night.
- 7/18/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Thirty years after his original journey, Prince Akeem is returning to the United States to find an heir to the throne of Zamunda. That’s right: As Variety reported last week, Paramount is planning a sequel to the 1988 comedy “Coming to America,” with Craig Brewer (“Hustle & Flow”) set to direct. Eddie Murphy will reprise his role as the overly-coddled Zamundan royal who travels to New York to find the woman of his dreams. Fans of the original may be excited to see Murphy return to one of his most beloved roles. While the movie divided critics, it resonated with audiences who were charmed by Murphy’s likable performance, and wound up grossing over $288 million worldwide.
But another dose of this playful fairy tale might have a hard time in the 21st century, facing cultural challenges that would have gone unquestioned three decades ago. Before Brewer and Murphy get the ball rolling on the sequel,...
But another dose of this playful fairy tale might have a hard time in the 21st century, facing cultural challenges that would have gone unquestioned three decades ago. Before Brewer and Murphy get the ball rolling on the sequel,...
- 2/20/2019
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
Juno Films have picked up rights in North America to South Africa's foreign-language Oscar contender Sew the Winter to my Skin from sales group Rushlake Media.
The film, directed by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, tells the true-life tale of the notorious outlaw John Kepe (Ezra Mabengeza), who achieved folk hero status in pre-apartheid South Africa.
Qubeka's poetic, nearly dialogue-free style, combining a Western manhunt thriller with a boldly experimental biopic, has been compared to that of Terrence Malick. Sew the Winter to my Skin premiered at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this year. South Africa selected the title to represent ...
The film, directed by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, tells the true-life tale of the notorious outlaw John Kepe (Ezra Mabengeza), who achieved folk hero status in pre-apartheid South Africa.
Qubeka's poetic, nearly dialogue-free style, combining a Western manhunt thriller with a boldly experimental biopic, has been compared to that of Terrence Malick. Sew the Winter to my Skin premiered at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this year. South Africa selected the title to represent ...
- 11/30/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Juno Films have picked up rights in North America to South Africa's foreign-language Oscar contender Sew the Winter to my Skin from sales group Rushlake Media.
The film, directed by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, tells the true-life tale of the notorious outlaw John Kepe (Ezra Mabengeza), who achieved folk hero status in pre-apartheid South Africa.
Qubeka's poetic, nearly dialogue-free style, combining a Western manhunt thriller with a boldly experimental biopic, has been compared to that of Terrence Malick. Sew the Winter to my Skin premiered at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this year. South Africa selected the title to represent ...
The film, directed by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, tells the true-life tale of the notorious outlaw John Kepe (Ezra Mabengeza), who achieved folk hero status in pre-apartheid South Africa.
Qubeka's poetic, nearly dialogue-free style, combining a Western manhunt thriller with a boldly experimental biopic, has been compared to that of Terrence Malick. Sew the Winter to my Skin premiered at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this year. South Africa selected the title to represent ...
- 11/30/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In today’s film news roundup, Eric Bana will star in Australian drama “The Dry,” Magnolia buys “Hail Satan?,” and South Africa’s Oscar entry “Sew the Winter to My Skin” gets U.S. distribution.
Casting
Eric Bana will star in the Australian police drama “The Dry,” a feature adaptation of Jane Harper’s bestselling novel, with shooting starting in February.
Robert Connolly will direct from a script he has co-written with Harry Cripps. Australian native Bruna Papandrea is producing through her Made Up Stories production company along with Jodi Matterson and Steve Hutensky. Bana and Connolly are executive producers with Ricci Swart and Andrew Myer.
“The Dry” won the Ned Kelly Award for best first crime fiction in 2017 and was voted best crime and thriller at the 2018 British Book Awards. The story centers on a policeman who returns to the country town he grew up in to investigate a murder-suicide.
Casting
Eric Bana will star in the Australian police drama “The Dry,” a feature adaptation of Jane Harper’s bestselling novel, with shooting starting in February.
Robert Connolly will direct from a script he has co-written with Harry Cripps. Australian native Bruna Papandrea is producing through her Made Up Stories production company along with Jodi Matterson and Steve Hutensky. Bana and Connolly are executive producers with Ricci Swart and Andrew Myer.
“The Dry” won the Ned Kelly Award for best first crime fiction in 2017 and was voted best crime and thriller at the 2018 British Book Awards. The story centers on a policeman who returns to the country town he grew up in to investigate a murder-suicide.
- 11/30/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
By depicting issues of racism and bigotry in pre-apartheid South Africa, “Sew Winter to My Skin” writer and director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka said he wants to portray everything that “make(s) us the same in humanity, rather than the things that set us apart.”
