{"id":6879,"date":"2018-06-09T18:08:27","date_gmt":"2018-06-09T16:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=6879"},"modified":"2018-06-09T18:09:50","modified_gmt":"2018-06-09T16:09:50","slug":"the-39th-durban-international-film-festival-announces-opening-and-closing-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2018\/06\/09\/the-39th-durban-international-film-festival-announces-opening-and-closing-films\/","title":{"rendered":"The 39th Durban International Film Festival Announces Opening And Closing Films"},"content":{"rendered":"

A thriller\/horror film and a LGTBI love-story have been selected respectively as the opening- and closing films of the 39th\u00a0Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), which takes place from 19 to 29 July 2018.<\/p>\n

In a bold move to shift perceptions of how African stories can be told cinematically across genres, the DIFF has selected a South African debut thriller\/horror feature\u00a0The\u00a0Tokoloshe<\/a>,\u00a0directed by Jerome Pikwane, for opening night and Kenyan director, Wanuri Kahiu\u2019s tender story of lesbian love,\u00a0Rafiki\u00a0as its closing film.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the current global focus on giving womxn a voice in a world dominated by masculinity and systemic misogyny, we wanted to book-end the festival with films that tell stories about womxn, their strength and their survival. We also want to showcase, from a cinematic point of view, that there are many ways to tell these stories,\u201d says Manager of DIFF, Chipo Zhou.<\/p>\n

The Tokoloshe\u00a0is directed by Jerome Pikwane, co-written with novelist Richard Kunzmann and produced by Dumi Gumbi and Cati Weinek of The Ergo Company.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

In\u00a0The Tokoloshe,\u00a0which stars\u00a0Petronella Tshuma, Dawid Minnaar, Kwande Nkosi, Harriet Manamela and Yule Masiteng, a young womxn, crippled by suppressed emotions, must find the courage to face an insatiable demon, wrought in her own childhood, when she tries to save the life of a girl-child abandoned in a rundown Johannesburg hospital.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jerome Pikwane – Director The Tokoloshe Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cUsing the horror genre I wanted to investigate how we suppress trauma, and what happens when the trauma comes to the surface.\u00a0\u00a0In effect, the Tokoloshe in South African mythology has become a foil for abuse that is ingrained in our society, \u201d says director Jerome Pikwane. \u201cAnd the characters, their journey, their relationships are the focus and not the beautiful shots nor the CGI, although we have that too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe film is not quite what one expects from its title, so I dare audiences to see beneath the surface,\u201d says Zhou. \u201cIt is a horror film, crafted so intricately, unveiling the menace that is our everyday burden as womxn in this country. But the film depicts the story of a survivor, not a victim. It is a chilling story, one that needs to be told now and is particularly relevant as it gives voice to the voiceless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Closing film\u00a0Rafiki,\u00a0directed by Wanuri Kahiu, produced by Steven Markovitz (SA) and starring\u00a0Samantha Mugatsia and Sheila Munyiva,\u00a0is a touching tale of two very different girls living in Nairobi, who fall in love. Co-written with Jenna Bass (SA), the film was the\u00a0first Kenyan feature film to be invited to Cannes Film Festival 2018 as part of the\u00a0Official Un Certain Regard\u00a0selection, and was a project in the 2012 Durban FilmMart.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years of developing this film, we have seen worrying developments in the anti-LGBTI climate in East Africa,\u201d says director Wanuri Kahiu. \u201cLocal films and international TV shows have been banned because of LGBTI content. This has muffled conversations about LGBTI rights and narrowed the parameters of freedom of speech. My hope is that the film is viewed as an ode to love, whose course is never smooth, and as a message of love and support to the ones among us who are asked to choose between love and safety. May this film shout where voices have been silenced.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are delighted to be able to screen\u00a0Rafiki\u00a0at DIFF,\u201d says Zhou. \u201cThe film speaks to the issues of patriarchy that has led the film to be banned in its own country, and closes a festival with a programme packed with films dealing with a host of current challenges that those marginalised in our society, and especially womxn, are \u201cloudly\u201d grappling with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Wanuri Kahiu. TED Fellow. TED2017 – The Future You, April 24-28, 2017, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Photo: Bret Hartman \/ TED<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAt this time alongside the #MeToo and, closer to home, the \u201c#ItsNotOk campaigns, that seek to expose the perpetrators of violence against womxn, these films bookend a conscious and carefully curated selection of cinematic themes that also run as threads through the Durban FilmMart and through our new\u00a0Isiphethu\u00a0industry programme for emerging and micro-budget filmmakers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DIFF is organised by the University of KwaZulu-Natal\u2019s Centre for Creative Arts. The Festival also offers an industry programme and outreach activities that include screenings in townships areas, where cinemas are non-existent. Alongside the DIFF is the Durban FilmMart, a co-production market in partnership with Ethekwini Municipality\u2019s Durban Film Office, Talents Durban, in cooperation with the Berlinale Talent Campus and the Wavescape Surf Film Festival.<\/p>\n

DIFF opens at The Playhouse on July 19 and runs until July 29. The closing film is on July 28.<\/p>\n

For more information visit\u00a0www.durbanfilmfest.co.za<\/a>\u00a0or any one of the DIFF\u2019s social media pages, Durban International Film Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A thriller\/horror film and a LGTBI love-story have been selected respectively as the opening- and closing films of the 39th\u00a0Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), which takes place from 19 to 29 July 2018. In a bold move to shift perceptions of how African stories can be told cinematically across genres, the DIFF has selected a… Continue reading The 39th Durban International Film Festival Announces Opening And Closing Films<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[183],"class_list":["post-6879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-festival","tag-diff","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}