Father Geek here in Austin, Texas along with Dr. SOTHA deep in the bush outside Capetown, South Africa, and the ever insightful Rigobert Song out on that continent's Northern Plains bringing you a tardy, but not forgotten edition of our weekly Africa-AICN Column. Its rather lengthy this week as SOTHA attempts to play catch up on all the related news of the past couple of weeks, and ol' Rigobert fresh from his Ivory Coast Adventures really gives an indept look at a wonderful film we should keep our eyes peeled for. Sooooooo Father Geek will step back into the shadows and leave it to our great African crew to bring you up to date on...

Africa-AICN

DR.SOTHA here recuperating from a soul draining, downright savage virus down here in South Africa. My apologies go out to Fathergeek, Harry, and all my fans (Mom & Dad) for the last 2 weeks of non-news. I was struck down by a mutated Cape Buffalo flu virus that has swarmed across the countryside. Thankfully, it looks like I’ve seen off the worst of it, and can now resume my duty as Chief and Overlord of African film news. Head Nurse Hollis is tending me back to health in the only way she knows how… "full" body massages…

Remember to email me at THE HOUSE OF PAIN with your ‘get Well/get Sane’ cards, and medical aide (Mood Enhancing) packages.

Here's what's happening in the world of African cinema...

SOUTH AFRICA

* Videovision Entertainment's Anant Singh will be bringing Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan to South Africa next week to promote his latest film, Aankhen (which has been acquired by Videovision). Consider that this is the man who, in a 1999 BBC News poll, was voted the Greatest Star of Stage and Screen of the Millennium (ahead of Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir Alec Guiness). Bachchan will be accompanied by his Aankhen director, Gaurang Doshi. During his visit to South Africa, Bachchan will attend the local premiere of Aankhen in Durban and will also visit Johannesburg and Cape Town. Aankhen is a Videovision Entertainment release. (Thanks to Pedro at www.film-fix.com for sending the story)

* ‘Facing Death, Facing Life’ produced and directed by Ingrid Gavshon and Sharon Cort won the Frank Capra award at the Closing Night Award Ceremony of the DC Independent Film Festival & Market held in Washington in March.

* Tim Green who started in theatre production, moved on to become a runner, then progressed through the ranks to become production manager and producing his own short film, ‘Corner Caffie’ on a R40 000 budget is now tackling a full length feature film in a novel way. To get his film, an adaptation of Oliver Twist to the streets of Cape Town, off the ground, he is offering 1 000 people the chance to buy shares in the movie for R1 000. On Monday he cracked 300 pledges. Profits on the film will be split, after recoupment, on a 50-50 basis. He explains that, "Lucky Champions will continue to reap the rewards for years to come as the film is sold to various territories and media throughout the world." The film called ‘Twist’, is ! about a child of the same name who grows up in an orphanage, is sold into child labour and finally leaves the Swartland for Cape Town where his adventures begin. Once Green reaches the R1 million mark, he will go into production. There is a list of those who have invested in his project on the website. A number of the investors are well known in the industry.

* Selected for International Competition in the 48th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2-7 May 2002) is the 15 minute short film, ‘Dreams of a Good Life’ from Bridget Pickering who is with Ice Media in South Africa. n the Children and Youth Competion section, Un pas, deux pas..., from Guy Désiré Yaméogo, a 13 minute collaboration between Burkina Faso, France and Switzerland was selected. Another African country, Ghana was also selected for the 3-minute long, The Little Hunter from Stanislav Sodonon

* M-Net's Idols embarked on an impressively aggressive marketing campaign aimed at the public. Potential viewers of Idols were bombarded for weeks with details of preliminary audition rounds held throughout the country, followed by television coverage and a website for more information. However, the first round of marketing for SABC 3's Coca-Cola Popstars has interestingly targeted media planners and buyers. Five budding pop stars gave a live vocal performance to illustrate what the show is about. The Coca-Cola Popstars road show continued on to media agencies and departments throughout Johannesburg during last week and will now move onto Cape Town and Durban. The show gets off the ground on television on Wednesday 10 July and carries on running through to 2 October. T! he public can be forgiven if they are confused about what the difference is between the two shows. As far as we can tell contestant on both shows are expected to do their vocal and hip grinding best. But according to Catherine Muller, Marketing Manager Action Stations, the two shows are very different. "Although the initial auditioning is similar in the two shows, Coca-Cola Popstars evolves into more of a reality television experience". Hmm.