Following a screening of the 2018 film, South Africa’s Oscar foreign race entry, Qubeka participated in a Q&A moderated by TheWrap CEO and founder Sharon Waxman. Based on true events, “Sew Winter to My Skin” is a Western-style film that follows the violent and emotional last days leading up to South African outlaw John Kepe’s execution in June 1952. Kepe (Ezra Mabengeza), the self-proclaimed “Samson of Boschberg,” was hung for a string of crimes including theft and the murder of a farmworker.
“If you ask me what the film’s about, it’s a love letter to our history. The pain that we live through...
Following a screening of the 2018 film, South Africa’s Oscar foreign race entry, Qubeka participated in a Q&A moderated by TheWrap CEO and founder Sharon Waxman. Based on true events, “Sew Winter to My Skin” is a Western-style film that follows the violent and emotional last days leading up to South African outlaw John Kepe’s execution in June 1952. Kepe (Ezra Mabengeza), the self-proclaimed “Samson of Boschberg,” was hung for a string of crimes including theft and the murder of a farmworker.
“If you ask me what the film’s about, it’s a love letter to our history. The pain that we live through...
- 11/15/2018
- by Alexandra Del Rosario
- The Wrap
In his second year at the helm as artistic director of the Africa Intl. Film Festival (Afriff), Newton Aduaka said his goal when curating this year’s edition, which unspools Nov. 11-18 in Lagos, was “to present a rigorously selected program with an international gaze.”
It’s an acknowledgment by the Paris-based filmmaker, who was born in Lagos but left more than 30 years ago, that the inward-looking Nigerian industry stands to benefit from exposure to “a wider international aesthetic of filmmaking.” Said Aduaka, “There has to be room for other kinds of cinema, other kinds of voices.”
Eight years after Afriff’s founding, the festival will present more than 140 features, shorts, documentaries and animated films from across Africa and the rest of the world. For Nigerian filmmakers, said Aduaka, the selection presents an opportunity to “shift the gaze” away from cinema as a means of popular entertainment – as evidenced by...
It’s an acknowledgment by the Paris-based filmmaker, who was born in Lagos but left more than 30 years ago, that the inward-looking Nigerian industry stands to benefit from exposure to “a wider international aesthetic of filmmaking.” Said Aduaka, “There has to be room for other kinds of cinema, other kinds of voices.”
Eight years after Afriff’s founding, the festival will present more than 140 features, shorts, documentaries and animated films from across Africa and the rest of the world. For Nigerian filmmakers, said Aduaka, the selection presents an opportunity to “shift the gaze” away from cinema as a means of popular entertainment – as evidenced by...
- 11/8/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The admirable ambition to frame the film with all the iconoclastic, outlaw verve of its rogue antihero is both the making and the unmaking of “Sew the Winter to my Skin,” the proto-Western sophomore feature from rising South African powerhouse Jahmil X.T. Qubeka. As shown in his well-received noir-indebted debut “Of Good Report,” Qubeka has filmmaking energy to burn, but this time it sparks and flares over much broadened horizons — often literally, in the form of returning Dp Jonathan Kovel’s striking landscape photography, featuring vistas so huge they have visibly different weather on one side than the other.
But the narrative enlargement is less successful: While the project of infusing a local legend with grandly cinematic, mythic status is a worthy one, the film can’t quite get out of its own way, and the result is incoherently at odds with itself, with two outsized personalities — the hero John...
But the narrative enlargement is less successful: While the project of infusing a local legend with grandly cinematic, mythic status is a worthy one, the film can’t quite get out of its own way, and the result is incoherently at odds with itself, with two outsized personalities — the hero John...
- 10/6/2018
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Screen’s regularly updated list of foreign language Oscar submissions.
Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards are not until Tuesday January 22, but the first submissions for best foreign-language film are now being announced.
Last year saw a record 92 submissions for the award, which were narrowed down to a shortlist of nine. This was cut to five nominees, with Sebastián Lelio’s transgender drama A Fantastic Woman ultimately taking home the gold statue.
Screen’s interview with Mark Johnson, chair of the Academy’s foreign-language film committee, explains the shortlisting process from submission to voting.
Submitted films must be released theatrically...
Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards are not until Tuesday January 22, but the first submissions for best foreign-language film are now being announced.
Last year saw a record 92 submissions for the award, which were narrowed down to a shortlist of nine. This was cut to five nominees, with Sebastián Lelio’s transgender drama A Fantastic Woman ultimately taking home the gold statue.
Screen’s interview with Mark Johnson, chair of the Academy’s foreign-language film committee, explains the shortlisting process from submission to voting.
