AFDA (The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance) has

‘produced some of the top film-makers and actors in South Africa today and has made a significant contribution to developing a sustainable local entertainment industry’.

But, back to the young ‘seeds’… We were really impressed with the television and film productions that were honoured, but have decided to share with you the cream of the crop! The winning third year film production was Happy Earth Co! Sit back, relax, and enjoy their 12-minute masterpiece!

Credit where credit is due:
Happy Earth Co won Best Third Year Film Award and the Critics Award, as well as:
Best Screenplay: Hylton Jandrell
Best director: Hylton Jandrell
Best Sound Designer: Joseph Vink
Best Cinematographer: Jake Levy
Best Producer: Henrik Waage Tjore

Speaking from our 9 years of experience in the industry – we offer this advice:

‘Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds’. Gordon B. Hinckley

Take a look at some of the other productions here… You can thank us later for introducing these future entertainment industry leaders to you!

For every second of airtime, a Super Bowl advertisement costs about $100,000. Buckley has directed more than 40 and upholds a reputation of incorporating excellence, humour and relevance in all his projects. That same level of dedication translates to Buckley’s success with short films including No Autographs and the recently Academy Award nominated ASAD. Buckley talks with one small seed about what ASAD means to him personally, professionally and how he hopes the film will continue to make an impact long after the red carpet.

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The people of Somalia have been through such unthinkable hardships.

What little the world knows about the country is through a very narrow lens of news clips from the BBC and CNN about pirates and warlords. They are painted as caricatures. What they are missing is the beautiful spirit and humanity there.

I believe if you understand people’s spirit better, positive change in their human condition undoubtedly will ensue.

heegantimes

We met on a job in Brazil when the producer I was working with became ill. Mino stepped in, and we never looked back.

hungryman

Spend a few days working in South Africa, and it doesn’t take long to realize the country is an open book with unlimited ceiling for success. There is a real pride there, and rawness. It’s the kind of environment I gravitate to work in.

fromthefrontrow

In the press release you say: ‘This educational experiment has caught the eye of the South African government and the United Nations.’ Could you please tell me how… ? The importance of education is something our government needs to be brutally honest about — too many schools lack in the primary resources (books, computers, teachers, clean toilets and so on). Is there a way for the public to get involved and perhaps help serve as a catalyst for change?

Our first screening of ASAD in Cape Town brought members from both SA’s leading political parties. We were able to tell our story to them. And informed them how Harun and Ali, who had never been to school and were thus illiterate, were able to excel once given an opportunity to attend lessons and reached a fourth and third grade learning level in nine months. Absolutely remarkable.

My hope is that with the momentum of the film’s success we can expand upon the system we have set up. And bring more children into the school who would have otherwise gone uneducated.

This will require funding for sure. And we will turn to the private sector to provide this. Ultimately, these children will grow into the educated leaders of their community. And they will fight to build schools for the next generation. And slowly change will follow.

wikivillage

All actors in the film are Somali refugees I believe. What was the process of finding these actors who gave such an authentic, raw and brilliant performance?

We were determined to use all Somalis in our cast. We reached out to a community of Somalis in Bellville, South Africa. We did an open casting call. We then laid down people on tape, not asking them to do lines, but rather to improve certain scenes from the film. We knew they weren’t going to be actors. We were only looking for their raw acting skills. We had a series of callbacks in Cape Town where we began to whittle down to the people we thought were the best for the job. And then began to train them on their lines.

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The two leads in ASAD are Somali brothers Harun and Ali Mohammed. What are the chances of them joining you at the Oscars on 24 February?

As of now, the UNHCR has been working tirelessly to get the necessary documents together to allow the boys and their father to travel. It’s hard to predict if they will be successful since we are in somewhat uncharted territory. I really hope it works out.

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fanka.hablaha

I am not a real fan of children pursuing acting careers at such young ages. I think it’s more productive now that they continue to get their education. There will be plenty of time for them to be on the screen. And the raw talents they have will only be enhanced with knowledge.

fromthefrontrow

What mindset did you adopt for this short film that maybe differed from previous projects?

