#OnTheBigScreen: Emotions, Courage and Emojis

Vasselinetjie

The Afrikaans film Vasselinetjie tells the story of Helena ‘Vaselinetjie’ Bosman, a white girl raised by her loving coloured grandparents in a remote rural village in the Northern Cape, South Africa. However, upon learning that Vaselinetjie is not their biological grandchild, the welfare intervenes and decides to send Vaselinetjie to a state orphanage in the far away city of Johannesburg. Based on Anoeschka von Meck’s celebrated youth novel, it is a story about defining your identity and race within the turmoil of post-Apartheid South Africa.

Directed by Corne Van Rooyen (Sy Klink Soos Lente), from a screenplay by Corne Van Rooyen and René van Rooyen

Emojis

The computer-animated buddy adventure comedy unlocks the never-before-seen secret world inside your smartphone. Hidden within the messaging app is Textopolis, a bustling city where all your favorite emojis live and work. In this world, each emoji has only one facial expression – except for Gene (T.J. Miller), an exuberant emoji who is bursting with multiple expressions. When a malfunction threatens their phone’s very existence, Gene teams up with his handy best friend Hi-5 (James Corden), and the notorious code breaker emoji Jailbreak (Anna Faris), to try to stop the impending destruction. Together, the three friends embark on an epic “app-venture” through the phone, to save their world before it’s deleted forever.

Directed by Tony Leondis from a screenplay by Tony Leondis, Eric Siegel and Mike White.

Stronger

Stronger is the inspiring true story of Jeff Bauman, an ordinary man who captured the hearts of his city and the world to become a symbol of hope following the infamous 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Jeff, a 27-year-old, working-class Boston man who was at the marathon to try and win back his ex-girlfriend, Erin (Tatiana Maslany). Waiting for her at the finish line when the blast occurs, he loses both his legs in the attack. After regaining consciousness in the hospital, Jeff is able to help law enforcement identify one of the bombers, but his own battle has just begun. He tackles months of physical and emotional rehabilitation with the unwavering support of Erin and his family. It is Jeff’s deeply personal account of the heroic journey that tests a family’s bond, defines a community’s pride and inspires his inner courage to overcome devastating adversity. Filled with raw emotion, humanity and humour, Stronger is the inspirational real-life story of the man who became the living embodiment of “Boston Strong.”

Directed by David Gordon Green (George Washington, Pineapple Express), the film is written by Boston local John Pollono (Small Engine Repair, Lost Girls), and based on the best-selling book of the same name by Jeff Bauman and Bret Witter.

Yerma

Billie Piper returns to her Olivier award-winning role in this critically lauded five-star production of Yerma, which will be broadcast at Ster Kinekor Nouveau – bringing the best in art house films - from Saturday, 23 September for four screenings only, as part of National Theatre Live.

Piper plays Her, a woman driven to the unthinkable by her desperate desire to have a child in a contemporary version of Spanish playwright Lorca’s masterpiece, adapted and directed by acclaimed director Simon Stone.

Yerma was one of the most successful UK theatre productions of 2016, with rave reviews from critics and with Billie Piper’s performance hailed as one of the best of the year, winning her both an Olivier and Evening Standard Best Actress Award.

Yerma screens on 23, 27 and 28 September at 7.30pm and on 24 September at 2.30pm at Ster-Kinekor’s Nouveau cinemas at Rosebank Nouveau in Johannesburg, The Grove in Pretoria, the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, and at Gateway Nouveau in Durban. The running time is approximately 100 minutes, without an interval.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Kingsman: The Golden Circle will be releasing in its multi-sensory 4DX theatres on Friday, 22 September- one week before the film’s general South African release and just in time for the Heritage Day long weekend. 4DX is exclusive to select Nu Metro cineplexes nationwide – an entertainment destination with impact, unlike anything in South Africa.

Eggsy (Taron Egerton), Merlin (Mark Strong), and Roxy (Sophie Cookson) head to the United States to join forces with Statesman, Kingsman's American counterpart, after Kingsman's headquarters is destroyed by Poppy (Julianne Moore), who is a member of the secret group "The Golden Circle" and also a notorious criminal mastermind.

This British-American action comedy spy film is directed by Matthew Vaughn, and is the sequel to 2015 film Kingsman: The Secret Service. The series is based on the comic book The Secret Service, created by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar.

Asinamali

Written and directed by Mbongeni Ngema, the film version of this seminal musical has Oscar-nominated director Darrell James Roodt as a technical director, as well as an all-star cast. Roodt shared his directing knowledge and skill, and worked alongside Ngema who is at the helm of a production to which he has dedicated many years of his life. Asinamali features an original soundtrack by Ngema.

“This has been a bumper year for South African films and we are excited to be releasing one of the most anticipated new films of the 2017. South African audiences need to play their part and watch this timeless story during the short release so that it will be eligible for the Oscars,” says Helen Kuun, CEO of Indigenous Film Distribution.

The narrative follows a group of prisoners in the 80s as they think back on their pasts and the events leading to their arrest. The hardship of prison life is told through the experiences of the inmates, whose lives are made even more difficult by sadistic prison warder Sergeant Mgwaqaza (Boitumelo Chuck Shisana).

At the same time, the prison authorities are under pressure to accommodate Comrade Washington (Mbongeni Ngema), an exiled MK soldier working for Amnesty International, who is running drama workshops with the inmates at the notorious Durban Central Prison. He is thwarted at every turn by Mgwaqaza. Comrade Washington has an additional agenda, to see the love of his life Soweto (Danica de la Rey), who is languishing in the Female Section of the prison, soon to be transferred to death row in Pretoria for her MK cross-border activities.

Washington believes in the power of music and theatre to transform the lives of people: the political activists, the criminals and even the hardened servants of the apartheid regime. Through sheer determination he outsmarts the prison authorities, manipulating those around him into allowing him to create a play which depicts how they came to land in prison. It represents triumph over adversity, with the theatrical musical explosion becoming their ticket to freedom.

Asinamali will screen for seven days at Ster-Kinekor Cinema Nouveau in Rosebank Johannesburg, from Friday, 22 September to Thursday 28 September.

Celebrating African stories with 2017 Jozi Film Festival

7 Sep 2017

The sixth annual Jozi Film Festival

The sixth annual Jozi Film Festival (JFF) will open this year’s festival at Rosebank’s Cinema Nouveau on Thursday, 21 September 2017 with the top 10 films selected from an Africa-wide search for filmmaking. Films will screen at Rosebank’s Cinema Nouveau and The Bioscope in Maboneng from 21 to 24 September 2017.

Read more about the latest releases: www.writingstudio.co.za