Submitted films must be released theatrically...
- 9/24/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Screen’s regularly updated list of foreign language Oscar submissions.
Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards are not until Tuesday January 22, but the first submissions for best foreign-language film are now being announced.
Last year saw a record 92 submissions for the award, which were narrowed down to a shortlist of nine. This was cut to five nominees, with Sebastián Lelio’s transgender drama A Fantastic Woman ultimately taking home the gold statue.
Screen’s interview with Mark Johnson, chair of the Academy’s foreign-language film committee, explains the shortlisting process from submission to voting.
Submitted films must be released theatrically...
Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards are not until Tuesday January 22, but the first submissions for best foreign-language film are now being announced.
Last year saw a record 92 submissions for the award, which were narrowed down to a shortlist of nine. This was cut to five nominees, with Sebastián Lelio’s transgender drama A Fantastic Woman ultimately taking home the gold statue.
Screen’s interview with Mark Johnson, chair of the Academy’s foreign-language film committee, explains the shortlisting process from submission to voting.
Submitted films must be released theatrically...
- 9/24/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s “Sew the Winter to My Skin,” about a real mid-century outlaw and his Robin Hood-style exploits, is South Africa’s submission for the foreign-language Oscar race. The movie, which world premiered in the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, was selected by the National Film & Video Foundation (Nfvf) on Friday.
Written and directed by Qubeka, “Winter” is an adventure epic inspired by the story of John Kepe, who eluded authorities in South Africa’s rugged Boschberg Mountains for 12 years as he stole from wealthy white landowners and gave to the black poor. His exploits made him a folk hero to his own people and a public enemy in the eyes of the apartheid government.
The selection committee lauded what it described as “an unmistakable, bold South African voice that tackles historical and contemporary issues, in both South Africa and the world.” Describing Qubeka’s cinematic technique as “visionary and bold,...
Written and directed by Qubeka, “Winter” is an adventure epic inspired by the story of John Kepe, who eluded authorities in South Africa’s rugged Boschberg Mountains for 12 years as he stole from wealthy white landowners and gave to the black poor. His exploits made him a folk hero to his own people and a public enemy in the eyes of the apartheid government.
The selection committee lauded what it described as “an unmistakable, bold South African voice that tackles historical and contemporary issues, in both South Africa and the world.” Describing Qubeka’s cinematic technique as “visionary and bold,...
- 9/21/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
In an isolated stronghold of South Africa’s Afrikaaner community, a religious housewife welcomes a hardened street orphan into her home, upsetting a tight-knit family dynamic and setting off a power struggle for a father’s love.
In Etienne Kallos’ feature debut, “The Harvesters,” which premieres in Un Certain Regard, the generational rift at the heart of one conservative household raises broader questions about the role South Africa’s white ethnic minority played in the country’s brutal past, and the place it has in the young nation’s future.
Says Kallos, “There is a wordless legacy that needs to be addressed.”
Born and raised in South Africa, Kallos left the country for the U.S. nearly two decades ago, returning over the course of a career that’s seen him produce two U.S.-lensed shorts that screened in Venice and Cannes. For his feature debut, Kallos saw a...
In Etienne Kallos’ feature debut, “The Harvesters,” which premieres in Un Certain Regard, the generational rift at the heart of one conservative household raises broader questions about the role South Africa’s white ethnic minority played in the country’s brutal past, and the place it has in the young nation’s future.
Says Kallos, “There is a wordless legacy that needs to be addressed.”
Born and raised in South Africa, Kallos left the country for the U.S. nearly two decades ago, returning over the course of a career that’s seen him produce two U.S.-lensed shorts that screened in Venice and Cannes. For his feature debut, Kallos saw a...
- 5/14/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Sixteen directors and their respective projects have been chosen to participate in the Cannes Film Festival's 13th annual Cinefondation Atelier (workshop), which aims to encourage the emergence of new filmmakers. Together with their producers, the helmers will be able to meet potential partners to help bring their projects to fruition. 15 projects from 14 different countries have been selected and they are: Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's Sew The Winter To My Skin (South Africa)…...
- 3/3/2017
- Deadline
Sixteen directors and their respective projects have been chosen to participate in the Cannes Film Festival's 13th annual Cinefondation Atelier (workshop), which aims to encourage the emergence of new filmmakers. Together with their producers, the helmers will be able to meet potential partners to help bring their projects to fruition. 15 projects from 14 different countries have been selected and they are: Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's Sew The Winter To My Skin (South Africa)…...
- 3/3/2017
- Deadline TV
The Cannes Atelier will feature 15 titles.
