This year the Sithengi Festival and the Cape Town World Cinema Festival will be going beyond the Artscape Theatre, and reaching out beyond the city’s audiences. A joint venture by the Cape Film Commission, SABC and Sithengi will see an Outreach Programme running screenings in Khayelitsha, Guguletu and Mitchell’s Plein from 18 to 19 November 2006.
Following a successful premiere of "Tsotsi" at Fawu in Guguletu during last year’s Sithengi Festival, it was decided to extend the “reach” of the festival this year to include Khayelitsha and Mitchell’s Plein. With the Cape Film Commission playing a facilitation role and with generous funding from the SABC and the Western Cape Government, the venues will be coordinated with the assistance of the talented youth organization, Amarabella and Cre8F.
The Outreach aims to take the best of new South African content to local communities that are seldom granted the opportunity to see local films due to various limiting circumstances. Limited screening venues in these areas and the high cost of having to travel to a city centre to see a new release, usually have the big Hollywood blockbusters making the ticket sales. With many local films only being run from art house theatres that are usually more costly than the usual cinema seat it’s no wonder that irregular audiences would rather vie for what appears to be the only sure thing.
However, in an attempt to increase audience awareness the programme is turning easily accessible, centralized community venues into screening theatres for part of the festival. The screenings will be run in the three venues, namely Zolani Community Centre in Nyanga, Luyolo Community Centre in Guguletu and Alliance Francais in Mitchell’s Plein after the only movie theatre, Cinemax closed its doors two months ago. The CFC has run a host of similar screenings this year, partnering with the Ikapa Youth Film Festival in June and running another screening at the In-San-Ity Festival in Clanwilliam in October.
The lineup will showcase the comedy premiere “Bunny Chow” as well as the other top local features to be screened at this year’s Cape Town World Cinema Festival.
Bunny Chow, a South African comedy set for an early 2007 release by Ster Kinekor will be this year’s World Cinema Festival Premiere with a host of other acclaimed films in tow. The John Barker comedy about three comedians’ adventure to South Africa’s biggest Rock Festival had its world Premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival with good reviews and will be premiering in the US at the American Film Institute Festival 2006 in Los Angeles. Other films to be screened include Son of Man from “uCarmen” director Mark Dornford-May, “Front Line”, “Life and Lyrics”, “Counting Heads”, “Road Trip” and “Hip Hop Revolution”.
SABC will also be bringing the Bunny Chow Road Show to the venues as part of the Festival with cast and crew from the film also attending. Other events include SABC1’s Gospel Gold, which will be taking place on the Sunday at Luyolo Centre and broadcast the following week.
Mark Visser