Production by Khethiwe Shobede
Lockdown Sports looks at a young South African woman, Yolanda Jiyane who brings kids from her neighbourhood and teaches them volleyball. In the Corona virus lockdown this is more than just teaching them about the sport, but also taking them away from toxic and crowded environments.
Production by Luvo Mnyobe
A Rhodes University journalism student question’s whether President Cyril Ramaphosa is the man to clean up the ANC’s troubled image with corruption.
The feature news story deals with allegations of corruption against Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Khusela Diko’s husband, and then discusses the history of the ANC’s corruption and its defense of leaders alleged to be corrupt under the Zuma era.
Production by Khaka Ngcofe
Masincedane Cynthia’s Soup kitchen is managed by Thabisa Bhelwana. With her huge heart and through donations, Thabisa wakes up to cook a hearty meal for her neighbours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. After seeing that many homes struggle to put a meal on the table as they rely on social grants and many have lost their jobs due to the covid-19 pandemic. Children who relied on the feeding scheme at school are not getting that as schools are closed.
Production by Khaka Ngcofe
A woman in Makhanda Grahamstown decided to start a soup kitchen with the help of Makana Revive when she saw how covid-19 affected her community. Yandiswa Madinda dedicates Tuesdays and Thursdays to providing a meal to her community. As long lines of hungry people line up and the food sometimes runs out she always makes a plan and is hoping she gets more donations…
RUTV4 reviews Encounters Film Festival. So many docs to see for free
Fresh Encounters below
So no, Makhanda is not Wakhanda, people, we’re the hometown of Rhodes University and the School of Journalism and Media Studies where we are all studying TV. For us, it’s brilliant that Encounters Film Festival is online this year. In past years we could never see the film festival out there in Cape Town, Joburg and the bigger smokes.
Now you can watch the Encounters Film Festival 2020 anywhere you are… whether you’re in iBayi, in Alice, eMonti or out in Polokwane, Bloemfontein, Jozi etc – Shoutout to all the Journalism and Media students out there! And if you want to know about documentary film, and what to watch at the Encounters Film Festival this year, we’re here to guide you, cos we actually produce and study this stuff.
So deal with your #FOMO and book a doccie to watch! (more…)
Clair O’Reilly experiences For Sama – at the virtual Encounters Film Festival 2020.
The documentary from Syria is pipped for a documentary Oscar and provides a rare account of the female experience of war. Taking the form of a love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of journalist Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo.
Temba Mkosi takes a roller coaster ride to the future
A rise of pessimism in South Africa is a worrying factor as social and economic inequality widens due to the current state of the nation and its complex history. Good Hope is a documentary for those who still believe in a positive future for South Africa. Director Anthony Fabian explores the complex state of the country and takes the viewer through scenarios of pessimism, solutions and optimism for the future. (more…)
A zoom review for two that opens a lot of conversation after watching a documentary about earlier times and Cyril Ramaphosa and the mines. From Underground to the Corridors of Power.
Have a look and listen at a new review style.
Production by Catherine White
Ongezwa Shosha goes on a journey searching for identity
It is said that through knowing where you come from, your history, roots, language and values, comes your identity. But what happens when a home you’ve been calling a home your whole life is not your home? Ikhaya or Casa (home) centers around redefining what a home and sense of belonging is. It starts off by asking questions: “Where do I belong? What do I call home? Is it the language I speak? Is it where I am accepted? Is it where I was raised? Or is it where I was born?”. These are some questions asked by 19 year old Eliana Nkembo, a young woman born to immigrant parents in a foreign country when talking about her identity.
