Well Geeks its Friday once again, and I (Father Geek) am here one more time to introduce you to Dr. SOTHA, Rigobert Song, and Head Nurse Hollis as they present yet another edition of the Africa-AICN column for your weekend reading pleasure...

DR.SOTHA here with a word on the new Leucotomy procedure (a type of brain operation) allegedly mastered by my good friend (see arch enemy) Dr. Shelly Santiago. It seems that she has invented a braincoinial machine that straps onto the cranial membrane and mainlines through unidentified pores in the tress. Like that actually exists Shelly.

I mean I could just as well announce that I have invented a new centrifugal contraption that combats mumps, but I'm not that shallow. Why don't you get over yourself Miss Santiago.

If you'd like to challenge Santiago's ludicrous findings e-mail me and we'll bring you in to our New Experimental Lab to confront her face to face...

Ms. Hollis, this is war not a lover's fued, Geez.

SOUTH AFRICA

* This year, SASWA (South African Scriptwriters Association) has combined with Sithengi to offer regional pitching workshops to prepare writers and producers with projects to sell, to develop and fine-tune their pitching skills for the Sithengi 2001 Co-Production Forum. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to pitch to a panel of regional experts and get invaluable feedback. Participants must have a well-developed proposal or a completed script. The regional panel of experts is looking for projects to partner. Please note that 1 September is the final entry date for the Sithengi International Co-Production Forum. Sithengi has secured international funds to provide three awards for the further development of the best pitches, which may include taking them to other markets such as Goteborg or Rotterdam.

Workshop Course Details (Johannesburg): Venue: NFVF Offices, Aida House, 40 Central Avenue, Illovo. Dates: 29 July, 12 August, 2 September (Sundays) Speakers include Howard Thomas, Gina Bonmariage and Brent Quinn. To Book: email saswa@global.co.za

* Several productions from Endemol Productions South Africa were honoured at the recent NTVA Avanti Awards. Big City won Best Magazine Programme, Best Presenter, Best Concept and Script. In the Soap Opera category, SABC3's Isidingo, walked away with three of the top awards, namely Best Production, Best Scripting (a joint award with 7de Laan) and Best Supporting Actor Award, awarded to Grant Swanby.

* What a riot that South African Box Office is: The animated feature, Shrek, continues to hold its number one spot at the South African box office despite strong competition from the sci-fi spoof Evolution (Can the real Ivan Reitman please stand up - DR.SOTHA). Shrek has amassed R10 845 899 (about the price of a tootsie role in North America - DR.SOTHA) in its four weeks of release. Evolution, which took R1 736 271 in its first week, is followed by Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Spy Kids and Driven.

NORTH AFRICA

* The Sheikh of Cairo's Al-Azhar University has apparently negated a fatwa (religious edict) barring Arab Muslims from watching the Egyptian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The fatwa had been issued by Egypt's Grand Mufti, who claimed that the show was a form of gambling and therefore "forbidden by Islamic law." However, a statement from a committee of the Al-Azhar commented: "These competitions address a series of useful religious, historical, cultural and scientific questions and their goal is to spread knowledge among the public."

* Another insightful review by Rigobert Song:

I can envision the controversy the following film had upon its release/prime time debut. Imagine comparing two races who have both gone through lifetime's of oppression, and trying to decide who had it worse. You see that is how a narrow minded filmgoer would have interpreted 'Black & Jews' but beneath the surface is a need to unite and reconcile the unwanted stereotypes that have ravaged these two nations.

Remember to e-mail me at My Private Soccer Field with all your African film comments.

BLACKS & JEWS - Produced by Alan Snitow, Deborah Kaufman and Bari Scott -Directed by Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman -- 85 minutes

The faultline between Blacks and Jews is one of the most visible symbols of America's racial divide. Now a new film, made collaboratively by Jewish and Black filmmakers, goes behind the headlines and the rhetoric to try to heal the misunderstanding and mistrust.

Blacks and Jews was acclaimed at the Sundance Film Festival as initiating a frank yet constructive nationwide dialogue between these two traditional allies.

During the Civil Rights movement Blacks and Jews fought together for equal rights. With the waning of that movement, differences in economic status caused both groups to turn inward. Positions hardened around such divisive issues as affirmative action in the schools, Louis Farrakhan's anti-semitism, even Jewish influence in Hollywood. Blacks and Jews cuts through the sensationalized media coverage and the stereotypes to reexamine key conflicts from the point of view of activists on both sides. The Crown Heights riots dramatized the distrust between Blacks and Jews. But we meet a black man who saved a Hassid's life and a Jewish youth leader who brings the youth of both communities together. During the 1960s, "blockbusting" in Chicago pitted Jewish owners against black homebuyers. A rabbi recounts how he took on real estate speculators and racism in the Jewish community as a leader of an interethnic coalition. A former Black Muslim leader explains the attraction of the Nation of Islam to many African Americans and why he finally left the movement. When a group of black teens in Oakland laughed during Schindlers List, it launched a feeding frenzy among the press and a political circus for demagogues on both sides. Students and teachers tell what really happened and how they took steps to increase understanding of both the Holocaust and slavery.

