FILM AT NAF

The activist cinema of the provocative Peter Watkins will enjoy centre stage on the Main Film programme of the 2012 National Arts Festival, happening from June 28 to July 8 in Grahamstown.

The British-born director is known for involving audiences in a cognitive process of confronting the control of our lives by politicians, the church and the military; and the ongoing erosion of human rights and intrinsic freedoms of dissent and protest. He virtually invented the pseudo-documentary; sometimes with camera crews importantly part of the action; and the narrator, a voice both conspiratorial and as a witness. Having wandered the globe, making engaged, angry films, Watkins now lives in France. His son Patrick will represent his work at the Festival.

His films to be screened at the Festival include The Diary Of An Unknown Soldier (UK 1959) - Winner of the Amateur Oscar for Best Film; The Forgotten Faces (UK 1960); The War Game (UK 1965) – winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary; Culloden (UK 1964); Privilege (UK 1966); The Gladiators (Sweden 1968); Punishment Park (USA 1970); Edvard Munch (Norway 1973); Evening Land (Denmark 1976); The Freethinker (Sweden 1992) and La Commune (de Paris 1871) (France / Canada 1999).

The Film programme also has the privilege of screening two premières. The first is The Wicker Tree (UK 2011), by director Robin Hardy. Hardy’s The Wicker Man (UK 1973) is recognised as one of the 100 greatest British films of all time. Now 40 years later, Hardy returns with his next Pagan classic The Wicker Tree, based on his own book Cowboys for Christ. Hardy will be at the Festival to introduce the film, and to discuss both the new film and his previous work The Wicker Man, between their scheduled screenings. The second première is that of Monte Hellman’s Road To Nowhere (USA 2010), a film that explores the murky, tenuous balance between reality and fiction.

The programme’s 12 AMAZ!NG films this year features films from around the globe, including Kenya, China, Brazil, and all around Europe. Titles include Mike Cahill’s Another Earth (USA 2011), Wagner de Assis’s Astral City: A Spiritual Journey (Brazil 2010), Melancholia (Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany 2011) by director Lars von Trier, Justin Chadwick’s The First Grader (UK/Kenya 2010), I Melt With You (USA 2011) by Mark Pellington, Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene (USA 2011); Shame (USA 2011) by Steve McQueen, Snow Flower And The Secret Fan (China 2011) by Wayne Wang; The Source (France/Italy/Belgium 2011) by Radu Mihaileanu, The Tree Of Life (USA 2011) by Terrence Malick (with a cast that features Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain), and David Schwimmer’s Trust (USA 2010).

For those in search of cinema that is definitely out of the ordinary, there are quite a few options to choose from.

Rradinokga – Father Of Snakes (UK / South Africa 2011) by Immo Horn is a fascinating documentary that is a fitting companion piece to Lyall Watson’s acclaimed book on Boshier’s The Lightning Bird. Richard Stanley and filmmaker Nicole Schafer went off On The Trail Of Bowakazi (South Africa 2012). Julian Butler’s The Bowl (UK 2011) finds the oddest representatives of British madness. Aryan Kaganof’s Interactions: A Strategy of Difference and Repetition (South Africa 2012), features National Arts Festival director Ismail Mahomed, and Festival Committee member Malcolm Purkey, and is narrated by Mike van Graan.

Afrikaaps (South Africa 2011) breaks ground by attempting to reclaim Afrikaans as a language of liberation. Hip hop poet and performer Jitsvinger, jazz pianist Kyle Shepherd and singer and poet Blaq Pearl trace the origins of Afrikaans back to the 1600s, and follow it through to the present day in a musical, captured by the film. Then there is Between The Lines (South Africa 2011) by director Thishiwe Ziqubu, as well as Pumzi (Kenya/South Africa 2010) by Wanuri Kahiu, Kenya’s first sci-fi film.

The Terence Mckenna Omnibus 2012 (South Africa 2012) by Mike Kawitzky is a pre-release of a 12-part series for the National Arts Festival. It is a series of loosely structured lectures by Terence Mckenna; Ethnonotanist, inventor of Novelty Theory and one of the originators of the Mayan 2012 ethos, which took place at Rustlers Valley in South Africa in 1996.

The Film programme also turns its attention to Poland, providing a glimpse into the contemporary cinema of the country which has given us Polanski, Skolomowski, Borowczyk, Lenica and Zulawski. Titles to be screened include Carnage (France/Germany/Spain/Poland 2011) - Roman Polanski; The Dark House (Poland 2010) - Wojtka Smarzowskiego; 4 Nights With Anna (Poland 2009) - Jerzy Skolimowski; Mall Girls (Poland 2010) - Katarzyna Roslaniec; Snow White And Russian Red (Poland 2010) - Xawery Zulwaski; Venice (Poland 2010) - Jan Jakub Kolski and Zero (Poland 2010) - Pawel Borowski.

The excitement over new opportunities in South African cinema is mounting, and the Film programme will also showcase interesting films that have recently grown from home-soil. Titles from South Africa include Black Butterflies (Netherlands/South Africa 2011) - Paula van der Oest; Breathe Again (South Africa 2012) - Kurt Orderson; My Hunter’s Heart (South Africa 2011) - Craig & Damon Foster; The Last Lions (South Africa/Botswana 2011) - Dereck Joubert; Man On The Ground (South Africa 2011) - Akin Omotoso; Material (South Africa 2011) - Craig Freimond; Skeem (South Africa 2011) - Tim Greene; Snare (South Africa 2012) - Diony Kempen and 31 Million Reasons (South Africa 2012) - John Barker.

Think!Fest will also host various Film-related sessions in Seminar Room 1 of the Eden Grove Complex.

The prestigious Art Video Film Festival has taken place during the Cannes Film Festival since 2008. Directed by Christian Pouligo, the event once again took place in Cannes in May this year. As the first step in a relationship between the AVIFF (Art Video Film Festival) and the National Arts Festival Film Festival, the AVIFF will feature a three-hour programme of the 2012 Cannes programme at the National Arts Festival.

Other Think!Fest film discussions will include The Media Crisis, facilitated by Patrick Watkins, who has worked closely with his father Peter. He will present a mind-opening seminar based on Peter Watkins’ ideas. The session will be introduced by Mike van Graan, followed by a screening of a documentary on Peter Watkins, The Universal Clock. The production process of two mammoth films by Watkins will fall under the spotlight in two different Think!Fest sessions. In The Freethinker, Patrick Watkins will lead the audience through the process by which his father made a film on August Strindberg; and in La Commune, Patrick Watkins and Caroline Lensing-Hebben of Rebond pour la Commune - an organisation which grew out of the film’s production - will then also lead the audience through a screening of the film about the Paris Commune of 1871.

The experimental film festival, Letters From the Sky, took to the screens as part of the COPART Cultural Action in November 2011. The festival, curated by Cape Town based Kai Lossgott, showcased a series of 17 film messages from artists and filmmakers from all over the world. It will be presented on the Think!Fest programme.

The Film programme of the National Arts Festival is curated by Trevor Steele Taylor, with Janadien Cupido as technical advisor. The films will be screened primarily at the Olive Schreiner Hall in the 1820 Settler’s Monument. In-depth descriptions of all the films are available on the National Arts Festival website: www.nationartsfestival.co.za.

Bookings for this year’s “11 Days of Amaz!ng” through Computicket. Booking kits are available from selected Standard Bank branches, selected Exclusive Books and Computicket branches. For more information on the programme, accommodation and travel options visit www.nationalartsfestival.co.za. Also join the National Arts Festival group on Facebook for all the latest news, or follow us on Twitter @artsfestival.

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