The Cannes Film Festival (May 17-28) has unveiled this year’s Cinefondation’s L’Atelier selection of 15 projects from 16 directors.
The directors and producers, representing 14 countries, are assisted in meeting potential funding partners during the festival.
Conefoundation’s L’Atelier has invited 186 projects since its inception in 2005, of which 145 have been completed and 14 are in pre-production.
The line-up:
Sew the Winter to My Skin Jahmil X.T. Qubeka (South Africa)
Day After Tomorrow Kamar Ahmad Simon (Bangladesh)
Ningdu Lei Lei (China)
Teenage Jesus Marie Grahtø Sørensen (Denmark)
Decompression Yona Rozenkier (Israel)
Go Youth Carlos Armella (Mexico)
Bedridden Byamba Sakhya (Mongolia)
Alam Firas Khoury (Palestine)
Candy Town Yannillys Perez (Dominican Republic)
Otto the Barbarian Ruxandra Ghitescu (Romania)
Summer E5 Emily Young (UK)
City of Small Blessings Chen-His Wong (Singapore)
The Translator Rana Kazkaz & Anas Khalaf (Syria)
Cu Li Never Cries Phan Ngoc Lan (Vietnam)
Taste Le Bao (Vietnam)...
The Cannes Film Festival (May 17-28) has unveiled this year’s Cinefondation’s L’Atelier selection of 15 projects from 16 directors.
The directors and producers, representing 14 countries, are assisted in meeting potential funding partners during the festival.
Conefoundation’s L’Atelier has invited 186 projects since its inception in 2005, of which 145 have been completed and 14 are in pre-production.
The line-up:
Sew the Winter to My Skin Jahmil X.T. Qubeka (South Africa)
Day After Tomorrow Kamar Ahmad Simon (Bangladesh)
Ningdu Lei Lei (China)
Teenage Jesus Marie Grahtø Sørensen (Denmark)
Decompression Yona Rozenkier (Israel)
Go Youth Carlos Armella (Mexico)
Bedridden Byamba Sakhya (Mongolia)
Alam Firas Khoury (Palestine)
Candy Town Yannillys Perez (Dominican Republic)
Otto the Barbarian Ruxandra Ghitescu (Romania)
Summer E5 Emily Young (UK)
City of Small Blessings Chen-His Wong (Singapore)
The Translator Rana Kazkaz & Anas Khalaf (Syria)
Cu Li Never Cries Phan Ngoc Lan (Vietnam)
Taste Le Bao (Vietnam)...
- 3/3/2017
- ScreenDaily
The Award winning director and executive producer of the critically acclaimed South African neo-noir "Of Good Report" (winner of 7 SAFTAs in 2014), Jahmil X.T. Qubeka and Lwazi Manzi, have joined forces with Spier Films to develop and produce a number of new films through both Spier Films and a new joint venture called Mercurial Pictures. Films include: - "The White Devil" - a supernatural thriller which Spier Films hopes to shoot in March next year in the UK. - "Dead By Dawn" - a Us set cop thriller to be financed and shot in South Africa in collaboration with Justin Cohen’s Picturescope. The screenplay is being written by Sean Drummond who...
- 7/20/2015
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Great news for those in the USA who've wanted to see the film, but haven't had the opportunity, since it was never formerly released on any format in the USA, following its international film festival run that began in 2013. A theatrical release would've been preferred, because I think it's a film that deserves to be seen on the big screen. Alas, you'll have to settle for the smaller screen experience - unless you have one of those humongous HD TV screens in your home, which will give you as close to a theatrical experience as it can. I learned over the weekend that "Of Good Report," the once-banned South African neo-noir directed by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka (one of the 10 filmmakers...
- 7/20/2015
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
The Riders
Director: Jahmil X.T. Qubeka // Writer: Susie Brooks-Smith
South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka made headlines in 2013 when his sophomore film Of Good Report was banned shortly before it was set to premiere at the Durban International Film Festival due to sensitive subject matter involving a high school teacher carrying on a sexually charged affair with one of his female students (thankfully, it was programmed and played at Tiff). An homage to film noir, Qubeka’s moody, psychologically inclined thriller announced the filmmaker as an intriguing talent, and though Report is still sadly without Us distribution, we’re excited to see he’s working on a UK production, The Riders, with filming to take place in London and Croatia. The film tells the tale of a man searching across Europe for his missing wife with his child in tow.
Cast: Liam McIntyre, Pixie Davies, Alison Carroll
Production Co.: Trinity Pictures
U.