* The winner of the best short film at the Pan African Film festival is yet another triumph for a NFVF- funded project. Sechaba Morojele's short film "Ubuntu's Wounds" is also a labour of love that started in early student days. Morojele was already well known in the South African film industry as an actor and writer (Tsaba Tsaba in Going Up and Mr. Mahlatsi in Yizo Yizo and wrote scripts for Kelebone, Soul City, Generations and Isidingo) when he decided to enroll for a two-year degree in directing at the American Film Institute in LA. In his first year he made five films and submitted the first draft of Ubuntu's Wounds, a film that tells the story of one man's disappointment with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He takes justice into his own hands when he meet! s the killer of his wife.

Ubuntu's Wounds won the prestigious Martin Ritt award, an award (which was attached to funding) for the top script. "That was a start, but at the AFI students are expected to finance their own films," says Morojele. "We wanted to shoot on 35mm, so we had to continue raising money". The NFVF, which was already funding Morojele's studies, came to the rescue in the last funding cycle. "We believed the project had merit, in that it offered a fresh approach to a South African theme, and we had confidence it would have international appeal," says NFVF CEO Eddie Mbalo. Mbalo's confidence was rewarded as further funding awards followed, and the best short film at the Pan African festival, and accolades at CineQuest in San Jose and Harvey Mudd College. The Rakumi, San Francisco, Calgary, Atlanta and Newport Beach festivals are in the line-up.

Both Morojele and the NFVF are looking for indications of international interest in South African films. "There seems ! to be great interest in South African stories, but primarily from people who know and who have been following South Africa's progress," says Morojele. "I would like to think that the political nature of the film is the main reason for the long and intense Q & A's that I have experienced after the screenings." "But the most important thing is Story," says Morojele. "You can have the most exotic cultural backdrop or the most dazzling camera shots, but without a compelling story no one will care for your film. That's what was drummed into us consistently over the two years at AFI. Story, story, story.

The script for Ubuntu's Wounds went through many rewrites. Like all the other thesis films it was rigorously critiqued in class and had to go through an extensive Teacher-student developmental phase before it was allowed to start pre-production." He is currently working on a South African film about corporate South Africa as well as two other films that are based in the USA. "! Hollywood has taught me a lot and has shown me the ugly and difficult side of this business, he concludes. "It's all about perseverance. We were told that only 5% of the directors in my class will still be directing films in five years time - I just hope I am one of them."

* MagicWorks, the commissioning arm of pay television station M-Net, announced on Monday, 8 April that it will produce three new local projects. These are a TV series featuring SA funnyman Leon Schuster, eight made-for-TV Movies of the Month and the internationally popular reality show, Fear Factor. A number of episodes for the international Fear Factor version was recently shot in South Africa and was facilitated by Endemol South Africa. A brief for eight 90-minute made-for-TV movies for the Movie of the Month project will be issued shortly to interested parties, inviting them to submit ideas for original South African Screenplays, or adaptations of South African stories, to be developed into television movies. Co-productions possibilities w! ill be encouraged. The movies are scheduled for screening on M-Net in 2002. The Leon Schuster series will be based on his well-known character sketches and candid camera approach. A call for contestants in the South African version of Fear Factor has already been made. It will be shot in South Africa and will also include versions from the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Belgium. The fact that the different countries are sharing resources has made this a financially viable project, says Carl Fischer, CEO of MagicWorks. Pre-production of all three projects will start within the next few months.

* Hardly your typical box office fare, A Beautiful Mind, the harrowing film about the schizophrenic Nobel Prize Winner John Nash is at the number one spot on the South African cinema circuit. The film stars Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly, who scored in the Best Supporting Actress category. Next up is the intriguing partial-comedy, Bandits (Bruce Wills / Billy Bob Thornton / Cate Blanchett), followed by the animated feature, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Oceans Eleven and Not Another Teen Movie. At the Easter weekend, the box office record for the biggest opening weekend earner of all animated films ever released in SA went to Twentieth Century Fox's Ice Age. The movie grossed a phenomenal R3 130 595 on 71 screens in South ! Africa over the four-day weekend.

NORTH AFRICA

* Food shortages, drought, fear and hatred have followed in the wake of the Zimbabwean elections held on 9 and 10 March. But we have received heartening news from Trish Mbanga, one of a brave and intrepid group of young people of all races who have formed a new company, aptly named Sunrise Productions. In the midst the chaos, Sunrise Productions is producing a 90-minute stop-motion animation film, The Legend of the Sky Kingdom, in Zimbabwe. The production is fully financed with 60 minutes under the belt and a global release deadline of November 2002. Despite the difficult political, social and economic circumstances prevailing in the country for two years now, Mbanga says so! me filmmakers continue to pursue their projects. Sunrise Media incorporates two operating divisions - Sunrise Productions and Sunrise Marketing and Distribution.

