»Call for submissions- Africa Shorts - 14 August 2008
Call for submissions
Encounters in partnership with the SABC and the Jan Vrijman Fund call for submissions for the AFRICA SHORTS 2009
“Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true”,
DEMOSTHENES
“…you don't have a self unless you have a secret, and we all have moments throughout our lives when we feel we're losing ourselves in our social group, or work or marriage, and it feels good to grab for a secret, or some subterfuge, to reassert our identity as somebody apart,”
Dr Daniel M. Wegner
Following on the success of the first Africa Shorts workshop and productions launched at Encounters this year, Encounters, SABC and the Jan Vrijman Fund are running a 4-day storytelling and production workshop this year.
Five filmmakers from Southern and East Africa will be selected upon the basis of their proposals for a short film (of up to 12 minutes duration) on the subject of Secret Lives.
We are looking for stories that:
• examine the hidden and untold stories of ordinary or unordinary people,
• reveal secret obsessions, desires, movements, groups, relationships, pasts, fantasies, etc…
The Africa Shorts project enables filmmakers to refine their ideas through the mentorship of an experienced practitioner.
These films aim to be ready for screening at Encounters 2009 and thereafter at other film festivals internationally.
Deadline for Submission: Friday 19 September 2008
Entries should consist of no more than a:
• 2-page synopsis (in English)
• 2-page biography of the filmmaker, with references
• DVD copies of previous films
• All contact details
All entries should be sent by email to: project@encounters.co.za
DVDs can be mailed to the following addresses:
Mandisa Zitha
1st floor, 27 Caledon Street, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa or
P.O Box 2228, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa
Encounter Website: www.encounters.co.za
Source from Encounters Film Festival
Xenophobia comes under the camera lens at this year’s Tri Continental Film Festival, which screens at cinema complexes around the country in August and September 2008.
The Tri Continental Film Festival will kick off from 15 to 24 August at Cinema Nouveau in Rosebank, before moving to Cinema Nouveau at the V&A Waterfront from 22 to 31 August. Thereafter, the film festival travels to Pretoria’s Brooklyn Nouveau from 29 August to 4 September, and wraps up at Gateway Cinema Nouveau from 5 to 11 September.
The films are sourced from Africa, Latin American and Asia and this year, the focus is on hard-hitting social and human rights themes such as racism, homophobia, HIV/Aids, the plight of migrants and xenophobia.
In the wake of the recent hate attacks against foreigners that swept through South Africa, a group of filmmakers came together to address this issue. Calling themselves Filmmakers Against Racism (FAR), these filmmaker-activists have produced a series of nine short documentaries aimed at stimulating dialogue and debate, which will be screened at the festival.
The Tri Continental Film Festival promises an array of thought-provoking documentaries, shorts and feature films. Several of the filmmakers will be in attendance and will be available for Q and A sessions with audiences.
The festival opens at Rosebank Nouveau in Johannesburg on Thursday, 14 August, with the African premiere of the Australian/South African film The Choir. Directed by Michael Davie, this inspirational documentary follows the life of Jabulani Shabangu, an angry young felon at Leeuwkop Prison who tentatively moves toward personal redemption after joining the prison choir.
This year, the spotlight at the film festival falls on films from Mexico, a nation with a rich diversity of stories and storytellers. Among the films being screened is the German/Guatemala co-production Assaulted Dream, directed by Uli Stelzner. This award-winning road movie, filmed on a small digital camera, tells of the dangers faced by thousands of desperate Central American migrants who cross the border every day to Mexico, intent on pursuing the “American Dream” which for these migrants feels more like an “American Nightmare”.
I Want to be a Pilot (Kenya/Mexico/Spain) is a short Mexican co-production about an impoverished East African child who watches aeroplanes fly overhead every day and dreams of becoming a pilot. Director Diego Quemada-Diez has garnered several awards for this simple yet emotionally charged story.
Bajo Juarez: The City Devouring its Daughters, a Mexican film directed by Alejandra Sanchez and Jose Antonio Cordero, tells of an industrial town where hundreds of women have been sexually abused and murdered, and the plot thickens when two journalists uncover a web of corruption that reaches to the highest levels of Mexican society.
