Rock with Fokofpolisiekar and Grapple with Anti-Semitism at Encounters 2009

Encounters 2009 Documentary Filmmakers challenge world perceptions

Encounters Documentary Festival is South Africa’s premier film festival – each year the festival brings you world premiers, award winning films, and once-off screenings you can’t afford to miss. So grab a program, make your picks and head down to the Fest today!

For a complete outline of the Encounters events taking place in Cape Town, read our overview of the 2009 Encounters Documentary Film Festival.

18:30 – HHP + Jitsvinger

HHP
South Africa 2009 48min
Dir: Ernie Vosloo

HHP Knows uncovers who he is and what it means to be African.

In this episode of the South African Who Do You Think You Are? series, Vosloo gets to grips with Jabulani Tsambo, aka Hip Hop Pantsula, voted Best Rap and Best Male Artist (SAMA 2008).

The film delves into the Mmabatho icon’s background to reveal a complex web of heritage of culture - Tswana royalty and Xhosa commoner on his mother’s side and Zulu and Shangaan on his father’s.

HHP is a guest of the Festival and will attend the screening on 3 July.

Jitsvinger: maak it aan!
South Africa 2008 27mins
Dir: Nadine Angel Cloete

Slick of tongue, deft of finger, arresting of personality - poet, guitarist, hip hopster and cultural activist Quinton Goliath’s (aka Jitsvinger) lighting renditions give a voice to social change, and comment on language and identity.

Cloete and Quinton Goliath are guests of the Festival and will attend the Première screening on 9 July.

18:30 - Fierce Light: when spirit meets action
Canada 2008 97min
Dir: Velcrow Ripper

Behind Ripper’s film is the central question – can spirituality and action converge, and his answer is a resounding yes, highlighting as he does Gandhi’s ‘soul force’ and ‘human sunrise,’ as well as the new ethos of activism: do not oppose, propose, be the revolutionary not the rebel.

Ripper is a guest of the Festival and travels courtesy of the Canadian High Commission. He will attend screenings on 9 & 11 July and conduct a Master Class on Saturday 11 July.

20:30 – Defamation (Hashmatsa)
Israel / Denmark / Austria / USA 2009 91min
Dir: Yoav Shamir

Throughout Shamir’s controversial and balanced film you know that only an Israeli could have the chutzpah to unpack the delicate subject of anti-Semitism.

On one side of the fence is the very powerful Anti-Defamation League (ADL), headed up by Abraham Foxman.

On the other side is controversial author, professor and son of holocaust survivors, Norman Finkelstein.

Shamir is a guest of the Festival. He will attend screenings on 9 July and 12 July.

20:45 - Fokofpolisiekar “Forgive them for they know not what they do”
South Africa 2009 108min
Dir: Bryan Little

In-your-face progressive punk rock band Fokofpolisiekar are the subject of Little’s spirited look at both the contemporary Afrikaans music industry and the shifting cultural sands of morphing white Afrikaans culture.

Told in interview and through original video of their first tour and album, the film focuses on how the Bellville band came to be a voice for the dislocated youth straddling the before-and-after of 1994.

Little and Producer, Filipa Domingues, will attend the Première screening of their film on 3 & 9 July.

*Tickets can be purchased online on the Encounters website or at the V&A Waterfront box office

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