We were in total control of the project since we were funding the whole thing. So there wasn’t any looking over our shoulder to see what an agency or client thought. It was us looking at each other saying, ‘Did we nail it?’

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After receiving numerous awards including Best Narrative Short and one of The Five Hottest Short Films of the Summer on the festival circuit and being Oscar nominated, what are your hopes for this film?

Creating a greater understanding of the people of Somalia is the most important to me. And the appreciation for immense talent that lays untapped with not just Somali refugees but all refugees around the world.

facebook/ASADfilm2012

It’s virtually impossible for me to do anything without a bit of humour. And in this case, I felt that humour could help humanize the characters in the film. And allow the audience to identify with them more.

wikivillage

It would appear this film was a labour of love of sorts. Do you have any other projects that will follow a similar theme?

Yes, for sure. I think we all do, right? It’s just a matter of hammering away at them until they happen.

facebook/ASADfilm2012

Creative to me isn’t a one-person thing. It’s a cumulative thing. We, in a sense, are gifted with a hard drive when we are born. We start loading stuff onto it right after the doctor slaps our asses. After that we are off running.

To point to one person or project who taught me the most would be impossible. There are just so many people along the way. And continue to be.

Interviewed by Heather Worthing
Images heegantimes thecredits fanka.hablaha waytooindie fromthefrontrow facebook.com/ASADfilm2012

hungryman

As the official media partner, one small seed set out to Wunderbar Theatre for Short & Sweet, which seemed like the most dignified thing to do, beside polishing off a bottle of brandy to stave off the chill. The place feels beautiful… like something out of a World War Two movie, except with a cast of grandpa-sweatered hipsters instead of war-torn heroes. There is a certain intimacy that covers the theatre; the projector light bounces off eager faces and the smell of hot popcorn gives everyone that common ground of nostalgia. The crowd is looking to be as varied as the line-up of films. You’d find everyone here that’s typical of a film screening; the obnoxious guy in the front telling everyone to shut up, the equally obnoxious couple behind you talking about nothing in-particular and the rowdy people in the next row offering pre-show entertainment. Except there’s nothing typical about Short & Sweet.

From animation and dark comedy to music videos and conceptual pieces, the short films selected that night left the audience in a changing state of being. Each with its own ident (a short and sweet ad), the short films and sheer charm of the event left the dismal atmosphere outside happily forgotten. The mish-mash of hilariously nasty, over-the-top, enlightening and down-right engaging international and local short films (along with the free Cutty Sark Whiskey) were enjoyed by everyone present. One of the guests had this to say:

If nothing else, the selection of films was well curated – whoever is putting the line-up together is rather well-versed and realizes the profundity for the evocative power of short films. In the cramped space of a few minutes, there’s enough time to articulate, but not exhaust a concept or thought.

Written and Directed by Paddy Considine who is known more as a writer for films such as Dead Men’s Shoes and Dog Altogether, Tyrannosaur is a film about a very odd ‘relationship’ between a brut and bruising man named Joseph (played gloriously by Peter Mullan who ironically does nothing but age unrealistically well and play just beneath the surface though much of film), and his make shift friend Hannah (Olivia Colman). Hannah is a lonely wilting wife to a bastard husband who drinks and pees on her whilst she sleeps. Joseph is the righteous, atheist drunk who casually meets and talks to her. The storyline is not terribly innovative, it comes across as a recycled old idea but holds very well on screen mostly due to Considine’s directorial grace and the vulnerability of his characters.

Considine in this film unlike many other directors avoids creating characters that are simplistic and nothing more than broad social brushstrokes about English social decline. He is a director that has focused on the double sided nature of his subjects.

Joseph the violent alcoholic who is surprisingly friendly to Hannah whilst she herself the poster girl for a good middle aged wife is somehow sexually withdrawn and prone to lashing out. Cinematically this is a portrait of life lived in contradiction and is a film with palpable conviction.

