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Film Festival Film

Forum Expanded 2019
© Old Location Films & End Street Africa 2019
Film Festival Film is a movie shot over a weekend at the Durban International Film Festival, South Africa, in July 2018 by the underground South African collective Medu African Film Ensemble (aka Medu AF).
With a sense of mischief and minimal resources pooled together by its contributors, the film tells the story of Fanon – a Black female filmmaker – beset by her demons ten floors up in an oceanside hotel, gazing out over African shores during the hermetically-sealed weirdness that is the world of a film festival. Using elements of fiction and documentary, the film follows Fanon as she wrestles with what the film industry expects her to be, and not to be, as she readies herself to pitch her first film.
Fanon navigates this uncharted territory, while a supporting cast of real-world, “leading, industry professionals”, seated in her hotel room but never seeming to address her directly, dish out advice straight to camera – are they apparitions or voices in her head? Behind-the-scenes shifts to front-of-scene and back again, theory blends with praxis, as it becomes less and less clear who has the reins, unsettling the foundations of the so-called proper way of doing things.
by Mpumelelo Mcata, Perivi Katjavivi
with Lindiwe Matshikiza, Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Sara Blecher, Sarah Dawson, Rehad Desai, Katarina Hedrén, Steven Markovitz, Zamo Mhkwanazi, Vincent Moloi South Africa / Namibia / United Kingdom 2019 English 46’ Colour World premiere | Documentary form

With

  • Lindiwe Matshikiza (Fanon)
  • Jean-Pierre Bekolo
  • Sara Blecher
  • Sarah Dawson
  • Rehad Desai
  • Katarina Hedrén
  • Steven Markovitz
  • Zamo Mhkwanazi
  • Vincent Moloi

Crew

Director Mpumelelo Mcata, Perivi Katjavivi
Cinematography Zen Marie
Editing Khalid Shamis
Music Joāo Orecchia
Sound Design Joāo Orecchia
Sound Dylan Valley
Assistant Directors Letlhogonolo Ramokgopa, Sarah Dawson
Producers Anna Teeman, Mpumelelo Mcata, Perivi Katjavivi

Produced by

End Street Africa

Old Location Films

Photos

Mpumelelo Mcata

© Kgomotso Neto

Mpumelelo Mcata, born in Port Elizabeth/Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa, is an artists, musician, and cultural activist based in South Africa. He is a member of the internationally acclaimed band BLK JKS.

Filmography

2012 Just Like a King; 4 min. 2013 Twin Lakes; 2 min. 2015 Black President; 79 min., Forum Expanded 2015 2019 Film Festival Film; with Perivi Katjavivi

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019

Perivi Katjavivi

Perivi Katjavivi, born in Oxford, Great Britain to an English mother and a Namibian father, grew up in Windhoek. He studied film at Columbia College in Los Angeles where he attained his BA. Katjavivi holds an MA in African Cinema from the University of Cape Town and is a PhD candidate in Visual History at the University of the Western Cape.

Filmography

2012 My Beautiful Nightmare; 12 min. 2016 The Unseen; 70 min. 2018 Emoyeni: Nsanguluko; 60 min. 2019 Film Festival Film; with Mpumelelo Mcata

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019