Director: Jahmil X.T. Qubeka // Writer: Susie Brooks-Smith
South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka made headlines in 2013 when his sophomore film Of Good Report was banned shortly before it was set to premiere at the Durban International Film Festival due to sensitive subject matter involving a high school teacher carrying on a sexually charged affair with one of his female students (thankfully, it was programmed and played at Tiff). An homage to film noir, Qubeka’s moody, psychologically inclined thriller announced the filmmaker as an intriguing talent, and though Report is still sadly without Us distribution, we’re excited to see he’s working on a UK production, The Riders, with filming to take place in London and Croatia. The film tells the tale of a man searching across Europe for his missing wife with his child in tow.
Cast: Liam McIntyre, Pixie Davies, Alison Carroll
Production Co.: Trinity Pictures
U.
- 1/8/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs), considered to be South Africa's equivalent of the Oscars, and the premier film and television industry awards in the country, announced its winners this past weekend. The SAFTAs are under the custodianship of the National Film and Video Foundation (Nfvf), and only South African film and television productions are eligible for the awards. Jamil X.T. Qubeka's controversial film Of Good Report won big at the awards, winning best supporting actor (Tshamano Sebe), best supporting actress (Tina Jaxa), best actor (Mothusi Magano), best writing and directing (Jahmil X.T. Qubeka), and last but not...
- 4/7/2014
- by Vanessa Martinez
- ShadowAndAct
I love it when up-and-coming relatively-unknown filmmakers whose work I really appreciate, progress. South African director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, whose controversial serial killer origins film Of Good Report, was initially banned by South African censors as it was about to make its World Premiere, will be making his USA debut with a romantic comedy titled Heaven Hath No Fury, written by Leon Chills and Chad Sanders, for New York-based D Street Pictures. You'll recall that we announced the project in January, when D Street optioned it, and, as I recall, your reactions were mixed.The story follows a New York playboy whose decision to break the wrong...
- 3/5/2014
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
South African director boards Us romantic comedy.
Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, whose controversial film Of Good Report was initially banned by South African censors, is to direct Us romantic comedy Heaven Hath No Fury, written by Leon Chills and Chad Sanders, for New York-based D Street Media Group.
It marks Qubeka’s debut in the Us and his first film since 2013’s Of Good Report, about a teacher who embarks on an affair with his pupil that was prevented from opening the Durban International Film Festival last year due to a refusal of classification by the South African Film and Publications Board.
It has since screened in South Africa following a successful appeal by the producers and won the La BAFTA for Best Feature at the 2014 Pan African Film Festival last month.
Heaven Hath No Fury follows a New York playboy whose decision to break the wrong woman’s heart, knocks the world out of kilter, as men start...
Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, whose controversial film Of Good Report was initially banned by South African censors, is to direct Us romantic comedy Heaven Hath No Fury, written by Leon Chills and Chad Sanders, for New York-based D Street Media Group.
It marks Qubeka’s debut in the Us and his first film since 2013’s Of Good Report, about a teacher who embarks on an affair with his pupil that was prevented from opening the Durban International Film Festival last year due to a refusal of classification by the South African Film and Publications Board.
It has since screened in South Africa following a successful appeal by the producers and won the La BAFTA for Best Feature at the 2014 Pan African Film Festival last month.
Heaven Hath No Fury follows a New York playboy whose decision to break the wrong woman’s heart, knocks the world out of kilter, as men start...
- 3/5/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The 22nd Annual Pan African Film Festival came to a close in Los Angeles this week, screening 172 films representing 46 countries across the Diaspora. Kicking off the festival, Paff honored actor Charles Dutton, film publicist Roz Stevenson, CodeBlack’s Jeff Clanagan, and others as part of the pre-show festivities for the awards ceremony of the African-American Film Critics Association (Aafca), which chose Fruitvale Station, 12 Years A Slave, and Lee Daniels' The Butler to receive its top honors this year. Overall festival award winners were announced at a Filmmaker Brunch on Monday, where Tommy Oliver's 1982 received the Audience Award and Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's Of Good...
- 2/18/2014
- by Jai Tiggett
- ShadowAndAct
South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's thriller Of Good Report, will be the opening night film at this year's Pan African Film Festival (Paff), which is Tonight, February 6. Qubeka, one of the 10 filmmakers on S&A's filmmakers to watch in 2014 list, premiered Of Good Report last year to controversy at the 34th Durban International Film Festival (Diff), in Durban, South Africa, where the film was censored following the classification refusal by the South African Film and Publications Board, citing that it "promotes child abuse & pornography," an unfounded accusation, from someone who's...
- 2/6/2014
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Posthumous award announced as nominations revealed for the 9th Screen Nation Film & Television Awards.