* Back and blazing – Rigobert Song

Hi there readers. So glad to be back on the world wide web after an extended Holiday and Easter on the west coast of Africa. It is absolutely spectacular traveling through Western Africa – dangerous, ominous yet inspiring and effusive. Watching films made in this continent makes me happy because there’s more of a chance for the rest of the world to experience our riches. And without further adieu I present to you And So Angels Die…

Ainsi meurent les anges (And so angels die) – Directed by Moussa Sene Absa -- Senegal -- In French and Wolof with English subtitles

Moussa Sene Absa's latest work pushes the formal boundaries of African cinema to explore the complex interplay of history and psychology in contemporary Africa. Intensely personal and at the same time deeply political, Ainsi meurent les anges combines the elegiac lyricism of Ca Twiste a Poponguine with the acerbic social critique of Tableau Ferraille. What is perhaps most surprising is that this creative freedom was won precisely by working within the constraints of new low-budget video technology. Appearing the same year as Karmen Geï and Faat Kine, it attests to the continuing vitality of Senegalese filmmaking as it propels African cinema in boldly innovative directions.

Ainsi meurent les anges shows how a "dream deferred" can become a nightmare, how a stolen past can make the present impossible and render modernity untenable, how history can become paralyzed. It is a film about the loss of innocence -- by an individual and by an entire generation. These lost possibilities, these foregone selves, irrecoverable yet unforgettable, are the angels of the title. These are not the absolute, unhearing angels of Rilke's Duino Elegies or even the sympathetic onlookers of Wim Wender's Wings of Desire; they are aspects of ourselves, fragile as human hope.

This theme of the penetration of the present by the past, of the narrative by the subconscious, is given structural articulation through the dizzying inter-cutting of color and black-and-white sequences in the film's bravura opening. Color footage introduces us to Mory, a troubled Senegalese poet (played by writer/director Moussa Sene Absa himself) living outside Paris with his French wife and their children. We watch his marriage fall apart under cross-cultural pressures, specifically his father's demand that he take a second wife in Senegal. Homeless in winter, separated from his children, his poems scattered over a Paris street, Mory returns to Senegal, penniless and with uncertain prospects.

At the same time, black-and-white sequences reveal the psychological origins of Mory's present malaise: his belated discovery that he is the stepson of his abusive father, his early love for Kumba, his father's destruction of that love out of caste bigotry and sexual envy; Kumba's subsequent marriage to a rich man and death in childbirth, and Mory's disillusioned departure for France.

Interspersed throughout the film, the director's poetry frames the cinematic present within a language of memory and loss - Mory's and Africa's. As in other films in this collection, patriarchy, here seen in the mythic conflict between son and father, takes on historical and political resonance, specifically the theft of Africa's future -- first by slavery and colonialism and now by a corrupt post-colonial elite. Mory has lost Kumba, the hope for a post-independence Africa free of traditional authoritarianism, yet he cannot retreat into an alien European modernity as the conspicuousness of his African dress in France symbolizes. In the end, Mory also loses contemporary Africa when his intended second wife, Yacine, frustrated by his indecision and poverty, marries a rich German, in a clear reference to Africa's growing indebtedness to the W! est.

Director Moussa Sene Absa wants to make further sociological claims for this father-son metaphor. "This film presented me with the question of how to approach the problem of the father in a society where he occupies an untouchable place. African man has not looked his father in the eyes. How else can we explain the violent, fratricidal rage which spreads across this continent? It is a matter of understanding the Oedipal complex in the African context through the experience of an intellectual who has missed his calling."

Mory is the familiar figure of the "lost African" at home neither in Europe nor in Africa; he is denied a family and a narrative on both continents. He is in the end, literally and metaphorically, a man on the quay, a man in continual transit, an exile from the present. He may remind us of another Mory in Senegalese cinema, the dreamer/ hero of Djibril Diop Mambety's seminal Touki Bouki (1973), who was also last seen alone on a dock, without a clear future, as a ship heads away toward Europe.

Ainsi meurent les anges may be a harbinger of the more experimental, more personal "chamber pieces" that comparatively inexpensive video technology will allow African directors to produce. As the cost of production decreases, the number of institutional funders needed to back any project will be reduced, which, coupled with the increased volume of their own oeuvre, may free African directors from the pressure always to speak with an authoritative public voice. They will no doubt continue to treat the central themes of African cinema but, as here, in more personal and speculative forms.