Scholars and critics like Gary Rubin, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Michael Lerner, Salim Muwakkil, Cornel West and Clayborne Carson place these stories in context and explain how attitudes have hardened as a result of competition over a stagnant economic pie, a shared psychology of victimization and exploitative media coverage.

Blacks and Jews offers no Panglossian assurances of easy racial harmony. But screenings of this film can cut through the anger and emotion on both sides demonstrating that dialogue and cooperation can only be based in a serious effort to understand and value the experience of others. Synagogues and churches, campus ministries and student advisors, community organizers and anti-racism activists, will all find Blacks & Jews an invaluable new tool for increasing mutual understanding and building coalitions for social justice, not just between Blacks and Jews, but between all ethnic groups.

Don't believe me:

"Provocative and absorbing... Blacks and Jews will undermine stereotypes, inspire discussion, and help repair a wrongly damaged relationship." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

"Wonderfully entertaining - and illuminating...This important film has immediate implications for the way the two groups perceive and interact with each other...and should be embraced by Jewish and black organizations." - Emanuel Levy, Variety

AFRICAN AMERICAN

* Samuel L. Jackson's fears about donning a kilt in his new film were allayed by seeing Ewan McGregor sporting one at a premiere. Jackson had never had to "cross-dress" in a movie before signing up for British movie The 51st State - and initially wasn't too happy about embarking on the new experience. But he changed his mind after seeing how good native Scots men Sean Connery and Ewan McGregor looked in the skirt garment. Jackson's co-star in the new flick, Robert Carlyle, also helped reassure the nervous star that he looked cool togged up as his character, kilt-wearing, golf-obsessed chemist Elmo McElroy. Jackson says, "I have never had to cross-dress in any way so it was a whole new phenomena for me. To tell the truth, I wasn't at all happy about the idea until I saw Ewan McGregor in one at the Star Wars premiere. Then I saw Sean Connery looking proud in his. I thought 'If this man can look good in a skirt, then anyone can!'. Robert Carlyle, who's also a real Scot, told me I looked 'cool'." The action comedy, which follows the fortunes of McElroy as he sells the rights to the ultimate party drug, POS-51, is due to be released later this year.

* Halle Berry insists she wasn't paid extra to appear topless in Swordfish. The actress stars alongside John Travolta and Hugh Jackman in the blockbuster, and was reportedly paid an extra $500,000 to bare her breasts. But Halle says she received no extra money for the saucy scene. She says, "It was the most embarrassing moment of my life. I'd never done nudity in my whole career. I wasn't paid an extra $500,000 to do it. That's totally not true. It's made for great publicity for the movie, so I laugh about it." (It's great to see an actress taking the material seriously - DR.SOTHA)

* Here's one for Spike Lee: The Screen Actors Guild is looking into complaints that the producers of Planet of the Apes and their stunt coordinator violated affirmative action contract rules requiring them to "cast qualified [stunt] persons of the same sex and/or race as the actors for whom they are doubling," the online Inside magazine reported. The magazine cited internal SAG documents claiming that white stuntmen regularly doubled for Michael Clarke Duncan, a black actor portraying a gorilla and that several men doubled for Helena Bonham Carter, who plays a chimpanzee. But stunt coordinator Charlie Croughwell told Inside that his decisions were based solely on concern for safety. "When you use the wrong person for something and somebody gets killed, then you are violating something," he said. Nevertheless an unnamed black stuntman told the online magazine: "They made a minimal effort to comply with SAG rules."

* Some coaxial news. Eriq La Salle has told ER producer John Wells that he would like to concentrate on his career as a film director and leave the series after next season, TV Guide is reporting on its website. "He wants to continue directing, and acting in a series and directing at the same time is tough," Wells told the publication. "Those two ambitions don't go together, and that's been the difficulty in the negotiations." Nevertheless, Wells indicated that he hopes to be able to "work something out" with La Salle. However, the producer indicated that it is unlikely that he'll be able to persuade Anthony Edwards to return. "He has been very definite with me over the last year that he's ready to move on," Wells said.

* With "The Country Bears" still a year away from release, Disney has hired "Bears" scribe Paul Rugg to write a sequel. The first "Bears" movie, inspired by the Country Bear Jamboree park attraction at Disneyland, is in postproduction and slated for a summer 2002 release. It features Christopher Walken and the voices of Haley Joel Osment and CHARLES DUTTON, along with sophisticated puppets from the Henson Creature Shop. Disney vp production Brigham Taylor, who is overseeing the project with production head Nina Jacobson for the studio, said the impetus to turn "Bears" into a potential franchise grew out of "excitement at the studio" over the progress of the first film.

* Although members of the black creative community are upset over the lack of opportunity to produce new programming for the black-oriented BET cable channel, executives of the channel maintain that their past efforts in that direction have failed to pay off. "We will be doing more creative programming down the line, but it doesn't make sense for us financially," BET President and COO Debra Lee told the Los Angeles Times. The channel, which devotes most of its programming to hip-hop videos, has acknowledged that it has also abandoned production on made-for-BET movies because it could not identify a market for them after they aired. But writer-producer Tina Andrews (Sally Hemings: An American Scandal) told the Times that the company's policies are unfortunate. "You want to have a place to ply your trade and know that you'll be treated fairly," Andrews said. "But for now, BET does not seem to be the place."

DR.SOTHA REVO & OUT