The Red Place shows some colours of forgiveness

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…)

Mother to Mother as a film

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…)

Sakawa and the internet scammers

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…)

Looking at the Brown Skinned Girl

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…)

Sakawa – the business of con

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…)

Desai and Kaplan’s guide to Stealing A Country

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…)