NO BOUNDARIES FOR NAF FILM

Richard Stanley is this year’s National Arts Festival Film Festival guest. South Africa’s itinerant cult filmmaker in a long black coat comes home with a whole lot of stories to tell. The Film programme includes two of his feature films Hardware (UK 1990) and Dust Devil (UK/South Africa/Namibia 1992), a few of his documentaries (Voice of the Moon (UK 1990), The White Darkness (UK 2001) and The Secret Glory (UK 2001), a series of his short films Black Tulips (UK 2004), Children of The Kingdom (UK/Germany 2002), The Sea of Perdition (UK 2006) and The Mother of Toads (USA/France 2011), as well as a film in which he acted – That Deadwood Feeling (UK 2009). Stanley will also deliver a series of talks on his films as part of the Think!Fest programme.

Stanley attended the Cape Town Film School where he had legendary disagreements with his supervisors over the cutting of his graduation film Rites of Passage. This experience of interference from producers bothered him for the rest of his career. He went to London where he made rock videos for the groups Fields of the Nephilim, Marillion and Public Image Ltd before shooting his first film Hardware in sets built in London’s Roundhouse. The film was a box-office success which gave him the kudos to get funding for Dust Devil, shot in Namibia on the brink of independence.

His next feature film was the ill-fated The Island of Dr Moreau, a big budget film, plagued by bad weather and producer interference. Despite having the support of the film’s star, Marlon Brando, Stanley was replaced by Hollywood veteran John Frankenheimer. In a story as strange as some of his plots, he returned to the set as an extra in an animal mask and nobody noticed he was there. A long-term interest of Stanley’s has been the search for the Holy Grail and the Cathar genocide which took place in the Languedoc. He now lives in Montsegur, at the foot of the holy mountain on which stands the Cathar fortress of Montsegur itself. He has just published a book called The Shadow of the Grail – Magic and Mystery at Montsegur.

More South African film talent is celebrated with a selection of local films. The Bull on the Roof (South Africa/Austria 2010) is directed by Jyoti Mistry, with a cast that includes William Kentridge, David Goldblatt, Mandla Langa and Suketu Mehta. Jakhalsdans (South Africa 2009) is adapted from the novel by Deon Meyer, directed by Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for film (1991) Darrell James Roodt, starring Theuns Jordaan, Elizma Theron, Christina Storm and Neil Sandilands. Based on Allan Stratton’s bestselling novel Chanda’s Secret, Life, Above All (South Africa/Germany 2010) is a drama about a bright, hardworking young girl (Khomotso Manyaka) who fights the fear and prejudice that is poisoning her community, directed by Oliver Schmitz.

A reconstruction of the classic film Metropolis will be screened as a double bill with Ghost Dance. Mud in the Fridge (South Africa 2010) is the latest psychedelic safari into the stranger areas of the African experience by Anton Kotze. 2010 Standard Bank Young Artist Award-winner for film Claire Angelique, returns with her independently produced Palace of Bone (South Africa 2010), a euphemism for the back streets, backrooms and backdoors of the City of Durban. Other SA films on the programme include Paradise Stop (South Africa 2010), directed by Jann Turner, Sons of the Sand – The Strini Moodley Interview (South Africa 2010) directed by Savo Tufegdzic, and the hit-movie Spud (South Africa 2010), directed by Donovan Marsh.

A short film quartet by Maya Deren – At Land (USA 1944), Meshes of the Afternoon (USA 1943), Ritual in Transfigured Time (USA 1946) and The Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (USA 1958)) are part of a programme that highlights the celebration of the creative power of women. Other titles that will be screened as part of the programme include Woman as a Flower (France 1975), Right Out of History: The Making of Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party (USA 1980), Plaster Caster (USA 2001), Janine (USA 2010), I am Curious Yellow (Sweden 1967), Merry Go Round (France 1978), Edna the Inebriate Woman (UK 1971) and Legend Of The Witches (UK 1969). The programme is dedicated to the two actresses Maria Schneider (Last Tango in Paris) and Lena Nyman (I am Curious Yellow) who died within days of each other in February this year.

10 AMAZ!NG is a selection of ten new films for those who believe that ‘they don’t make movies anymore’. Titles include Black Swan (USA 2010), The Insatiable Moon (New Zealand 2010), The White Ribbon (Germany/Austria/France/Italy 2009), Wild Grass (France/Italy 2009) and A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop (China 2009).

A cross-cultural equation programme will include the screening of Coco & Igor (France/Japan/Switzerland 2010), Eyes Wide Open (Israel/France/Germany 2009), Four Lions (UK 2010), Of Gods and Men (France 2010) and Quick Gun Murugun (India 2009).

Stig Larsson, who died in 2004, was an expert on the rise of the new right wing in Sweden, and his criticisms led to countless death threats. His books, far above being average thrillers, are deep-rooted social and political critiques, fuelled by a hatred of fascist ideologies. At the age of 15, he witnessed a rape and was helpless to stop it. The event haunted him for the rest of his life. The girl who was raped was called Lisbeth, the name of the main character in his Millennium Trilogy novels. The programme will screen films based on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets ’ Nest, all three 2009 Sweden/Denmark/Germany/Norway collaborations.

THINK!FEST will host a series of Frantz Fanon films. The films will be preceded by a brief introduction from a participant in the colloquium Fanon: 50 Years Later, hosted by the ‘Thinking Africa’ programme of the Department of Political and International Studies at Rhodes University. VY Mudimbe will present the keynote lecture for the colloquium on July 6 at 17h00 in the Blue Lecture Theatre, Eden Grove. Titles that will be screened include The Battle of Algiers (Italy /Algeria 1965) directed by Gillo Pontecorvo, Driving with Fanon (South Africa 2009) by director Steve Kwena Mokwena and Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work (France/Algeria 1998) by director Cheikh Djemai.

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