Guest announcers Fernand Frimpong Jnr, from Vox Africa, and Venus vs.Mars actress Letitia Hector revealed the nominations in London (see below for full list).
Felix Dexter, the late comedian and actor, will be posthumously awarded the Edric Connor Inspiration award.
Actor-director Bill Duke, best known for his roles in Commando and Predator, is to receive the Outstanding Contribution award.
Honorary awards will also be bestowed on classic works such as Do the Right Thing, The Cosby Show and Desmond’s.
The awards ceremony will take place at Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London on Feb 23. The ceremony will be hosted by the Ali Baba, known as the Godfather of Nigerian comedy, and Caroline Chikezie, best known for her role in Us series 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland.
Voting for the nominees in all categories will be open to the public from today (Jan 23) until...
Guest announcers Fernand Frimpong Jnr, from Vox Africa, and Venus vs.Mars actress Letitia Hector revealed the nominations in London (see below for full list).
Felix Dexter, the late comedian and actor, will be posthumously awarded the Edric Connor Inspiration award.
Actor-director Bill Duke, best known for his roles in Commando and Predator, is to receive the Outstanding Contribution award.
Honorary awards will also be bestowed on classic works such as Do the Right Thing, The Cosby Show and Desmond’s.
The awards ceremony will take place at Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London on Feb 23. The ceremony will be hosted by the Ali Baba, known as the Godfather of Nigerian comedy, and Caroline Chikezie, best known for her role in Us series 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland.
Voting for the nominees in all categories will be open to the public from today (Jan 23) until...
- 1/23/2014
- ScreenDaily
Posthumous award announced as nominations revealed for the 9th Screen Nation Film & Television Awards.
Guest announcers Fernand Frimpong Jnr, from Vox Africa, and Venus vs.Mars actress Letitia Hector revealed the nominations in London (see below for full list).
Felix Dexter, the late comedian and actor, will be posthumously awarded the Edric Connor Inspiration award.
Actor-director Bill Duke, best known for his roles in Commando and Predator, is to receive the Outstanding Contribution award.
Honorary awards will also be bestowed on classic works such as Do the Right Thing, The Cosby Show and Desmond’s.
The awards ceremony will take place at Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London on Feb 23. The ceremony will be hosted by the Ali Baba, known as the Godfather of Nigerian comedy, and Caroline Chikezie, best known for her role in Us series 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland.
Voting for the nominees in all categories will be open to the public from today (Jan 23) until...
Guest announcers Fernand Frimpong Jnr, from Vox Africa, and Venus vs.Mars actress Letitia Hector revealed the nominations in London (see below for full list).
Felix Dexter, the late comedian and actor, will be posthumously awarded the Edric Connor Inspiration award.
Actor-director Bill Duke, best known for his roles in Commando and Predator, is to receive the Outstanding Contribution award.
Honorary awards will also be bestowed on classic works such as Do the Right Thing, The Cosby Show and Desmond’s.
The awards ceremony will take place at Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London on Feb 23. The ceremony will be hosted by the Ali Baba, known as the Godfather of Nigerian comedy, and Caroline Chikezie, best known for her role in Us series 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland.
Voting for the nominees in all categories will be open to the public from today (Jan 23) until...
- 1/23/2014
- ScreenDaily
Shadow & Act has learned exclusively that South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's thriller Of Good Report, will be the opening night film at this year's Pan African Film Festival (Paff) which runs from February 6-17, 2014. Qubeka, one of the 10 filmmakers on S&A's filmmakers to watch in 2014 list, premiered Of Good Report last year to controversy at the 34th Durban International Film Festival (Diff), in Durban, South Africa, where the film was censored following the classification refusal by the South African Film and Publications Board, citing that it "promotes child abuse & pornography," an...
- 1/3/2014
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Film Africa - London’s annual celebration of African cinema - returns for a third year, starting tonight, Friday, November 1, with a line-up of over 60 films from across the continent screening at six major venues across London. Film Africa 2013 launches with the controversial new film, Of Good Report, from South African director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka. Briefly banned from showing at the Durban International Film Festival on account of its provocative, Lolita-inspired subject matter,Of Good Report is a thrilling, devilishly comic and supremely assured work from one of Africa’s most exciting up-and-coming filmmakers. Film Africa 2013 also includes a new...
- 11/1/2013
- by Film Africa RAS
- ShadowAndAct
Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave to open festival; director Peter Greenaway to receive Visionary Award.Scroll down for full line-up
Steve McQueen’s historic drama 12 Years a Slave is to open the Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 6-17) and is nominated in the Stockholm Xxiv Competition.
Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, the drama about free black man kidnapped from his family and sold into slavery in the 1850s debuted at Telluride and has received positive reactions throughout its festival tour of Toronto, New York and London among others.
It will be released in Sweden on Dec 20 by Ab Svensk Filmindustri.
Screenwriter John Ridley, who will be present during the festival, is nominated for the Aluminum Horse in the category Best Script.
McQueen’s Hunger won Best Directorial Debut at Stockholm in 2008.
Line-up
The 24th Siff includes more than 180 films from more than 50 countries.
As previously announced, the spotlight of this year’s festival is freedom but Chinese artist...
Steve McQueen’s historic drama 12 Years a Slave is to open the Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 6-17) and is nominated in the Stockholm Xxiv Competition.
Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, the drama about free black man kidnapped from his family and sold into slavery in the 1850s debuted at Telluride and has received positive reactions throughout its festival tour of Toronto, New York and London among others.
It will be released in Sweden on Dec 20 by Ab Svensk Filmindustri.
Screenwriter John Ridley, who will be present during the festival, is nominated for the Aluminum Horse in the category Best Script.
McQueen’s Hunger won Best Directorial Debut at Stockholm in 2008.
Line-up
The 24th Siff includes more than 180 films from more than 50 countries.
As previously announced, the spotlight of this year’s festival is freedom but Chinese artist...
- 10/22/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Four biggest African film festivals in the UK unite to share films and filmmakers.
The UK’s biggest four African film festivals are uniting to share features and filmmakers in a bid to bring a greater variety of contemporary African cinema to a broader UK audience.
The festivals include Africa in Motion (AiM) in Edinburgh/Glasgow, Afrika Eye in Bristol, the Cambridge African Film Festival and Film Africa, London.
The four have joined forces to tour a quartet of new features from Africa and to enable UK cinema-goers to talk to three directors about their work. The shared programme includes:
Judy Kibinge, a rising star on the Kenyan cinema scene, presenting Something Necessary, her drama about political violence in Kenya, followed by a Q&A at AiM, Afrika Eye and Film Africa (with a screening at the Cambridge African Film Festival).
South African Jahmil X.T. Qubeka presenting and discussing Of Good Report, his controversial...
The UK’s biggest four African film festivals are uniting to share features and filmmakers in a bid to bring a greater variety of contemporary African cinema to a broader UK audience.
The festivals include Africa in Motion (AiM) in Edinburgh/Glasgow, Afrika Eye in Bristol, the Cambridge African Film Festival and Film Africa, London.
The four have joined forces to tour a quartet of new features from Africa and to enable UK cinema-goers to talk to three directors about their work. The shared programme includes:
Judy Kibinge, a rising star on the Kenyan cinema scene, presenting Something Necessary, her drama about political violence in Kenya, followed by a Q&A at AiM, Afrika Eye and Film Africa (with a screening at the Cambridge African Film Festival).
South African Jahmil X.T. Qubeka presenting and discussing Of Good Report, his controversial...
- 10/18/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
It’s fair to say that when you discover a film has been banned in its respective country of origin, intrigue kicks in as you wonder what it was about this particular feature that caused so much controversy. However it only takes a mere matter of seconds to work it out in Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s Of Good Report, as this South African picture begins with a man picking bits of metal out of his skull – and from this point onwards, the shock factor grows to become more intense, and more severe.
The man in question is Parker Sithole (Mothusi Magano), an introverted high school teacher who arrives in town on the hunt for a new job. However he gets more than he bargained for when he enters in to a passionate, sexual affair with his student Nolitha (Petronella Tshuma). Though unaware she’s a student of his to begin with,...
The man in question is Parker Sithole (Mothusi Magano), an introverted high school teacher who arrives in town on the hunt for a new job. However he gets more than he bargained for when he enters in to a passionate, sexual affair with his student Nolitha (Petronella Tshuma). Though unaware she’s a student of his to begin with,...
- 10/17/2013
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
★★★★☆ Rasping breath accompanies a pristine, monochrome shot from the point-of-view of a man stumbling across an area of scrubland. Two workmen stop to stare as he is revealed like some sub-Saharan gunslinger, pistol protruding from the top of his trousers, face and shirt awash with blood. A stark close-up follows his hand as he painfully extracts two teeth that have somehow been embedded in the top of his head; he laughs maniacally. Welcome to the weird and uncomfortably disturbing world of Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's noirish, blackly comic tale of obsession, Of Good Report (2013), in show at this year's Lff.
Briefly banned in its native South Africa, this is the provocative tale of teacher Parker Sithole (Mothusi Magano) who arrives at a small provincial school with the titular commendation. Without uttering a single line of dialogue, he commands attention from the get-go with his horrifying transformation from nebbish lecturer to...
