(Durban filmmaker
Michael Cross: ”Jiving and Dying”)
Durban filmmaker
returns to Durban International Film Festival with Radio Rats documentary
Jiving and Dying - The
Radio Rats Story sees Durban filmmaker Michael Cross return to the Durban
International Film Festival (DIFF) (June 16 to 26) with a documentary about a
band he argues are so much more than one-hit wonders.
Almost forty years ago, in late-1970s South Africa, there
was a song on the radio about a spaceman called ZX Dan. It was by a noisy
little band from Springs, near Johannesburg. That song and hundreds more
songwriter Jonathan Handley has penned since then remain an important, if
sometimes overlooked, part of South Africa’s musical landscape.
According to director Cross, this film, 25 years in the
making, introduces the music of the Rats and the words of Jonathan Handley “in
an attempt to afford them the place they deserve in the history of independent
rock ’n’ roll in South Africa.”
The film reveals how Radio Rats were to influence one fellow
resident of Springs, James Phillips (aka Bernoldus Niemand) to form a band and
to write songs. It was Phillips who went on to initiate the alternative
Afrikaans music scene of the mid-80s, the Voëlvry “movement” and, indirectly
perhaps, the Oppikoppi music festival where a stage still bears his name.
Jiving and Dying
also shows Rats songwriter Jonathan Handley continues to record and archive
music relentlessly. His sharply-observed characters form the basis for most of
his songs and he's funny, he's witty and he's dedicated. He's disarmingly
self-deprecating too. The filmmaker maintains Handley remains one of the unsung
heroes of South African music.
Durban-based, Cross has attended DIFF since he was a
teenager in the late-1970’s and has always been struck by the selection of
music-documentaries featured over the years. Jiving and Dying is his third
music-documentary selected for the Durban International Film Festival. Bafo Bafo - What Kind?! profiling the
collaboration between guitarists Syd Kitchen and Madala Kunene, premiered in
2005 and Rockstardom - The Journey of a
Small-Town Songwriter screened in 2012 following its premiere at the
Encounters South African International Documentary Film Festival. He has
produced more than 50 music videos with artists including Ladysmith Black
Mambazo and Busi Mhlongo.
This 37th edition of DIFF features several music-related
films with Jiving and Dying joined
by: Songs of Lahore, Breaking a Monster, I Shot Bi Kidude and Shwabade.
Jiving and Dying
will premiere on June 24 2016 at 20h00 at Ster-Kinekor Musgrave 5 and an
additional screening will take place on Sunday, June 26 at 11h00, also at
Ster-Kinekor Musgrave.
For more information about Jiving and Dying e-mail rogueproductions@mweb.co.za
and for more information about DIFF go to www.durbanfilmfest.co.za
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