Father Geek here posting some of our regular weekly columns that came into Geek Headquarters in Austin while Harry and I were the guests of the wonderful NW city of Seattle... Here's Dr. SOTHA and Rigobert Song's Africa-AICN column...

DR.SOTHA here in a state of panic, or perhaps even paranoia. Yes people Nurse Hollis is now MIA in South Korea. She has not contacted me in 5 days and I fear she has taken a liking to the Eel dragon, which was never part of the plan…she was supposed to massacre it and bring it back for scientific examination. This is the last straw Hollis, your affectionate behavior toward animals has blinded you in the past, and unless proven otherwise, revealed your Achilles heel once again. This brash show of insubordination will cost Hollis dearly. She has 2 days to counter my claims, otherwise I am sending a replacement to slaughter both her and the Eel dragon.

Send your Nurse Hollis obituaries (?) to Africaaicn@hotmail.com they might come in handy.

SOUTH AFRICA

* South African distributor Warner-Nu Metro Film Distribution has acquired the African rights in all media to ‘Stander’ the upcoming feature film co-production between Seven Arts (UK), Grovesnor Park (Canada) and The Imaginarium (South Africa). Stander, which tells the story of one of South Africa's most notorious bank robbers, is scheduled to commence principal photography on 26 August for a period of 12 weeks. It will be shot entirely in South Africa.

* A major international documentary currently shooting in South Africa celebrates the rich musical heritage of Sophiatown during the 40's and 50's. Local company Clear & Effect Media is co-producing the film together with Irish-based production house, Little Bird Films. A feature-length documentary, Sophiatown has already been sold to the BBC and to broadcasters in France and Scandinavia. It will also be offered to South African broadcaster

* Leading American architect Gary L. Bastien was in Cape Town recently to conduct a recce for the proposed US$22-million 'Studio City' complex, which aims to attract big Hollywood productions to the city. Bastien was brought in by key initiator of the project, South African-born Anton Nel of Africa Filmed Entertainment and project partner, Aladdin Pojhan of Bauhaus Entertainment Group. All three parties are based in Los Angeles. "The fact that Gary Bastien is committed to the project means that the studio will be guaranteed automatic international recognition. Gary formed Bastien and Associates, Inc. in 1982, a company that is regarded as one of the leading designers of studios in the world. They designed Manhattan Beach Studios, where the hit television shows, Ally McBea! l and The Practice are shot," said Nel.

* Former "Party of Five" actress Rhona Mitra will play the female lead opposite Jim Caviezel in the New Line Cinema thriller "Highwaymen." A dark take on the mythical road movie, "Highwaymen" follows a dehumanized villain who uses a car as an expression of his rage against the world and the obsessed hero (Caviezel) who is tracking him. Mitra plays a young singer who gets caught in the game as the men chase each other on the open road in 1970s muscle cars. "Highwaymen" is being directed by Robert Harmon from a screenplay by Hans Bauer and Craig Mitchell. Mike Marcus, Carol Kemp and Millennium Films' Brad Jenkel are producers, with SOUTH AFRICAN AVI LERNER and Trevor Short executive producing. New Line production executives Lynn Harris and David Brewington will oversee for the studio. Best known for her work on the long-running Fox television series "Party of Five," Mitra also has appeared in such feature films as "Get Carter" and "Hollow Man." She can also be seen in the upcoming Touchstone comedy "Sweet Home Alabama" and Universal thriller "The Life of David Gale."

* Leading South African production company Videovision Entertainment is to build a $5m (R50m) international film studio in Durban over the next 18 months, local producer Anant Singh announced. The studio will be one of two in the country with all the facilities necessary for international film makers. Singh, who sits on the South African Tourism Board, said the self-funded project would be a big boost for tourism in KwaZulu-Natal. Singh said his company was holding discussions with the eThekwini unicity (Greater Durban) regarding possible co-operation because the city needed to attract tourists. 'We realised the need to be proactive in attracting international film makers to South African film studios just like Miami in the US,' he said. The studio will include a sound stage, equipment and production offices for companies to hire. Videovision Entertainment, which owns 12% of SA-listed company Kagiso M! edia, has acquired over 2 000 films during the past 15 years for local distribution. 'Mr Bones, a locally produced film which we distribute internationally, has made $3.5m (R35), making [it] the second-highest grossing film in South Africa behind Titanic,' he said. Singh asserts that the new studio will be comparable to Fox Studios in Australia and will be a keen competitor for international production in the Southern Hemishpere.