Briefly banned in its native South Africa, this is the provocative tale of teacher Parker Sithole (Mothusi Magano) who arrives at a small provincial school with the titular commendation. Without uttering a single line of dialogue, he commands attention from the get-go with his horrifying transformation from nebbish lecturer to...
- 10/13/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
The reasons for its controversial initial banning in the filmmaker' native South Africa, are easily identified, although for those who've been exposed to far more gratuitous displays of sexuality and violence on screen (there's an abundance of that here in the USA), Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's sophomore feature directorial effort, the serial killer origins story, Of Good Report, is tame. Without giving too much of the plot away, in brief, a high school teacher gets involved with one of his students, and, in the end, it's a story that doesn't end well - as you'd probably expect. To say anymore on the plot would be to ruin your viewing experience when you do eventually get around to watching...
- 9/10/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Controversial film Of Good Report, initially banned by South African censors for its depiction of a teacher’s affair with a pupil, has been picked up by sales agent 6 Sales ahead of its world premiere at Toronto.
Of Good Report stars Mothusi Magano as a teacher who embarks on an affair with his pupil, played by Petronella Tshuma, with tragic consequences.
The film was prevented from opening the Durban International Film Festival earlier this year due to a refusal of classification by the South African Film and Publications Board, but has since screened in South Africa following a successful appeal by the producers.
6 Sales will act as sales agent for the film, which will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) on Sept 6. It has also been selected for the Official Competition of the London Film Festival, which runs next month.
Of Good Report was directed by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka and produced by Michael Auret of [link...
Of Good Report stars Mothusi Magano as a teacher who embarks on an affair with his pupil, played by Petronella Tshuma, with tragic consequences.
The film was prevented from opening the Durban International Film Festival earlier this year due to a refusal of classification by the South African Film and Publications Board, but has since screened in South Africa following a successful appeal by the producers.
6 Sales will act as sales agent for the film, which will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) on Sept 6. It has also been selected for the Official Competition of the London Film Festival, which runs next month.
Of Good Report was directed by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka and produced by Michael Auret of [link...
- 9/5/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Following the censorship controversy over South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's Of Good Report, at the 34th Durban International Film Festival (Diff), in Durban, South Africa, last month, the film is now officially "unbanned," after opening in South African theaters 2 weeks ago, on August 9th! Following the refusal to classify the film, citing that it "promotes child abuse & pornography," the South African Film and Publications Board reversed their decision and gave the film the Us equivalent of an R-rating. The film was not screened in any of its allocated slots during the festival, as a result of the refusal...
- 8/21/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Following the censorship controversy over South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's Of Good Report, at the 34th Durban International Film Festival (Diff), in Durban, South Africa, last month, the film is now officially "unbanned," after opening in South African theaters last week, on August 9th! Following the refusal to classify the film, citing that it "promotes child abuse & pornography," the South African Film and Publications Board reversed their decision and gave the film the Us equivalent of an R-rating. The film was not screened in any of its allocated slots during the festival, as a result of the refusal...
- 8/16/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Following the censorship controversy over South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's Of Good Report, at the 34th Durban International Film Festival (Diff), in Durban, South Africa, last month, the film has now been "unbanned" as the below teaser states, and is set to open in South African theaters this week, on August 9th! Success! Following the refusal to classify the film, citing that it "promotes child abuse & pornography," the South African Film and Publications Board reversed their decision and gave the film the Us equivalent of an R-rating. The film was not screened in any of its allocated slots during the...
- 8/5/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka (his last feature film, A Small Town Called Descent, was profiled on this site), was to see his follow-up to that film, Of Good Report, open the 34th Durban International Film Festival (Diff), in Durban, South Africa, today, July 18. But, as you can see in the image above, that didn't happen. My Twitter feed has been buzzing a bit in the last hour, as Diff attendees tweet their disgust with the above decision. In short, from what my research tells me, the Films and Publications Act of 1996 (mentioned in the image) is an Act of the South African Parliament, which was created post-Apartheid, to evaluate...
- 7/18/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka (you may recall his last feature film, A Small Town Called Descent, was profiled on this site), will see his follow-up to that film, Of Good Report, open the 34th Durban International Film Festival, which runs from July 18-28. Qubeka's film, described as an homage to classic film noir, tells the story of a demented school teacher's attempts to get away with the brutal murder of a teenage beauty queen. The teacher gets involved with one of his students, which obviously doesn't end well. Jahmil calls it a "serial killer origins story about how a social misfit turns into an inadequate man hell-bent on satisfying his shameful...
- 7/10/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
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