(Junaid Ahmed)
The family and friends of the award-wining Durban film-maker
Junaid Ahmed who passed away on November 1 this year, extend a warm invitation
to all who knew him to join them in a celebration of his life at the Suncoast
Cinecentre on December 14 at 7pm.
Born in Durban in 1959, Junaid went to Southlands High
School and graduated from the University of Durban Westville in the 1980’s with
BA (Honours) degree in Drama.
His passion was always in the creative industries and he had
a varied and prolific career in the arts. He produced, workshopped, acted in
and directed many theatre productions at various community venues including the
Asoka Theatre, the Market Theatre and at the National Arts Festival. He also
wrote and directed the acclaimed musical, Bombay
Crush, which starred well-known South African actress Kajal Bagwandeen.
A former board member of the National Interim Film Fund
Board (now the National Film and Video Foundation), the international award-winning
director and producer also had a string of successful film projects to his
name. His short film highlights include directing The Vow for Miramax and Channel 4 Films. He also produced the short
film Lucky, which was screened at
over 80 international festivals in 2006 and was nominated for the 2006 British
Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Best Short film award, and it won
Best Short Film at over 40 international film festivals.
He directed the feature film More Than Just A Game for which Sony Pictures International (SPI)
acquired the international distribution rights and was broadcast in over 40
countries. Together with Helena Spring, Junaid was, at the time of his death,
producing a slate of nine films supported by the NFVF. The first of these - Hard To Get opened the 2014 Durban
International Film Festival, and was released in cinemas later that year. Then
in February this year their co-produced film Happiness is a Four Letter
Word (with Khanyi Mbau, Renate Stuurman and Mmabatho Montsho in lead roles)
was the best performing film of all new releases, in South Africa on its
opening weekend. They were currently working on their next film Keeping up with the Kandasamys directed
by Durban’s Jayan Moodley, which is in post-production.
Prior to his filmmaking career, he spent ten years as the secretary
general of the Congress of South African Writers (COSAW) for some time, he edited
poetry anthologies and his articles on arts and culture related issues were
published in a number of international publications.
Ahmed is survived by his wife Liza, sons Tariq and Jarred
and daughter Taegen.
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