As a director Considine uses the various elements at his disposal, particularly Erik Wilson’s cinematography to create film that is mostly tonal. But in terms of quality of narrative the film in some areas comes across as rather flat but this does not in any way drag down the arch of the story. Particularly because it would seem that Considine is a director that is less interested in an entertaining film and is much more concerned with a realistic one and let’s face it real people’s lives are not that interesting, which is what makes this film arrestingly significant.
 

Tyrannosaur is also very rich in its employment of the metaphorical as it juxtaposes both Joseph and Hannah in relation to the social landscape that they find themselves tasked with living in. The depleted and clearly weekend vs the established and well to do classes. What Considine is saying in Tyrannosaur is that the real trouble and really dangerous people in contemporary British society are not the gritty despised lower classes but its rather people of a middle class ilk whose shocking agendas, secret lives and ultimately drastic actions are what is really ripping apart British society and its established norms as we know them.

Perhaps the best scene in this film is when a vengeful Joseph decides to take action against the neighborhood pitbull after it eats away at the face of a young boy in the neighborhood. He hacks the dog to death leaving the pieces for the dog’s owner and keeping its head as a trophy.

As he sits on an old couch outside his home, with the heard of the butchered dog’s corpse bleeding from his lap, he is a graceful image. Its moments like this that are quite surprising in this film because Considine avoids the traditional over-dramatisation of scenes like this rather opting for a delicate and more softened treatment of even the most brutal sequences. This all plays as precursor for a conclusion that brings the film to a soft landing.

 
In Kivu Ruhorahoza’s Grey Matter, memory and its contextual genesis is placed under an interesting juxtaposition. Balthazar is a young Rwandan filmmaker, with a rough around the edges, self-righteous persona. We track him in the early parts of the film as he tries to make his own production. Balthazar finds himself a victim of that common African (and I use the word loosely here) problem of being rejected by the financiers, the money men and the so called gatekeepers who are also supposedly the custodians of a national cinematic identity.

The trouble however with this first portion of Grey matter is not the intended message nor is it the context in which it is delivered, rather it is that Balthazar by observation is not a believable character. He is almost too determined making it hard for the audience to break through the wall of his own self-assurance to love him and identify with his situation. For instance at the beginning of the film he says if he get funds he begins production in six days and if he doesn’t he will still begin production in six days. As Balthazar lies to his actors and goes on with rehearsals and puts his parents’ car up as collateral for a loan he never stops to consider the ramifications of his actions.

What Ruhorahoza though this character is saying is that in order to be a filmmaker on the African continent you have to become a creature without empathy and this is contention that I find hard to believe.

In the most significant portion of the film however, Grey Matter morphs into a more meditative setting. As Balthazar imagines how his film would turn out, the line between what is real and imaginary becomes minute and blurry. Here Ruhorahoza has made a film within a film. In this second act narrative communal displacement is framed in an almost existentialist setting.

Here Grey matter becomes a cinematic meditation on the Rwandan genocide.

We see a young woman and man who have both been committed into an institution, she having been a victim of hate crimes and he a perpetrator. It is worth noting that cinematic communication in the abstract is a finite art. There are only so many things you can get away with before straying into that morose territory of the pretentious. Here Ruhorahoza uses memory and its repetitive structure to showcase how the act of remembering can drive one to insanity. We see the man as he has flashes of burning bodies, he tries to save them but all he can do is pour water over empty spaces.

Grey Matter is a film that is also largely concerned with reconciliation between victims and perpetrators that are forced to come to terms with each other’s grief as they occupy the same spaces.

This is particularly significant considering so many Rwandan’s have been burdened with the tasking of simply moving on. Ruhorahoza has handled this second act with delicacy and showcases the imperfections of each side. What Grey Matter says to us is that the individual and his isolation and presence in their own mind is the only constant and that regardless of how popular socio-political rhetoric frameworks the era, mapping out that individual loss remains a significant part of the story and must never be separated from the political.

one small seed’s 25th issue Content Preview from one small seed on Vimeo.