* Everybody's favourite cartoon character Great Dane (says who? – DR.SOTHA), Scooby Doo, is wagging his tail. This partly animated film has been at the top of the South African box office for the past two weeks. Holiday crowds have so far contributed R6 259 815 (About the price of half a Mars bar in North America – DR.SOTHA) to Scooby Doo's success. Amazingly, after only three weeks on release, the former number one, Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones is at number six, having amassed R7 386 768. Scooby Doo is followed by the vampire sequel, Blade 2, the animated Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and the harrowing tale of marital infidelity, Unfaithful. At number five is the delightful soccer-flavoured Indian film, Bend It Like Beckham. (Please don’t blame me, I don! ’t write this shit, I’m just the messenger – DR.SOTHA)

NORTH AFRICA

* Attention please, Rigobert Song is next:

Hello Readers, I revisited a film that I have reviewed before on the column, Genesis, which in my humble opinion ranks as one of the top 5 African films ever made and indeed one of World cinema’s best. The truly epic and elegiac qualities that director Sissoko reaches for are inspirational and have never been matched by African cinema again. So here is a slightly more detailed review of Genesis, a film for all cinephiles. Remember to email me at rigobertsong@hotmail.com with your African thoughts.

La Gènese (Genesis) Directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko -- Mali -- 102 minutes In Bambara with English subtitles

Cheick Oumar Sissoko marks the coming of the 21st century with a film set at the beginning of time. He discovers insights into one of the most urgent problems facing Africa and indeed the world - fratricidal strife - by returning to the biblical account of its origins. Just as he used an historic allegory to denounce contemporary African dictatorship in his last film Guimba, in La Gènese he uses the story of Jacob and Esau to explore internecine wars from Liberia to Somalia and from Congo to Kosovo. By translating this archetypal story into a distinctively West African context, Sissoko makes it possible for us to see Africans not as an other but as representatives of a universal humanity.

From an anthropological perspective, the leading characters in the film represent three different modes of production coming into contact and conflict. Esau, Isaac's elder son, and his clan (dressed in hides) represent hunter-gatherer man. His younger brother, Jacob and his family (dressed in blue) are tent-dwelling, monotheistic pastoralists, nomadic herdsmen. Hamor and the polytheistic Canaanites (dressed in yellow) live in permanent stone settlements and cultivate the surrounding territory. All three groups are beginning to compete for the same land, especially as the advantages of agriculture become apparent. Sissoko relocates this clash to the spectacular, semi-arid plateaus of northeastern Mali under the looming presence of Mt. Hombori Tondo, a landscape perhaps not too different from the biblical Canaan.

The film begins with a prologue by Esau, played by acclaimed Malian singer Salif Keita. He is embittered and nihilistic because when he was hungry his younger brother, Jacob, forced him to sell his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup. He blames fraternal strife on God, specifically on scarcity and the consequent competition for limited resources which has been humanity's lot since Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Sissoko in his complex psychological portrait of Esau makes clear that scarcity can also apply to the supply of love and respect available from parents and communities. Jacob for his part suffers a kind of symbolic punishment for his unbrotherly behavior when his favorite son, Joseph, is sold into slavery by his own envious brothers.

The film's narrative proper begins with the story of the abduction of Jacob's deranged daughter Dinah by Shechem, son of the Canaanite (or Havite) nobleman Hamor. The conciliatory Hamor proposes intermarriage as an answer to their difference, saying they can become one family and share the land. But Jacob's sons insist the Canaanites must first be circumcised in obedience to Abraham's covenant with God; Hamor surprisingly agrees. While his men are disabled from the operation, the duplicitous sons of Jacob launch a genocidal raid against Hamor's followers, slaughtering nearly all their males. This act can itself be regarded as a kind of fratricide since they are all distant descendants of Noah: Hamor of Noah's son, Ham, and Jacob of Ham's brother Shem.

As a result of this carnage, a grand council is called to try to establish the international rule of law, which Sissoko has dramatized as a traditional West African palaver. Reuben, Jacob's eldest son, argues that the best way to prevent conflict is to mark out strict boundaries, and, in particular, to forbid intermarriage between pastoralists and agriculturists, so "we can know who is who." Hamor's spokespersons point out the impossibility of achieving such ethnic purity. They note that Judah, one of Jacob's sons, married Ada, a Canaanite; does that mean his son, Shelah, should be torn in half between the two tribes? Furthermore, Judah has been tricked into siring twins by Tamar, whom he had tried to exclude from his lineage by putting off her marriage to Shelah.

Jacob seeks reconciliation with Hamor, since they now are both in a sense sonless. He says stories are the only thing he can bequeath to his children and, of course, La Gènese could be regarded is part of that bequest. Jacob then tells how his father Isaac found a wife, "in that time before the rift between father and son, God and man." Isaac's father, Abraham, sent a servant to Mesopotamia with instructions to bring back the first woman who would offer a stranger a drink of water. Rebekah not only relieves the stranger's thirst, she agrees to leave her family for a distant land and unknown husband.