The documentary shows that many factors including documentation and citizenship may hinder one’s chances of belonging and feeling accepted. Eliana Nkembo, was raised in South Africa when her parents moved from Angola and Congo. She finds herself in a position where she has no place to rightfully call home. (more…)
Catherine White is moved by a documentary exploring vulnerability
Forgive and forget? That is not easy but sometimes it can be an extremely powerful process. The Red Place is about – as the tagline puts it in a very poetic way- the colours of forgiveness. It’s an incredibly profound and relevant topic, particularly for South Africans. We are taken along a journey as director and scritwriter Muofe Raphunga speaks to various people who share their stories and their thoughts on forgiveness. Her interview with Albie Sachs, a former constitutional judge and anti-apartheid activist, was particulalry inspiring. (more…)
Khethiwe Shobede sees a film looking at questions of violence
No one can ever understand the depth of a mother’s love. Through thick and thin, troubles and pain, trials and tribulations, it never fades. A mother’s prayer is for her children to live a life they can all be proud of and a mother’s nightmare is for her children, in this case her son, being convicted for the murder of a young woman. The murder of Amy Biehl occurred in the pre-election violence of 1994. Mother to Mother, based in Gugulethu, Cape Town and directed by Sara Christina Ferreira de Gouveia, is based a one-woman play staged by Thembi Mtshali which explores the challenges of being the mother of the infamous murderer of Amy Biehl. (more…)
Michael Taylor reviews a film on cyber-cons in Ghana
Sakawa is an interesting, though ultimately underwhelming documentary film. It foregoes the traditional interviews and pieces to camera that one might expect from a documentary, instead focusing on an observational style of storytelling. We follow a group of young Ghanaian men and women as they attempt to make a living by scamming European and Americans through dating sites, phone calls and more. Lacking any narration, the question of whether the activities of these men and women is justified is left up to the viewer, which I do believe was the right decision on director Ben Asamoah’s part. The film shows the poverty of the area that these individuals have grown up in, and how they long for a better life. It also shows how exploitative some people can be towards those in less privileged positions. By the same token, the film never tries to pretend that what these people are doing isn’t unethical. We see these individuals combing through their target’s family photos, home addresses and other personal information with little concern as the con and coax them out of hundreds of dollars at a time. The film is quite explicit and does not shy away from the adult language and themes that one might expect from this kind of online activity. (more…)
Ongezwa Shosha reviews a doc that resonates
Who is deemed beautiful? What features should they have? The complex concept of skin colour as a beauty standard is much questioned yet still very dominant as a determiner of what is beautiful. With integration of brown skinned women in Hollywood movies and media, the concept of skin complexion is challenged as a normative standard of beauty.
In Brown Skinned Girl director Mona-Lisa Msime together with Monde Kawana and Constance Chiwaula share their stories of growing up with dark skin. With society’s perception of beauty as being fair skinned, they found themselves battling with low self esteem, often being called racist names and never fitting the accepted category of beautiful. (more…)
Khaka Ngcofe finds the story behind the scam gap
It is no secret that there’s an economic gap between third world and first world countries, especially between white and black people. Many African people resort to illegal methods including swindling money from wealthy white people as a method of survival because of their impoverished conditions.
Sakawa, meaning illegal practices in Ghanaian terms. Sakawa is a Ghanaian word for internet fraud schemes that are often combined with religious rituals. Directed by Belgian-Ghanaian Ben Asamoah, follows the lives of young men and women who resort to internet fraud as a means of survival. Asamoah takes ‘a fly on the wall’ observational everything to unfold and for us to formulate our own conclusions. (more…)
Luvo Mnyobe lowlights a highlight
In just under 90 minutes Mark J Kaplan and Rehad Desai, director of some of the most prolific contemporary documentaries including Everything Must Fall (2018), exploring the Fees Must Fall movement in 2015 and 2016, and Miners Shot Down (2014), on the Marikana Massacre, explores the cronyism in the state with captivating suspense and detail.
In the film How to Steal A Country, he tells the gripping story of how President Jacob Zuma surrendered his executive duties to the Gupta brothers allowing them to control procurement of tenders at State Owned Entities such as Eskom and Transnet that are the bedrock of South Africa’s economy. (more…)