Alejandra Islas’s The Demons of Eden focuses on the struggle by an author to expose the horrors of child prostitution and pornography that is endemic in Mexico. Tracing Aleida, directed by Christiane Burkhard, tells of a woman’s quest to track down family members and seek justice for herself and the thousands of other revolutionaries who “disappeared” during the Mexican “Dirty War” of the 1970s.
A festival highlight is sure to be The War on Democracy, directed by renowned leftist journalist John Pilger. Describing the modern history of South America as a sustained revolt against United States’ imperial designs, Pilger argues that the United States’ history of political and economic manipulation amounts to a continuing war on democracy. This forceful film was named Best Documentary at the One World Media Awards.
English heartthrob actor Jude Law features in The Day After Peace. With director Jeremy Gilley, who successfully lobbied world leaders and the United Nations for an annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence, Law undertakes a secret trip to Afghanistan. Their quest to persuade those bearing arms to stop for at least 24 hours is documented in this film, which also features Kofi Annan, the Dalai Lama, Annie Lennox, Jonny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie.
Renowned British filmmaker Nick Broomfield produced the short film Still Human, Still Here: The Destitution of the Refused Asylum Seekers which forms part of Amnesty International’s campaign to end destitution, and focuses on rejected asylum seekers living in abject poverty in the UK.
The recent furore over allegedly anti-Islamic cartoons published in a Danish newspaper is the subject of the provocative documentary Bloody Cartoons. Director Karsten Kjaer asks whether respect for Islam, combined with the heated response to the cartoons, is leading to self-censorship and whether there should be limits to freedom of speech in a democracy.
Iron Ladies of Liberia, a film directed by Siatta Scott Johnson and Daniel Junge, takes a look at the first year in power of Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf – the first elected female head of state in Africa. This insightful documentary has garnered several international awards.
Jerusalem is Proud to Present, directed by Nitzan Gilady, is a multi award-winning look at Jerusalem’s first World Pride festivities, which were meant to culminate in a traditional gay pride parade. This stirred turmoil in the politically and religiously complex city, with Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders banding together against the planned events, which they claimed would “defile the holy city”.
Milking the Rhino is a US/South African co-production which will have its world premiere at the festival, casts new light on the human-wildlife conflict and coexistence in an increasingly globalised and shrinking world.
Shake the Devil Off, directed by Peter Entell, focuses on the historic St Augustine Church in New Orleans which, following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, faces closure. On a lighter note, Hair, Let the Sun Shine In examines the counter-culture that inspired the 1967 musical phenomenon Hair.
The Filmmakers Against Racism (FAR) short films, dealing with various facets of the May 2008 xenophobic attacks, include Affectionately Known as Alex; Angels on our Shoulders; Two Camps; Asikhuhume – Let’s Talk; The Burning Man; Congo My Foot; Baraka (Blessing); Nowhere Else To Go and Martine and Thadenka.
These, and a host of other thought-provoking cinematic offerings with a social conscience, will be on offer at the Tri Continental Film Festival.
Tickets cost R30.
Go to www.3continentsfestival.co.za for the full festival line-up.
The festival would not be possible without the support/partnership of the National Film and Video Foundation, SABC, Gauteng Film Commission, The Human Rights Media Trust, Cinema Nouveau Screened by Fish Eagle, The Swedish Embassy, The Italian Cultural Institute, The Mexican Embassy, The French Embassy, Spectrum Visual Networks and Timberland.
Cinema Nouveau screened by Fish Eagle offers customers multiple booking and information gathering options, including online bookings either on your WAP-enabled cell phone or PC or by calling TicketLine 082 16789 (value added service rates apply), or book in cinema at the self service terminals (SSTs) or Box Offices.
The novel Touchmart Transaction Access Points (TAP) now offer an even easier means of booking a movie ticket, and are located nationally with convenient access from supermarkets to civic centres.
About Cinema Nouveau:
Cinema Nouveau is a differentiated/discerning cinema experience and a destination for the discerning film lover. Cinema Nouveau holds the prestige of being one of the worlds only dedicated “art cinema” chains, screening ‘art’ titles from cultures all over the world, but within this definition also extending into indie/cult, cutting-edge and alternative content.
Issued by:
Total Exposure
+27 11 788 8725
www.totalexposure.co.za
On behalf of:
Ster-Kinekor Theatres
011 445 7700
Contacts:
Walter Gelderblom
083 259 9629
walter@totalexposure.co.za
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The SA produced Why Democracy? documentary series from Steps International has continued on its winning streak by picking up awards from three prestigious international ceremonies this month.