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Issue 24 of one small seed asks you to ‘Listen to my Colour and Look at my Sound’. Music, motion, words and colour – looking beyond the obvious, our latest issue brings a union of the senses. To follow is an all-inclusive preview of the new issue: a full breakdown of content that resonates with inspiration. Hold on tight…

The human story is told in the language of pop culture. Coca Cola designed Santa Claus and Hugo Boss the uniforms for the Order of the Death’s Head. Jimi played The Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock and the Devil went down to Georgia. David Byrne wore a big suit and Princess Leia that bikini. We couldn’t handle the truth, needed a bigger boat and loved the smell of napalm in the morning. Assorted male models shot JFK, RFK and JR, then Biggy Smalls, Tupac and the Sheriff. And something made Andy Warhol’s Marilyns smile. Maybe it was the hand up the Mona Lisa’s skirt. (Gustav Swart)

This issue’s theme of ‘Listen to my Colour and Look at my Sound’ led us to some odd doors as we sought artists that bridged the divide between the visual and the aural.  An interview with legendary album artist Storm Thorgerson – referred to some as the 6^th member of Pink Floyd – allowed us to revisit the aesthetics of the ’70s, while 21^st Century poster designer Dan Khulken tells us about making posters for bands like Black Keys and The National. Issue 24 is a 30 000-plus words visual explosion, and one such visually exploding artist we spoke to is the infamous Gonzo illustrator and Hunter S Thompson’s partner-in-grime, Ralph Steadman. Another artist that tore through the ’70s and still doing what he does best is Horace Panter – the bass player of The Specials. In this issue, Panter gives us a candid account of his life in music and his life as an artist, from playing with The Clash to his time working as a white van man, he shares memories of his life on a road less traveled.

Our fashion spread this issue comes direct from Tokyo, Japan. Creating a 3D-like effect, reminiscent of Nintendo games and early Star Wars films, Japanese designer Kunihiko Morinaga created his Low Resolution collection around the 8-bit inspired colorful square blocks. Mari Sarai’s lewd black and white nudes feature as this issue’s photography section, her subjects including celebs like Gavin Rossdale’s daughter Daisy Lowe and model Janice Dickinson. We have a feast for the ears in the form of interviews with Kenya’s globe conquering Just a Band and the revolutionary American poet Abiodun Oyewole – the man who robbed the KKK and worked with legendary Jazz musician Gil Scott-Heron on his famous song ‘The Revolution will not be Televised’.

Ever tasted the letter ‘f’? Or smelled the colour blue? Well, some people have! One of our main features this issue is on Synesthesia – the condition that lets people see sound as colour – and trace its path through the methods and madness of some of the brightest stars in the human firmament. Click HERE for a preview of the feature. On the local frontier, we sit down with singer/song writer/actress Sannie Fox, electronic trio Digital Rockit and all four members from Cape Town band iScreamStix. Olmeca Editión Black Tequila joins us in showcasing electronic DJs/Producers, with this issue bringing Blush n Bass and Felix Laband to the party.  We watched architecture dance slowly to visible music in our architecture feature, looking at structures like The Sum of Days, NY; Stillspotting, NY; the Jewish Museum, Berlin; Jetty Square and more.

Ending with the beginning, our cover for Issue 24 is devoted to one of the street artist/videographer Mr Brainwash’s tongue-in-cheek creations. This issue features a six-page interview with the artist, who talked to us from his L.A. home about money, art and Andy Warhol. Showcasing at 34FineArt Gallery in Woodstock, Cape Town is an exclusive selection of Mr Brainwash’s latest artwork, including issue 24’s ‘Madonna’ silk screen on paper with spray paint.

Right, without further ado… Here’s the breakdown for Issue 24 “Listen to my Colour and Look at my Sound”.

FEATURES

American Civil Rights Icon

Abiodun Oyewole: Grand, High Wizard

Founder member of The Last Poets talks about verse, Gil Scott-Heron and robbing the KKK. Click HERE to read our blog ‘The Revolution will not be Televised’ and find out more about the legendary Gil Scott-Heron: a spoken word poet, jazz genius and close friend to Abiodun Oyewole.

Defiant Photographer

Mari Sarai’s Girls on Film

Black-and-white nudes that stare right back and you and challenge the Gaze. Check out a video interview we found with Mari Sarai by visiting onesmallseed.tv HERE.

