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Good vues Vues d'Afrique makes its 13th year lucky by MATTHEW HAYS
Voices from Robben Island is a feature-length documentary about South Africa's most notorious prison. Shot last year and aired on South African TV as well as the BBC, the film explores the history of the African continent's equivalent to Alcatraz. The film opens with the imprisonment of political subversives on Robben Island during the nation's apartheid phase. Prisoners included Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, among others, who would go on to form the new government after being freed. Interviews with Mandela et al. are interspersed with shots of a scale model of the prison which stands in for the original (it has since been torn down) and historical notes about the island. Newspapers were strictly forbidden (reading material was restricted to the Bible), rations of food were paltry (bread was not even included in the diet) and letters to and from loved ones were strictly censored, often beyond recognition. Though all of the interviewees are inspiring, Mandela stands out in the film. At one point he recounts playing Monopoly with other inmates as a way of beating back the monotony; he laughs when the filmmaker points to the irony of a bunch of Marxists playing a capitalist board game to pass the time. Mandela also recounts a visit from abroad from Daily Telegraph journalists. The prisoners were all handed jerseys to sew, and as the reporters entered, the inmates' lives looked manageable. The minute the reporters left, however, their jerseys were taken away and boulders were brought into the prison courtyard; hammers were handed out and the prisoners were told to make some rocks. Any comforts they experienced were strictly for the cameras. Mandela's dignity shines through in Voices from Robben Island, a documentary well worth catching. Last year, Vues d'Afrique featured More Time, the tale of a young pubescent girl and her own choice to stay away from having sex, despite all the pressures from peers and hormone-ridden young lads. Tsitsi Dangarembga's Everyone's Child is not a sequel, but has a similar feel. The lives of Tamari and her brother Itai are thrown into uncertainty when their parents die, stricken with AIDS. Itai decides to go to the city in the hopes of finding work, while Tamari stays behind and struggles to keep the hut in order. Itai soon realizes that work will be much harder to come by than he thought and falls in with a gang of street kids who sniff glue and commit various petty crimes. Itai is soon imprisoned after he's caught during a bungled purse-snatch. Tamari is ignored by the other village folk and is forced into prostitution. Heartspace is a short festival oddity by filmmaker Carey Schonegevel, an NYU graduate. A post-apartheid fable, the film has two hitchhikers (a black man and white woman), getting picked up by a white driver. They head into the country and the woman notices a gun in the glove compartment; as the three drive on, the residue of the nation's racially segregated past can be felt. The car moves on, and as it does it's clear we're headed for some kind of nasty climax. Schonegevel works the audience well, churning the story up just as we feel it's become still. A taut, skillfully told drama from a director clearly blessed with a promising future. Vues D'Afrique will present the 13th African and Creole Festival this April 17-27. The films noted below will play at the Cinéma du Parc, starting next Thursday, April 24. See repertory film listings for showtimes |
Vues d'Afrique's annual selection of cinema has been unveiled and again the series of films features a broad variety that should please virtually any cinephile. There are shorts, dramas, documentaries and comedies. This year's roundup also includes a number of films from the U.S. made by directors of African descent.