The award winning documentary from the series, IRON LADIES OF LIBERIA was the opening film of the Encounters Documentary Film Festival in Johannesburg and then in Cape Town in July.
At the Banff World Television Award ceremony in Canada, 10th of June 2008, South African executive producer Don Edkins was presented the Best Political Documentary and the Best Documentary awards for IRON LADIES OF LIBERIA. This film gives the viewer behind-the-scenes access to President Ellen Sirleaf’s first year of government as the first elected female president in Africa. In her personal life, on the streets and in cabinet meetings we see her and her other female leaders in action during their first year of democratic rule after nearly two decades of civil war.
Two days later on the 12th of June, at the One Wold Media Awards in London, IRON LADIES OF LIBERIA was presented with the prestigious MDGs Award. The Millennium Development Goals Award is for ‘outstanding broadcast, print or new media coverage which addresses directly the progress or challenges in meeting the ambitious blueprint for international development, the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) covering issues such as health, education and poverty’ and is supported by the European Union. The citation from the Jury said, “ This was a unanimous first choice. We all admired the great access, used with intimacy as well as respect. The jury was especially impressed by the great casting of diverse personalities who were all zealous and committed in pursuing change. Also, it is vary rare to have a film about governance, let alone one that was so well made and one that was such compelling viewing.”
In June, the Why Democracy? Project was awarded the Golden Link EBU Documentary Coproduction Award at the Sunny Side of the Doc in La Rochelle, France, by the European Broadcasting Union. The EBU Golden Link Award was created six years ago to celebrate the best documentary developed through the two annual EBU Documentary Group meetings and coproduced by two or more EBU member broadcasters. The previous STEPS documentary project, Steps for the Future received this award in 2002.
Why Democracy? is the world’s largest ever multi-media factual event and multi-award winning series, which used documentary film to start a global exchange about democracy. Last year, during October, more than 45 broadcasters worldwide screened 10 documentary films in 180 countries to an audience of over 300 million people. It was produced by STEPS International, a non-profit organisation based in Cape Town and in Copenhagen.
For comment and interviews, please contact:
Linda Titus, Steps International 021 465 5805
The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States Secretariat (ACP Secretariat) has launched a Call for Proposals financed by the “ACP-EU cooperation support programme for the ACP cinema and audiovisual sectors.
Targeted to support projects in the ACP cinema and audiovisual fields, the Call aims to contribute to the development and structuring of the ACP States’ cinema and audiovisual industries so as to create and distribute their own images more effectively. The programme further initiates the promotion of cultural diversity, networking of ACP cultural identities and intercultural dialogue.
The call for proposals shall award grants to three categories of Actions in the cinema and audiovisual fields, namely;
-Production projects of cinema and audio-visual (television) works
-Promotion, distribution, dissemination and networking of the cinema and
audio-visual sector in the ACP States.
-Professional development and training in the cinema and audio-visual sector projects
The deadline for submission of proposals has been marked for the 5th of September 2008.
For full application guidelines view Programme website: www.acpfilms.eu.
ACP Secretariat website: http://www.acp.int
On EuropeAids Calls for proposals and tenders visit: (http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/funding-opportunities/index_fr.htm
The source is from a publication of EuropeAid. Reference:/127212/D/ACT/MULTI
Chimango Kanyimbo
Projects Officer
Southern Africa Communication for Development (SACOD)
My T-shirt, "SACOD Forum, Zambia", was the wrong garment to be wearing. Four of us were in an informal settlement looking for a runaway. A car carrying four men stopped next to mine. They studied my T-shirt, then the number plate of my vehicle. Satisfied that I was not a makwerekere, they departed. We later came face-to-face with hundreds of refugees living in a tent at a police station. The shock was quite palpable, notwithstanding that I had been coordinating the donation of supplies via our local neighbourhood internet network.
From this "small media" - a T-shirt and street listservs - the issues debated in the big media have been sustained, extraordinarily in-depth, and self-reflective. Amongst the myths that have been shattered is that only whites can be racist. This nonsense was propagated in 1999 by the SA Human Rights Commission's Inquiry into racism and the media. For once, the media have not been blamed by the authorities. Media presented themselves as messengers providing an agenda for framing debates into the nature of the South African democratic project, now considered by most commentators to be in tatters.
