Here it is... Father Geek introducing another edition of The Africa-AICN weekly column with Rigobert Song and Dr. SOTHA...

DR.SOTHA back for another Africa-AICN. That bitch Paige Marshall has joined forces with Nurse Hollis in the deepest bowels of South Korean soil. Rumors have it that they’re mounting a counter attack on my South African officers for my alleged misogynist ways. What drivel, I treated those women as if they were my own children. I let them fraternize with my patients, and so what if they paid extra for that service, we all reaped in the rewards. Hollis and Marshall will pay, and they can bring that Eel dragon with them. I’m not scared easily.

If you know where I can make a nice and easy arms deal off the coast of Cape Town please email me at africaaicn@hotmail.com

SOUTH AFRICA

* Sithengi, Southern Africa's Film and TV Market, is to hold a legitimate film festival for the first time in its seven-year history in an attempt to establish a greater role for world cinema. Sithengi, which will be held in Cape Town 9-16 November, said it expected to announce the appointment of a festival director and co-ordinator early next week. Although entry is open to all, Sithengi's publicity co-ordinator Laun Bowman said emphasis would be placed on applications from developing countries and those highlighting indigenous peoples. Priority will also be given to World Premieres and African Premieres. "The aim of the Sithengi Film festival is to create a viable niche market for World Cinema in the way that a similar market has been created for World Music. It is a style of film making that is rooted in a culture outside the mainstream and c! onveys, via universal themes, other experiences and worldviews," Bowman said. The submission deadline for entries is August 30 2002 and application forms are available online at www.sithengi.co.za

* Hot on the heels of co-ordinating the highly successful African Union Film Festival, the Centre for Creative Arts presents the 23rd Durban International Film Festival at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, University of Natal from September 2 to 15. The festival, supported by the National Film and Video Foundation, City of Durban, the City of Rotterdam, Interfund and the KZN Education and Culture Directorate will present a selection of over 100 films. Alternative genres and high-art films will share a platform with controversial and insightful documentaries as well as mainstream films. Music films, laugh-along comedies, dark thrillers, children's films and short films are included in this dynamic melting-pot of the country's longest running film festival. The festival will host film-makers and industry-related personalities from countries as diverse as India, Denmark, Tanzania, Aust! ralia, USA, Holland, Mozambique, Nigeria, and South Africa who will introduce films and present seminars and workshops designed to inspire developing talent. The workshop programme and the extensive outreach screenings are all part of a long-term strategy designed to stimulate filmmakers, develop new audiences and broaden the appreciation of film in as inclusive a way as possible. The primary screening venue for the festival is the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre with special showings at the Berea Cine Centre and outreach screenings in township areas where cinema facilities are non-existent. A one-night festival at UDW (6th September), and a 2-day festival in KwaMashu (14 - 15 September) also form part of the activities. A full programme of films will be available two weeks prior to the festival. Tickets can be booked at www.computicket.com.

NORTH AFRICA

* Denzel Washington's directorial debut, Fox Searchlight Pictures' "Antwone Fisher," will receive its world premiere in the Gala section of the Toronto International Film Festival, organizers said Thursday. Toronto also unveiled a 17-film lineup for its Planet Africa sidebar, featuring movies from Africa and the African diaspora. Other highlights of the upcoming festival, set for Sept. 5-14, include a master class with Ivan Reitman ("Road Trip") and an "In Conversation" appearance by another Canadian, composer Mychael Danna ("Monsoon Wedding," "Ride With the Devil"). "Antwone Fisher," which stars Washington as a naval psychiatrist treating a sailor with an explosive temper, will receive a high-profile launch as a Gala presentation at Roy Thomson Hall.

* Rigobert Song for your pleasure:

Hello Readers. A brief review of a film I watched only a few hours ago. It’s magnificent piece of vision and storytelling rest assured, but I haven’t had enough time to digest it all. Here are my initial thoughts. Remember to email me with your African film thoughts to rigobertsong@hotmail.com

Finzan (A Dance for the Hero)

Directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko – Mali -- In Bambara with English subtitles --
107 minutes

In Finzan, Cheick Oumar Sissoko has skillfully crafted a film which raises one of the most important issues of African rural life, the status of women, in a style accessible to every villager. Finzan tells the story of two women's rebellion. Nanyuma, a young widow defies her brother-in-law, the village fool, when he asserts his traditional right to "inherit" her. Fili, a young woman sent from the city by her conservative father, is brutally "circumcised" by village women, scandalized by her refusal to submit to this ancient ritual. Sissoko weaves these two stories together into a painfully realistic picture of village society, tragically unable to free itself from the past.