Paradoxically, the emphasis on interiority and the mythic may lead to the assimilation of trans-cultural symbols and themes into these more intimate films -- in this instance, for example, the angel and innocence lost. This can be seen as deepening African cinema but also as bringing it closer to characteristically Western concerns with individual psychology and "universal human values." Sene Absa seems to be moving toward a synthesis of public and private, exploring the reverberations of larger historical and sociological forces in the psyches of individuals. In so doing, he moves African narrative toward both essay and reverie.

Remember to email me at My Private North African Film Institute and Archives with news on African film.

AFRICAN AMERICAN

* With Sidney Poitier in the spotlight again -- his honorary Oscar was a highlight of the 74th Annual Academy Awards -- Warner Bros. has optioned remake rights to the actor-director's trio of 1970s black crime comedies: "Uptown Saturday Night," "Let's Do It Again" and "A Piece of the Action." Will Smith, an Oscar nominee for his role in "Ali," will star in at least the first feature, "Uptown," and Smith and James Lassiter will produce through their Overbrook Entertainment. The trio of films, containing separate story lines and characters, originally starred Poitier and Bill Cosby as a kind of Frank Sinatra-Dean Martin duo. Each film featured a roster of black stars, including Richard Pryor, Harry Belafonte, Flip Wilson and Rosalind Cash, all of whom appeared in "Uptown."

* Seven programs appeared on the top-20 lists for both black and white households compiled last fall by Initiative Media -- down one from the record high of eight series in 2000. They included Monday Night Football,ER, Law & Order, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Judging Amy and 60 Minutes. Each of those programs, said Initiative Media's Stacey Lynn Koerner, featured African Americans in prominent roles. The top-rated program among blacks is Fox's The Bernie Mac Show which ranks 94th (out of 121 primetime series) among whites.

* Halle Berry loves her character in the new James Bond movie ‘Die Another Day’ - because she plays the strongest Bond Girl ever to hit screens (shouldn’t we wait until we’ve seen the film to make that statement? – DR.SOTHA). Berry plays Jinx in the flick, which is currently filming in Spain. And she describes her character as "the feminine James Bond," adding that Jinx is a modern and intelligent villain. She says, "She's the next step in the evolution of women in the Bond movies. She's more modern and not the classic villain." Berry says she has filmed some love scenes with Bond actor Pierce Brosnan but she doesn't take her clothes off. She adds, "I've been there and I'm not looking to do that again!" (how can you be the strongest Bond villain if you don’t take your clothes off…I don’t like this break in tradition…it depresses me – DR.SOTHA).

* Oprah Winfrey said on Friday that she is canceling her monthly book club recommendations because she has found it difficult coming up with compelling books. "It has become harder and harder to find books on a monthly basis that I feel absolutely compelled to share," Winfrey said in a statement. "I will continue featuring books on the Oprah Winfrey Show when I feel they merit my heartfelt recommendation." (How noble of Oprah – DR.SOTHA)

* Creative differences between Bill Cosby and director Forest Whitaker have shut down pre-production on a live-action movie version of Cosby's TV cartoon series, Fat Albert, Daily Variety reported. The trade paper quoted a 20th Century Fox spokesman as saying that Cosby and Whitaker had had "an amicable departure" and that the studio was evaluating whether the film could be put back on track with another director. It had been scheduled to start shooting this month. There was no explanation in the Variety article of why Whitaker was unwilling to defer to Cosby, who not only created the characters but also wrote the screenplay with Charles Kipps and, with wife Camille is th! e film's executive producer. (In Camille Cosby's 1992 doctoral dissertation, Television's Imageable Influences: The Self-Perceptions of Young African-Americans, which has been published in book form, she argues that young blacks are dramatically influenced by negative images of black culture on TV and in movies, a thesis that is no doubt reflected in the film.)

* Following Denzel Washington’s and Halle Berry’s Oscar wins, black actors working in Britain have complained that their opportunity for similar success is bleak and that institutional racism is rampant in their industry. In interviews with Britain's Guardian newspaper, they noted that not only has no black British actor ever received a BAFTA ward for a leading role, blacks are never even cast in a romantic lead role and are generally relegated to gangster parts. Actor Lennie James told the newspaper: "Hopefully, these Oscars will mark a sea change in the British attitude that a black lead will not 'sell' a film abroad. ... The U.S. has huge race problems, but at least in the U.S. culture everyone gets a chance. H! ere, we are sidelined and insulted."

