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Sizzling film at the National Arts Fest

17 June 2009

Ranging from warm, fuzzy viewing to hot shocks, the film programme promises to raise temperatures at the 2009 National Arts Festival taking place in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape from 2 to 11 July.

Rare treasures from the annals of celluloid, fascinating documentaries, hard-hitting footage by South African filmmakers, current box office toppers – there's something for every taste.

Jann Turner's feel-good romp "White Wedding" shines like a good deed in a wicked world among the other South African features, that are preoccupied with crime, vice and violence.

Claire Angelique's dark and bloody "My Black Little Heart", Ralph Ziman's "Hillbrow", crime chiller "Jerusalema" and Savo Tufegdzic's "Crime" go straight for the jugular.

Seven groups of shorter fiction and documentary films, mostly by South Africans, offer ideal "fast mind-food" for the busy diary. Some packages are spicy, some easy-viewing, some are mixed, like the combination of gentle, New Age love story "The Soul Minders" with the screaming hysteria of Axe's "H.A.M.", which features scenes shot in an abattoir.

Work by the likes of Akin Omotoso, Anton Kotze, Dionysos Andronis and Liza Key are included.

"Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Wrestler" are among the recent hits on the listing.

Nicolas Roeg's "Puffball", based on a Fay Weldon novel, and Ben van Lieshout's "The Muse", based on JM Coetzee's autobiographical Youth, are among several features whose provenance is literature.

A Joseph Strick retrospective featuring seven gems by the most literary of filmmakers takes us back to some of the high moments of the 1960s and '70s. "Tropic of Cancer", "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", and "Ulysses" are examples.

A selection of major works from the Philippines reveals the intellectual and creative edge of the nation of islands. Eminent scriptwriter Clodualdo del Mundo Jnr will be at the festival, courtesy of the Philippine Embassy, to introduce the screenings.

"The Baader Meinhof Complex", directed by Uli Edel, and Peter Josef's two "Zeitgeist" movies exposing the lie of democracy, are among the thought-provoking documentaries scheduled.

In addition to the main film festival, "Cine-mazing" on the Festival Fringe offers a packed programme of shorts, documentaries and feature films, backed up by Q&A sessions with filmmakers in residence. European film festival curator Cis Bierienckx will be at the festival, courtesy of the Representation of Flanders.

Now in its 35th year, South Africa's National Arts Festival is one of the leading arts festivals in southern Africa.

The National Arts Festival is supported by Standard Bank, the Eastern Cape Government, the National Arts Council, the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund and The Sunday Independent.

For more information, visit www.nationalartsfestival.co.za.

SAinfo reporter and the National Arts Festival