Aural architecture

Echo Chamber: The Sound of Space

Our investigation of sound and concrete spans the globe and classic art movies. First we took Manhattan, then we took Berlin. Click HERE and visit onesmallseed.tv to watch the video titled Berlin: Die Sinfonie der GroBstadt, which showcases a selection of abstract visual content that portrays the ‘life’ of a city.

Cape Town-based breakout band

iScreamStix: It ain’t Sorbet

A big scoop of local talent

Kenyan Globetrotters

Just an Interview with Just a Band

Meet the voice of East Africa’s ‘superhero’ Makmande. He may not exist but he sure kicks ass

Cross-sensory Exploration

Neuromagic: The Harmony of Synesthesia

We dive into the magical world inhabited by synesthetes: individuals who see, hear, feel, smell and even taste colour. Such people include legends of our time, like Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd, Marilyn Monroe and Vladimir Nabokov to name a few. Click HERE for a preview of the feature and then visit one small seed TV to see a video about this unique condition

Genre-busting rocker

Sannie Fox: Rage with the Machine

This star of stage and screen proves that you don’t have to be a fatbottomed girl to make the rocking world go round.

Gonzo illustrator

Ralph Steadman: Another Freak in the Freak Kingdom

We can’t stop here. It’s bat country

Controversial Pop Artist

Mr Brainwash: Laughing all the Way to the Banksy

We got a call from the man who calls himself ‘Banksy’s biggest piece of art’. We’ve uploaded a snippet of the interview featured in the magazine, simply click HERE and see if you can make out who Mr Brainwash really is…

Jozi Beats

Digital Rockit: The Neon Gods they Made

Local veterans of the electronic scene look forward and back

Classic Album Art

Storm Thorgerson: Dark Side of the Tunes

We get under the covers with the man who designed for bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Muse and machineri.

Troubadour’s Poster Boy

Dan Kuhlken: Dreaming of Electric Sheep

The National, The Black Keys, Red Hot Chilli Peppers… just some of the bands that LA-based design team DKNG have worked for

Musical contrasts

eleKTRONIK Dialogues

A new department brought to you in conjunction with Olmeca Editión Black Tequila dedicated to showcasing the best and brightest musical talent.

Ska rocker and painter

Horace Panter: If Music is your Special Thing

The bass player of The Specials went from fame to obscurity and back again

Avant-garde Fashion

Kunihiko Morinaga: Pretty in Pixels

Chic couture meets the chunky pixels of 8-bit arcade games on the catwalk. Check out our interview with Morinaga in the latest issue, and if you’re thirsty for more information on pixel fashion then check out our blog HERE.

DEPARTMENTS

IN STORE

Products for your eyes, hands, and mind…

BOOK REVIEWS

Get the critique on books that will read you.

SELECTED CREATIVES

We reveal the winners for Selected Creatives 06, a showcase of the very best uploaded to onesmallseed.net. Click HERE to check out who made the cut, voted by you on the one small seed network.

FILM REVIEWS

This issue we check out Mike Cahill’s Another Earth; Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, Tarsem Singh’s Immortals, Lars von Trier’s Melancholia and Paula Van der Oest’s Black Butterflies.

MUSIC REVIEWS

We dissect the beats that are supposed to move your feet.

NOW SHOWING

Issue 24 showcases some of the most gripping videos we found in 2011, including Influencers; Jeff Staple; Earth time-lapse view from Space; Press Pause Play; Morpho Towers: Two Standing Spirals; Brain Eno’s Imaginary Landscapes and Berlin Die Sinfonie Der Grosstadt, a fascinating video that sheds light on the discourse of aural architecture. Click HERE to watch these awesome videos.

THE LAST WORD

We leave this to South African writer duo Headline Payoff and illustration by Mark Venter.

ROSA is an outstanding example. It was created by comic artist Jesus Orellana, funded by Jesus Orellana and will be made available online, by, wait for it, yes Jesus Orellana. For free. What does he get out of this? Complete and utter creative control, naturally.