Esau, resentful of his brother, his father, Isaac, his fate, denies there ever was such a golden age and proceeds to destroy Jacob's tents and cattle. But after Jacob wrestles with God, winning the name Israel, "strong against god," Esau forgives him. Esau instructs the Israelites, the sons of Jacob, to go to the land of Egypt where grain is plentiful. Jacob tells his sons to obey "my brother." The narrator then supplies the familiar ending to the story. Joseph through his wisdom has risen from slavery to become the pharaoh's chief minister; he will end the fraternal feud by forgiving his brothers and inviting them to bring their families to live in Egypt.

The plot of La Gènese may seem rather convoluted, even confusing, to Western viewers who may have only a vague familiarity with the biblical sources. What's more, the narrative flow is interrupted (or illustrated) at least five times by story-telling - flashbacks which may appear digressive if one is unfamiliar with West African conventions of exposition. The stories have been carefully selected and rearranged from Genesis Chapters 24,25, 34, 37 and 38 to form a compelling moral narrative, an ethical argument for peace and community. Sissoko's may be a rather revisionist interpretation of these scriptural sources since running through the Old Testament is a rather ethnocentric, anti-assimilationist bias to prevent the Jews from following foreign gods.

Sissoko has explained why it was so important for him to retell this seminal story of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths in traditional West African guise, just as Italian artists of the Quattrocento set their biblical scenes in Renaissance Tuscany. "My aim has been to return Africa to the center of consciousness and events, to build bridges between the concerns of Africans and of other people. Because La Gènese associates universal themes with a profound anchorage in African reality, I believe it constitutes a new stage in our cinema." What the press had to say of the film:

"Cheick Oumar Sissoko restores to the Bible its universal vocation. Robert Bresson and Terence Malick dreamed of filming Genesis - but a Malian has succeeded in doing it."
- Le Monde

"One of the most challenging viewing experiences...Casting Africans in all the roles certainly puts a new spin on an old story. Sissoko uses his native cultural heritage to advantage."
- Variety

"Captures the feeling of an ancient tragedy set in the African desert. The actors are energetic and eloquent, the scenery pure, the costumes elegant and the faces and bodies intense."
- Liberation

* High attendence figures at the recently held African Union Film Festival in Durban were testament to the Festival's success, according to the event's co-ordinator, Mike Dearham of The Film Resource Unit (FRU) "Throughout the Festival there was an 80% capacity on all four screens. This is amazing if you consider that the films shown were mostly French, subtitled and African - not exactly what is considered mainstream. Oliver Schmitz' highly acclaimed Mapantsula was the most popular film, with Lumumba (directed by Raoul Peck) proving the second most popular," noted Dearham. Also screened was Med Hondo's Sarraounia, a film that will be theatrically released in South Africa by FRU next year. Meanwhile, FRU in partnership with Nu Metro and Johnnic Film Education, will release another AU Festival film, Sankofa (directed by Ethiopia's Haile Gerima) later this year. Apart from Mapantsula, other South African feature films shown at the Festival included Cry, T! he Beloved Country, Jump The Gun, Sarafina!, The Stick, The Native Who Caused All The Trouble, and Malunde, a South African / German co-production. A wide selection of documentaries and short films was also shown. An important component of the Festival was the Panel discussions that took place on four of the days, with close to a hundred people attending each session. Panelists included Junaid Ahmed, Jacqueline Fox, Haile Gerima, Khalipha Eddie Mbalo, Anant Singh, Lionel Ngakane, Keyan Tomaselli and Gcina Mhlophe. Topics were: African Approaches to Issues of Production; Developing the Commercial Viability of African Film - the Role of NEPAD; Audience Development in Africa and The Importance of Film in Shaping and Expressing Cultural Identity.

AFRICAN AMERICAN

* Taye Diggs and Blair Underwood are set to star in Warner Bros. Pictures' untitled Jamie Kennedy project for director John Whitesell. Shooting begins in early August. The project, previously known as "Suckaz," is based on one of Kennedy's characters from the WB Network hidden camera/sketch comedy series "JKX: The Jamie Kennedy Experiment." It centers on Gluckman (Kennedy), a white would-be rap star from Malibu whose wealthy father is running for governor and is not pleased about having a son who walks and talks like he is from the 'hood. The father and his campaign manager (Underwood) hire two Juilliard-trained actors -- one of which is Diggs -- to portray actual "gangstaz," take the boy to the 'hood and scare the urban attitude out of him. The film will co-star Nick Swardson as Gluckman's sidekick Mocha.

* Gabrielle Union has nabbed the female lead in Columbia Pictures' "Bad Boys 2," the long-anticipated sequel to the 1995 hit "Bad Boys," for producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay. The project, which sees original cast members Will Smith and Martin Lawrence toplining, goes into production next month in Florida. A summer 2003 release is planned. Union will play Sydney Burnett, the half sister to Lawrence's character, Marcus Burnett. She also is the love interest to Smith's Mike Lowrey, who repeatedly tries to charm and seduce her, causing friction between him and his partner. Although Sydney claims to have a desk job, she is really an undercover agent pretending to launder dirty money.

