DIFF spotlights 20 years of democracy
The 35th Durban International Film Festival offers a feast of local and international cinematic pleasures.
The Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) returns for its 35th year this year to celebrate the wonder and diversity of global and local cinema.
From 17 to 27 July, Durban will bask in the glow of the silver screen, with over 250 screenings in 9 venues across the city.
A smorgasbord of the best of contemporary world cinema includes 69 feature films, 60 documentaries, 57 short films and 19 surf film.
The festival also offers a comprehensive workshop and seminar programme that facilitates the sharing of knowledge and skills with emerging filmmakers by film industry experts.
This year’s diverse line-up includes a key focus on 20 years of freedom and democracy in South Africa, a snapshot of contemporary British film and a selection of thrilling surf films in the Wavescape Film Festival.
With South Africans celebrating 20 years of democracy, this year’s programme includes a generous spread of documentaries, both from home and abroad, which celebrate, explore and interrogate the progress South Africa has made as a country over the last two decades.
The 20 Years of Freedom and Democracy programme features an expanded South African documentary programme in response to the large number of high quality doccies currently being produced in the country.
The result is a rich and diverse slate of films, including Khalo Matabane’s Nelson Mandela: The Myth and Me and Miners Shot Down, Rehad Desai’s devastating account of Marikana.
They are joined by many other films that chronicle lesser known but no less significant stories behind the end of apartheid and the rebirth of South Africa into a new country.
This year also sees the return of Durban Wild Talk Africa, which selects the best environmentally-themed films from around the world, as well as the second edition of ‘The Films That Made Me’, in which an acclaimed director introduces five films that have been important to his or her growth as a filmmaker.
The festival hub, which houses both screenings and industry events, will now be located at the new, lavishly renovated Tsogo Sun Elangeni hotel on Durban beachfront’s Golden Mile.
To find out more about this year’s DIFF programme, visit www.durbanfilmfest.co.za