A passionate and convincing plea for the emancipation of African women."
-- New York Times

"Bracing, wholly exhilarating... dedicated to the African woman."
-- Village Voice

"An important film -- an enriching discovery for any American audience."
--Louis Malle, director

AFRICAN AMERICAN

* Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington will bring his directorial debut The Antwone Fisher Story to this year's Toronto International Film Festival. Festival organizers say the flick will have a gala presentation. It tells the story of a hot-tempered sailor whose visit to a naval psychiatrist starts him on the road to emotional healing. The film, in which Washington also stars, will be released in selected US cities in late December. Washington attended last year's festival to promote Training Day, the crime drama for which he won the best-actor Oscar this year. The 27th Toronto International Film Festival will be held from September 5 to 14.

* Halle Berry, currently in front of cameras playing the Marvel superhero Storm in the "X-Men" sequel "X2," is negotiating to play another kind of hero in the action-thriller "The Guide" for Paramount Pictures and producer Mark Gordon. Should a deal be reached, the Oscar-winning star of "Monster's Ball" would make "Guide" her next movie, starring as Jane Whitfield, a Seneca Indian who has the expert gift of helping desperate people escape their negative situations by erasing their past and providing them with a brand-new identity. "Guide" has no director, but one is expected soon with an early-2003 start being eyed.

* Oscar-winning superstar Halle Berry is planning to step behind the camera to produce her first Hollywood movie. The Monster's Ball star will star in and co-producer Nappily Ever After, a comedy - adapted from a novel by Trisha Thomas - about a black woman's journey to self-discovery.

* Film-makers of the latest James Bond movie decided to make a raunchy sex scene between stars Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry after realizing the British secret agent had never been filmed in the act. Die Another Day director Lee Tamahori says he wanted to see 007 getting down and dirty for real, rather than just the aftermath usually seen in the spy films. He says, "I keep watching these old Bond movies, which I love, and I keep saying, 'Why doesn't he actually fuck? Why is it always post-coital? Why does the camera have to pan across the clothes and go up to the bed to find him drinking a bottle of champagne with his sheet up around him?' We said, 'Pierce, what do you feel about being in the first Bond movie where you get laid?' And he said, 'That'd be smashing!' So we did t! hat. We've got Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry bonking away." (A good move if you ask me – DR.SOTHA) But the effort may have been in vain - Tamahori is expecting censors to excise the saucy scene so that the film will be given a rating which will allow younger Bond fans to see it. (Don’t be fucking pussies – DR.SOTHA)

* Rosario Dawson and Hank Azaria are in final negotiations to crack the cast of Lions Gate Films' "Shattered Glass," the true story of a wunderkind writer whose high-profile magazine stories were exposed as fakes. "Glass" also stars Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Steve Zahn, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Chloe Sevigny. Based on a 1998 Vanity Fair article, the project stars Christensen as Stephen Glass, a young Washington-based writer for publications ranging from the New Republic to Rolling Stone. Considered a rising star, Glass is eventually accused of fabricating most of his articles, even making up entire sources and quotes.

* The Ruddy Morgan Organization has gone gaga for "Million $$$ Baby," optioning feature film rights to the novella from the best-selling collection of boxing stories "Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner" by F.X. Toole. Toole is the nom de plume of 20-year veteran boxing trainer Jerry Boyd, who made his literary debut at 70 last year with "Rope Burns." The book, hailed by the New York Times, follows an insider's view of ringside life and the colorful inhabitants who live in and around the squared circle. The project is being produced in association with Morgan Freeman's Revelations Entertainment. Paul Haggis ("thirtysomething") has been tapped to adapt "Baby." "Baby" is the bittersweet tale of a young woman looking to fight her way out of poverty and of the veteran boxing trainer who takes her on against his better judgment.

* MGM and State Street Pictures are moving forward with a sequel to the upcoming urban comedy "Barbershop," hiring scribe Don D. Scott to pen a second installment and negotiating with helmer Tim Story to return as director. The studio is also negotiating with State Street producers George Tillman and Bob Teitel to reprise their duties on the sequel. "Barbershop," an ensemble story that takes place during the course of one day at a barbershop on Chicago's South Side, is set for release Sept. 13. Ice Cube, Anthony Anderson, Cedric the Entertainer, Troy Garity, Sean Patrick Thomas and rapper-turned-actress Eve star in the film. MGM is known to have very high hopes for the movie after positive test screenings and publicity screenings held du! ring the past several weeks.