"What crisis?" was President Mbeki's response to news crews regarding the delay of Zimbabwean election results. The "non-crisis" burst at home, taking the form of a violent xenophobia. This euphemism for racism was pointed out in a letter to a Durban newspaper. Jan van Eck in Daily News (June 2) compared the attacks to "ethnic cleansing". The usual suspects of a third force were invoked by state officials, but soon dropped in the face of sustained media scepticism.
At root, apart from the strain on social services, scarce resources, and lack of policy on immigration, a common narrative emerged from business columnists: refugees work harder, are better skilled, better educated and more reliable than South Africans, especially in sectors like construction. Other specialist columnists dealt with psychology, violence, and nationhood. The Times (May 19), a waffle rag if ever there was one, which communicated the horror of the burning Mozambican, broke with its policy by reporting "bad news". It's front page led with this photograph, now indelibly stamped on the global consciousness. Tabloids can also be serious. A single photograph of an appalling atrocity has the power to change policies.
Wealth is understood by those doing the attacking as a redistributive process ("taking ‘our' resources") rather than being created by entrepreneurial activity and hard work. This is the populist message reported on TV and press, often with screaming inflammatory headlines. The economy is understood to be like a cake. Once created, it can merely be sliced and distributed. If the cake stands for socialism, then the more people, the smaller the slices. But the refugees, like the media, know that economies grow, that the slices can get bigger, and more people can eat. SABC News (May 22) reported the affects on GDP due to mine workers stay aways, of whom one fifth are from neighbouring African countries
For the attackers, foreigners take jobs away from South Africans, compete for scarce resources and exhibit a culture of entitlement. Foreign blacks are only welcome if they bring investment capital to South Africa. Few do. Being at the mercy of the "foreigner", plays well into the notion of socialist rhetoric - "now it's our turn" (as a 1994 ANC election poster said). Entrepreneurial expertise imported by refugees to South Africa (without capital) is seen simply as another form of "exploitation".
South Africa is engaged in nation-building, at a time when other Africans nations are fragmenting. Identity creation requires the forging of a single South Africanism in the face of overwhelming domestic diversity. Indeed, some media are now questioning whether a national idea has been forged at all. Mondli Makhanya in The Times (May 28, 2007) discusses our lack of embracing diversity. He writes "If we want to nip xenophobia in the bud, we need to rethink our national identity." Press photos of the "Flaming Man" (Daily News, June 2), Ernesto Nhamauve, may have helped focus minds in South Africa, but it has been a terrible price to pay, for him, his family and for South Africa. This is the media message.
The Author,Keyan Tomaselli is Senior Professor, Culture, Communication and Media Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is co-editor of Media, Democracy and Renewal in Southern Africa (2001) and has published widely on the media. His most recent book is Encountering Modernity: 20th Century South African Cinemas (2006, UNISA Press).
Best- Documentary- Feature Oscar winner and SACOD member, Don Edkins, recently launched a book about one of his most distinctive film documentary projects. The book titled“Steps by Steps” is co-authored by Iikka Vehkalahti, commissioning editor of the Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE.
The book echoes from a personal note on how 38 films were produced and made from a documentary project “Steps for the Future”- in Southern Africa. It narrates on how these particular films dealing with positive stories from positive people were produced, how they have been and still are utilized through out the Southern Africa region.
As recommendable apparatus for documentary filmmakers, film school/ media students and commissioning editors, the 240-paged-book offers answers on the three “musts” for every documentary film maker, how to create a global documentary film project that deals with HIV and AIDS, how a few number of telephone calls could get you $200,000 for a totally impossible project, and why the first five minutes of the film are of great importance. It elaborates further on how they got an opportunity to travel to more than 180 film festivals around the world, with many of the films made by first-time directors and some broadcast in more than twenty five countries. It also documents on how they worked together with the cream of the world’s filmmakers, clashes of culture, personalities, difficulties and mistakes.
Dubbed in eighteen local languages the book is also ideal for those who intend to comprehend more about North-South cooperation and the intricacy of HIV and AIDS in Southern Africa.
Inclusive with the book is a 220 minute DVD. It was published by Jacana Media in May 2008 and going for a retail price of R165.00.
Chimango Kanyimbo
Southern Africa Communications for Development (SACOD)
