Jozi Film Festival: Day 2
By Coco
I recently attended a film festival at Eyethu in Soweto. I found it interesting and fascinating mainly because film is one of my interests. I've begun learning how the industry works and how the story telling behind it goes. For example, if you are Joe Doe, you will most probably die unnoticed with all your accomplishments. No one will know who you were and what you did. Your story will remain untold. Delaying the article would give me a breather and wait for the hype around the festival to calm down.
Early this month, while I was at work trying to map out this article, I was overwhelmed and decided to take a walk for some fresh air. I crossed the road and when I looked back, I saw this homeless guy lying on the pavement. He seemed lifeless and people were walking past him like he didn't exist. Some were commenting with interjections like ''nyaope'' and ''he's just a bum''. Like everyone else, I carried on to the tuckshop and got myself some items. But in the back of my mind I got thinking about this Joe Doe. ''I can't just let him die'' I thought. So I walked back to where he lay to check if he's breathing or not. I put my hand above his mouth to check if he's breathing.. I started panicking because I don't want him to die. So I rolled him over - Alas, he is breathing. It turns out he was drunk.
Something to think about, hey?
Jozi film festival is a platform created to showcase unique documentaries and films made both locally and internationally . What I found interesting about it is the effect that the environment of people seated quietly in rows, their eyes fixed to the theatre screen. It felt like I walked into a classroom filled with eager students focused on the lecture - the teaching of course was hidden somewhere within the film and after the whole lesson we got to ask the teacher a few questions [mostly the brave ones asked] on what the moral of the story was. Doc-U-Mentally [by intersection studios], a documentary which takes us into the world of junior doctors and the extreme hours they work, I remember speaking to this one medical student who explained to me the pressure she had undergone during a practical, and sadly the patient she was operating died. I could imagine the trauma she went through, probably thinking of things she could have done differently. I think this is something medical students would obviously relate to but it would be something that inquiring minds would find interesting to watch and this documentary gives an in-depth understanding of what doctors go through with interviews and recordings of surgical operations.
Brief recess.
We went back in to watch the next film titled Wigger please directed by Jonathan Ashley. The film takes a look in to how the Hip-hop culture has gone beyond a 'people-of-colour' association to becoming a platform for all to express themselves but specifically white people in this context. The gist of the documentary is how a group of white American artists have been 'educated' through hip-hop yet also face discrimination because of their skin colour, Furthermore, it explains how artists over a period of time were conformed and or constrained because of their skin colour - much like people of colour face all the time.
Francois Wahl - Doc-U - mentally
Johnathan Ashley - Wigger please
I recently attended a film festival at Eyethu in Soweto. I found it interesting and fascinating mainly because film is one of my interests. I've begun learning how the industry works and how the story telling behind it goes. For example, if you are Joe Doe, you will most probably die unnoticed with all your accomplishments. No one will know who you were and what you did. Your story will remain untold. Delaying the article would give me a breather and wait for the hype around the festival to calm down.
Early this month, while I was at work trying to map out this article, I was overwhelmed and decided to take a walk for some fresh air. I crossed the road and when I looked back, I saw this homeless guy lying on the pavement. He seemed lifeless and people were walking past him like he didn't exist. Some were commenting with interjections like ''nyaope'' and ''he's just a bum''. Like everyone else, I carried on to the tuckshop and got myself some items. But in the back of my mind I got thinking about this Joe Doe. ''I can't just let him die'' I thought. So I walked back to where he lay to check if he's breathing or not. I put my hand above his mouth to check if he's breathing.. I started panicking because I don't want him to die. So I rolled him over - Alas, he is breathing. It turns out he was drunk.
Something to think about, hey?
Jozi film festival is a platform created to showcase unique documentaries and films made both locally and internationally . What I found interesting about it is the effect that the environment of people seated quietly in rows, their eyes fixed to the theatre screen. It felt like I walked into a classroom filled with eager students focused on the lecture - the teaching of course was hidden somewhere within the film and after the whole lesson we got to ask the teacher a few questions [mostly the brave ones asked] on what the moral of the story was. Doc-U-Mentally [by intersection studios], a documentary which takes us into the world of junior doctors and the extreme hours they work, I remember speaking to this one medical student who explained to me the pressure she had undergone during a practical, and sadly the patient she was operating died. I could imagine the trauma she went through, probably thinking of things she could have done differently. I think this is something medical students would obviously relate to but it would be something that inquiring minds would find interesting to watch and this documentary gives an in-depth understanding of what doctors go through with interviews and recordings of surgical operations.
Brief recess.
We went back in to watch the next film titled Wigger please directed by Jonathan Ashley. The film takes a look in to how the Hip-hop culture has gone beyond a 'people-of-colour' association to becoming a platform for all to express themselves but specifically white people in this context. The gist of the documentary is how a group of white American artists have been 'educated' through hip-hop yet also face discrimination because of their skin colour, Furthermore, it explains how artists over a period of time were conformed and or constrained because of their skin colour - much like people of colour face all the time.
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