 
Originally published on onesmallseed.net by Reney Warrington

Highly anticipated for a release on our shores, The Bang Bang Club film was finally close enough to home for me to catch it; turns out that anticipation is as much as the film could build.

The story is inexplicably told retroactively by Taylor Kitch’s inaudible version of Kevin Carter which is the first in a long list of unnecessary and impotent stylistic choices. The eyes and ears of the audience is mostly Ryan Phillippe’s Greg Marinovich, who keeps his performance subtle enough for us not to notice the excessive overuse of local lingo. However, much to my disappointment most of the remaining cast end up sounding more like caricatures of South Africans.

Putting aside my petty gripes on linguistics, the biggest problem I found is the lack of direction within the film. Steven Silver is a first time feature director, but with his extensive documentary experience I feel he might have let things go on too long as is expected from that style of film making. The bullet pacing of the film doesn’t allow for us to build relationships with anyone other than two of the four members of the Bang Bang Club and a handful of bit parts along the way. Standout performances, Neels van Jaarsveld (in the role of Joao Silva) being a prime example, beg for more screen time but is given so little. Events in the personal lives of The Bang Bang Club simply happen without much tension or investment. Greg’s relationship with his wife for example just happens and you feel cheated out of caring because we’re forced to simply accept it, not want it. Side characters are introduced who are supposed to be important and then disappear until a quick mention later on while others hop on later and play no significant role other than “they were there.”

Having said that, the film is not without merit, where Steven Silver lacks in narrative direction he excels in recreating the carnage of those turbulent years in South Africa’s history. You almost feel the heat from the fires and you might find yourself clenching the seat as The Bang Bang Club run in to take that shot while dodging bricks, pangas and bullets. The imagery was brutal without being too graphic and it really gives you a sense of how cheap life was in a time where at least four factions were at each other’s throats. I suspect Steven Silver’s documentary experience lent in no small way to how real the conflict felt; finding myself anticipating the next big photographic excursion. The cinematography is excellent, every frame oozing the gritty nature of the conflict and drawing you into every frame; Miroslaw Baszak knows how to make grimy attractive. He will find his niche in the horror genre I bet in the years to come although considering the subject matter of this film Baszak fits like a glove here.

In summary, The Bang Bang Club has some good to offer and historically it’s important (I get that), but as a piece of entertainment it fails to bring itself across as an experience. It’s more a bullet point of events told without the emotional attachment that it so strongly needed for a human interest story about four dedicated men braving the most intense riots in our nation’s history for that perfect picture.

The third and final part of Eftihia Stefanidi‘s 64th Cannes Film Festival reviews, entitled “Let Me Entertain You (Straight from the expats)”… Enjoy and stay posted for an interview with Eftihia coming soon!

PART 3 – LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU (STRAIGHT FROM EXPATS)

A variety of themes and genres were explored at the festival this year, and many appreciated the effect of some less highbrow films that provided an uncomplicated indulgence. Coincidentally, most of them came from directors who shot outside their native countries.

Unanimously labelled by critics as the guilty pleasure of the Official Selection, Drive by Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn was the one that entertained the most. With the right amount of adrenaline, over-stylised violence and a dash of romance, the film is an instant cult classic. Ryan Gosling plays a dexterous stunt driver by day and get-away driver at night. An enigmatic and low-key character, he doesn’t open up much, not even around the company of his charming young neighbor (Carey Mulligan), yet their electrifying connection is tangible. The wonderfully contained performances are partly responsible for the success of Drive. Though, the real credit goes to Refn (rightly awarded for Best Director) whose skilful vision materialises in splendor. From the pink credits and the feminine 80s soundtrack to the smooth and elegant driving scenes around a superbly lit L.A., this is work with a signature style that visual stimulates.