* Will Smith's latest movie has caused anger among locals in the Florida area where it's being shot. Scenes from the sequel to buddy comedy Bad Boys are being filmed on a section of the main road between Miami and Miami Beach, which carries more than 90,000 cars a day. Drivers have been seeing red since producers closed off the road - known as MacArthur Causeway - at the start of the week to allow filming to go undisturbed. The resulting diversion has led to the 15-minute trip between the city and the island increasing to more than an hour. Resident Robin Statfeld wrote a letter to the Miami Herald to express his outrage, saying, "Apparently those charged with governing and managing our city are so blinded by dollar signs and wood lights that they cannot see how unconsc! ionable it is to close the MacArthur Causeway." Government officials claim people living in the area will benefit from $20 million being injected into the local economy from the film's studio Columbia Pictures - but the move has meant the creation of long traffic jams with drivers sitting in their cars in sweltering heat. Bad Boys 2, which also stars Martin Lawrence, has already caused outrage after Florida authorities decided to let director Michael Bay film in a protected manatee habitat.

* Hollywood star Tommy Lee Jones loved making the two Men In Black movies with Will Smith so much he'd jump at the chance to make a third. The JFK star took a break from his more customary serious on-screen persona to play straight man to Smith's funny-guy in the alien adventure comedies. And Tommy - who picked up a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role alongside Harrison Ford in 1993 action flick The Fugitive - says making Men in Black and the new sequel were some of the happiest days of his life. He gushes, "I'm always happy to have a job. Especially happy to have this one because I really did like the first movie, and working for director Barry Sonnenfeld with Will Smith have been some of the happiest days of my young working life (Whatever – DR.SOTHA). I haven't had a lot of comedy come my way as a performer. Comedy's difficult and I've had a chance to work w! ith the best and learn a lot about it, and reap the benefits. As an actor to watch an audience of people howl together in a single mind as a result of work you've done together with friends is a privilege. The thing that surprises me is things that I thought would be of no significance, things I thought were off-handed, things that were just a passing whim in my head as we were performing this movie, turned out to be huge laughs. And the other thing that's surprising is the momentum, people start laughing early and it builds like an avalanche. I'd start working on Men In Black III tomorrow if they wanted one. I enjoy the company." (But do the people want another one? – DR.SOTHA)

* Rock 'n' roll legend Little Richard is finally retiring from live performances after five decades on the road. The 69-year-old says his current tour of the US will be his last, and he will quit at the end of the year. He says, "I've been making music since I was eight years old, and I'm tired now. I've never taken a vacation. I work every day, year in, year out." And the "Tutti-Frutti" superstar says not even a phone call from the American President could persuade him to stay in the business. He adds, "I think that when you get tired, it's time to move over. Since this is the end, I'm gonna give everything I've got in every show I have left." Richard plans to return to his home state of Georgia to rest once the tour is over and admits, "I haven't decided what I'm going to do, but I won't be traveling for rock." The singer was a major influence on the Beatles, who first met him when they were an up-and-coming young band playing in Germany. "Paul (McCart! ney) would watch me every night when I was up on stage. Paul idolized me and admired my energy. The way you see Mick Jagger and Tina Turner walk all over the stage is what I used to do. That's where they all got it from."

* Bosses at General Motors' Pontiac division are so impressed by Vin Diesel's new action movie XXX, they're designing a souped-up supercar for the sequel. The film opened this weekend in America. And Pontiac whizkids are hoping to cash in on the film's success by designing a new car for the 2004 sequel, which will also star Diesel. A 1967 edition of the motor features heavily in XXX, and now Pontiac designers are hoping XXX will do for their sports cars what James Bond has done for Aston Martin and BMW. Diesel will debut the new Pontiac design at the Nascar Daytona 500 race in 2003. Meanwhile, bosses at Revolution Studios - the film company behind XXX - are currently auditioning cars to appear as an updated KITT in a big screen adaptation of 1980s TV show Knight Rider (Say it ain’t so – DR.SOTHA.)

* Liz Taylor, Paul McCartney and the voice of Darth Vader, James Earl Jones, are to be honored for lifetime achievements at this year's Kennedy Center Honors in Washington DC. The trio will be among five celebrities honored at the 8 December event - the 25th year of the black-tie gala. McCartney will be the first British musician added to the center's honors roster - previous musical honorees have been Chuck Berry, Stevie Wonder, B.B. King and Bob Dylan.

DR.SOTHA REVO & OUT