* Artisan Pictures has picked up North American distribution rights to the music-themed documentary "Standing in the Shadows of Motown." The indie distributor is eyeing an August rollout for the Paul Justman-directed film. Based on Allan Slutsky's book of the same title, which won the 1989 Rolling Stone/BMI Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award, the docu tracks the reunion of the Funk Brothers, Motown's group of eclectic musicians who, over a 14-year period, provided the music for nearly every hit single coming out of Detroit's Motown Records.

* Cuba Gooding Jr. is in negotiations to star in Revolution Studios' "Radio" for director Mike Tollin. The project will go into production in the fall. "Radio," based on a 1996 Sports Illustrated article by Gary Smith, tells of the true-life relationship between a white football coach in a small South Carolina town who befriends a mentally challenged black man (Gooding) who can barely read or write. Under the coach's mentoring, their relationship helps transform the social dynamics of the team and the school. Tollin and his partner, Brian Robbins, will produce through their Tollin/Robbins Prods. Mike Rich ("The Rookie") wrote the screenplay. Cuba, will segue into "Radio" after he wraps shooting Paramount Pictures/MTV Films' "The Fighting Temptations," which goes into production in the summer. Following "Radio," he is expected to begin work! on the Walt Disney Co.'s "Snow Dogs 2." He next stars in the indie comedy "Boat Trip."

* Director Spike Lee is unconvinced Hollywood has changed its attitude to black people after Halle Berry and Denzel Washington’s triumphs last month. Lee says he will not be completely satisfied tinseltown has changed its attitude to non-white citizens until more producers and studio executives are "of color." Spike discussed Halle and Denzel with students at The University of Toledo in Ohio on Wednesday night. Spike says, "Is this a signal that once and for all Hollywood is colorblind and we're all on the same playing field? I don't think so. We have to see what happens. Let's not get too hyped up. Let's not go crazy and think we've been delivered because of what happened. When Sidney won for Lilies Of The Field, people probably felt the same way and it w! as another 40 years until Denzel won." (The always optimistic Spike Lee - DR.SOTHA)

* Eva Mendes is in negotiations to take one of the female leads opposite Denzel Washington in the MGM thriller "Out of Time" for director Carl Franklin. Shooting starts at the end of May with Original Films producing. "Time" reteams Mendes with Washington. The pair played lovers in the Warner Bros. feature "Training Day," for which Washington won a best actor Oscar. Written by Dave Collard, "Time" sees Washington starring as a small-town police officer who gets caught in an affair with two women, one of whom is Ann Cole (Mendes), a detective.

* Although Whoopi Goldberg received generally enthusiastic notices for her performance as the ceremonies' host, it was Woody Allen who brought down the house when he introduced director Nora Ephron’s tribute to New York. Allen, who has been nominated for 20 Oscars and won two -- but who had never previously attended an Oscar ceremony -- performed what in effect was his first stand-up routine in many years and could very well be the first name on everyone's lips when the hosting job for next year's telecast comes up. "I got this phone call four weeks ago and I panicked," Allen remarked at one point. "I thought they wanted my Oscars back." ,p.* Oprah Winfrey has hit back at White House officials after they claimed she was too busy to tour Afghan schools. Winfrey called her pal Star Jones, co-host of The View, before her show on Tuesday and told Jones it "was just not true" that she turned down President George W Bush. Jones told viewers at the start of her show, "Oprah told me that she was approached several weeks back and was told that the plans were ultra-sensitive. She was really, really quiet and the White House said, 'Check your schedule, ' and she did but she had some fundraisers that she had committed to and anybody knows when you do these things ... people sell tickets expecting you to be there." Word first leaked last week that Winfrey declined to make the trip to Afghanistan. In a prepared statement from her office at Chicago-based Harpo Productions, Winfrey said she had too many other things to do. Jones co! ntinues, "The White House knew she wasn't going to be able to go, but (Bush adviser) Karen Hughes told her they were going anyway. So Oprah says for the last couple of weeks she thought, 'Oh, they had gone.' She said, 'So imagine my surprise, I wake up and read in the newspaper that I'm being cavalier, I'm too busy.'"

* Seventies film legend Pam Grier hates the movie term "blaxploitation" which she has been associated with throughout her movie career. The Jackie Brown star became one of the most famous black women in America after starring in low-budget sexy action flicks such as Coffy and Foxy Brown. Pam complains, "The word 'blaxploitation' implies that we were black actors being exploited. We weren't being exploited. We were working and we were earning money."

DR.SOTHA REVO & OUT