* Fox executives maintained Sunday that racial considerations played no part in their decision to move the Bernie Mac Show opposite Damon Wayan’s ABC sitcom My Wife and Kids at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesdays. Meeting with reporters at the TV critics' summer press tour in Pasadena, Fox TV Entertainment Group Chairman Sandy Grushow remarked: "We don't feel like we are under an obligation to ensure the success of our competitors' shows. ... Whether the casts are black, white, green, yellow or purple -- we're in a business here." Mac himself disclosed that Wayans had asked him to join in a protest to Fox. "I told him I couldn't support that," Mac told the critics. "This is business." Fox also told the critics Sunday that it plans to air the season premiere of its critically praised 24 without commercials and that it has ordered a second run of the talent-hunt show American Idol

* Irish actor Colin Farrell has become Hollywood's latest $8 million man after signing up for a role in S.W.A.T. The Minority Report star will play Officer Jim Street in the big screen adaptation of the 70's TV series, reports Variety. Samuel L. Jackson will topline the project, which will be directed by Clark Johnson, who played Det. Meldrick Lewis on Homicide: Life on the Street. Farrell, who has starred in Tigerland and Hart's War, has seen his payday rise exponentially over the past year.

* Marlon Brando whose appearances in films are becoming more and more infrequent, was paid $1 million by Michael Jackson to appear at Jackson's 30th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden last year to deliver a talk praising the singer, according to Fox.com's Roger Friedman, who cited reliable insiders. Contacted by phone and asked to confirm or deny the report, Friedman said Brando replied, "I don't talk to the press!" and hung up on him. He quoted an unnamed Jackson associate as saying, "A million bucks? Yeah, I heard that. That's why Michael has so little cash for himself." Friedman says that Brando's appearance "was so boring it had to be cut from the televised show." (Clearly Brando and Jackson are doing their legacy no good – DR.SOTHA)

* Michael Jackson is planning to take his battle with Sony Music chief Tommy Mottola to court. The star already has O.J. Simpson attorney Johnnie Cochran on his team and has just signed top Hollywood litigator Martin Singer. Singer says he believes Sony intentionally tried to sabotage Jackson's Invincible CD - an argument the self-styled King of Pop has been putting forward for some time. Jackson's legal team is now putting together a case, despite Sony's recent statement that it has supported its artist all the way. Singer contends that the music giant "failed to properly market" Jackson's last album. He says, "He had the biggest TV special in 2001. Sony did not buy one commercial on that special. Why would they not do that? It may not be in their economic interests for the album to do wel! l." The attorney believes Sony execs may have wanted Invincible to flop in order to justify Jackson's departure from the label to Sony Corporation Chairman Nobuyuki Idei Jackson. Singer declines to comment on suggestions that Mottola tried to ruin Jackson's career, but says the music mogul failed to answer the pop star's calls for four to five months. He adds, "When they talked, it was a very bad phone call." But it seems unlikely the case will ever be played out for the public in open court. A source close to the dispute says, "The Japanese would never want this played out in a trial. As for Michael, if you were his lawyer, would you put him on the stand? Somebody is going to blink." (Did I mention how Jackson is doing his legacy no good? – DR.SOTHA)

* Oscar-nominated actor Will Smith has predicted the United States will eventually have a black president. The Ali star, who last year joked that he would run for office, believes non-white people and women will rule the country from Washington D.C. Will says, "It will still take some time, but in the future, women and blacks will be moving into the White House." Will explained that while he doesn't have political ambition at the moment, he believes he would succeed if he did run for office. He explains, "As a matter of fact, I believe I could become president if I only tried. But I'm only 33, I don't have any political ambition yet." The Men in Black II star is fully aware of the cons of the job after he spent time with former US president Bill Clinton. Will continues, "Being president is an unpleasant profession. Everybody is consta! ntly annoyed, you work all hours, there's always trouble and nobody thanks you for it. But fortunately, greed is even more powerful than racism. In Hollywood, the only color that really counts is the green of dollar bills. As long as they make money with you, they don't care what color your skin is."

* Autopsy report findings from the body of the pilot flying the plane that Aaliyah spent her final moments onboard show he had cocaine and alcohol in his blood. The singer, seven friends and pilot Luis Morales all lost their lives when the Cessna 402-B on its way to the American mainland crash-landed on take off in the Bahamas last August. Fans and friends of the tragic singer have speculated about Morales' flying experience and the fact the plane was overloaded with people and luggage - but it now appears the cause of the crash could have been even more serious. It has not yet been made clear whether cocaine and alcohol in the pilot's blood are in any way responsible for the plane crash.

DR.SOTHA REVO & OUT!.