Joburg Film Festival to create platforms for engagement with industry leaders

The second annual Joburg Film Festival will screen a large variety of top South African, African and international films in addition to various dialogues with key industry leaders and stakeholders.

The festival runs from November 9 to 18 and the full schedule will be available on the Joburg Film Festival website.

“Some of the continent’s best filmmakers, local and international movie actors, directors, producers and other entertainment industry leaders will descend on Joburg next month. The various groups of industry players will engage with one another and South African audiences in a dialogue around SA’s burgeoning cinema,” said Tutone Communications’ public relations officer Melanie Gia Ramjee.

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The Joburg Film Festival curator, Mozambican filmmaker Pedro Pimenta, who is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of the United States responsible for the Oscar awards, together with his team, selected 40 African and internationally curated releases from various countries.

Pimenta said he is happy to bring an exceptionally curated selection of 40 films from Africa and the diaspora as well as the world to the Joburg Film Festival this year.

“Each film reflects a part of the kaleidoscope that is African and diasporic cinema in conversation with films from Europe, America, Latin America and the Middle East.

“The documentary, fiction and animation films to be showcased at the festival share in their curational vision the need to connect with audiences. It is very concerning to realise that a vibrant industry like the one in South Africa is suffering from a disconnection with its vast audience.

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“The Joburg Film Festival at its small scale aims to address this imbalance as we believe the ultimate ‘raison d’être’ of films is to reach and impact audiences,” he said.

The films being screened will include the premieres of the documentary Dying for Gold by Catherine Meyburgh and Richard Pakleppa, Matwetwe by Kagiso Lediga as well as animation features like Funan and Frutitoons, a 90-minute animation package.

“The film festival will also be showing the controversial Kenyan love story Rafiki which has recently caused a major furore in its home country. The movie made history in May this year as the first Kenyan movie to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival,” said Ramjee.

Also confirmed for the programme is the highly publicised documentary Everything Must Fall by Rehad Desai and Anita Khanna which casts an unflinching eye on the Fees Must Fall movement in SA taking us into its very core.

“The acclaimed experimental film M by Finnish filmmaker Anna Erickson reflects on shifting gender power relations,” said Ramjee.

Festival director Angie Mills said the festival is an opportunity for South African audiences to reclaim African cinema as well as the cinema of the world.

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“The Joburg Film Festival proudly offers audiences films that they would not otherwise have the occasion to see. The films chosen for this year’s festival speak to the central and unforgettable role cinema plays in our lives, of telling compelling stories that connect us as people to one another,” said Mills.

In addition to the screenings at The Zone, Rosebank Cinema Nouveau and Ster Kinekor Maponya Mall, there will be screenings at the Kings Theatre in Alexandra.

The festival is open to the public with various films to cater for filmgoers of different ages, genders and cultures.

The full festival schedule will be announced on the www.joburgfilmfestival.co.za website soon.