Italian director Paolo Sorentino came in prominence through his acclaimed political drama Il Divo in 2008. With This Must Be the Place he now delves into an ambitious experiment that blends a Hollywood actor of unlimited repertoire (Sean Penn) with the conventions of the road movie genre, wide-ranging traveling shots, pop architecture and a cameo by Talking Heads’ David Byrne (hence the film’s title). Set mainly in America (with a little bit of gloomy Ireland), Penn plays Cheyenne, a former Goth idol in his 50s who remains as childish and extravagant as when he was in fame.  Suffering from boredom, his life finds meaning as he embarks on a journey to track down an elderly Nazi; a man who had humiliated his father back in the days (creepily enough, the Nazi yarn was in perfect timing with Lars Von Trier’s provocative comments on the subject). Nevertheless, This Must Be the Place is not a film on anti-Semitism, the concept being rather used as an excuse to undertake the ride. The focal point here is the character – and that is a magnificent Sean Penn – whose story is about the discovery of those hidden qualities lying behind first impressions and public facades. Even if some of Cheyenne’s encounters with the people he meets along the way do not always appear concordant, on the whole, the film juggles its heterogeneous elements decorously.

America seems to be the first destination for the expatriate directors screening at Cannes, amongst them French-born Michael Hazanavicius whose film was positively the most endearing of all. The Artist is a black and white silent movie like those made in the late 1920s, masterfully recreating that Hollywood era of stardom. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), a successful silent movie star struggles to accept the arrival of talking pictures, while Peppy Miller (Bérénice Béjo), his female young competitor, steadily climbs the ladder of fame. A precarious venture by nature, one could make a long list of things that could go wrong with this one. However, when creative vision meets vastly talented contributors, the sky is the limit. The Artist is pure, unadulterated cinema of sensations, providing the minimum tools of narrative, yet the rest is up to your imagination. In great collaboration, makeup, costumes, set designs and props are charmingly reflecting the spirit of that golden period, bringing some on screen vintage nostalgia. As for the wonderful score by Ludovic Burce, which runs throughout the film, it simply fits like glove.

THE BEST FROM THE REST

It is highly improbable to watch everything in Cannes, not only because there are numerous screenings running in tandem, but also because we are humans and we sometimes need a break. The good thing with breaks is that one is likely to meet with other like-minded people doing exactly the same thing as oneself: socialising over a glass of French wine, share the guilt for not being after the next screening, and compensating for it via exchange of information on the films already seen. This is, by the way, a safe and quick technique to fish for the ones that slipped through your attention.

Las Acacias is an example of an underdog little gem that fortunately ends up winning the Camera d’Or (a prize given to the best first feature) and striking attention. Argentinean-born director Pablo Georgelli worked on a subtly touching story with a very simple plot: a truck driver heading from Paraguay to Buenos Aires is appointed to transport a woman and a baby that he meets for the first time. The 15,000 kilometres covered are captured effectively, as the director rather integrates the viewer within the action instead of making us the ‘outsiders’ of the journey. His camera gets physical; placed inside the car next to the couple, it invites us to join them and feel what they feel. With very little dialogue or musical aid, what we are incrementally trained to notice are silences, gazes and pauses, exchanged to great effect. No further explanation of who the characters are or where they are coming from seems necessary, as it is in those delicate gestures and glances that the answers are found. This silent force of a road-movie, selected at Critic’s Week, makes Las Acacias a ride that burns slowly, yet warms your heart and sharpens your senses.

On a similar unhurried tempo – indicative of contemporary South American cinema – we found Porfirio, a film by Alejandro Landes, screened at the Directors’ Fortnight. A fusion of documentary and fiction, Porfirio Ramirez Aldana is a real character playing himself, his story going back in 2005 with the headline: Paralysed Man in Diapers Hijacks Plane in Bogotá. Out of creative inquisition, Landes interviewed Porfirio in jail and ended up inviting him to play the lead in a film that took five years to develop. The result is a reverential portrait of a man confined at the outskirts of the Colombian Amazon, trying to survive by selling call time. His son and woman next door are both faithfully supporting his daily wheelchair-bound routine, though real life for him is about dreaming to fly. A film whose central character lacks mobility is usually a challenge, but the Brazilian director overcomes the limitations by picking the joy in the mundane.  Rigorously framed with washed out colourful locales, Porfirio sincerely unfolds with lightness and simplicity.

Words & Holga Images by Eftihia Stefanidi