WINDHOEK
Local content in Namibian films is to be celebrated next week on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of “African Perspectives” during a film series titled Namibian Short Outdoors organised by AfricAvenir, AfricAvenir the Franco-Namibian Cultural Centre (FNCC).
An exquisite selection awaits the audience with works such as Western 4.33 (Namibian premiere), Marvin and Stevie and God, Jugglethorn, Sophia’s Homecoming and Painted Scars next Friday at the FNNC’s Terrace starting at 18H30 with free entrance.
Western 4.33, 33 minutes
Directed by Aryan Kaganof, The Netherlands/South Africa/Namibia, 2002
Western 4.33 is the adaptation of two stories that force themselves into the memory of a Namibian truck driver on a trip from Johannesburg (South Africa) to Lüderitz (Namibia), in a largely desert-like setting. They are excruciating memories. The first one is the recent story of a lost love. This minor history is crosscut with a greater story, that of the Namibian Ovaherero. When they revolted against the German colonial power early last century, many of them died in specially built concentration camps near Lüderitz. The visualisation of this history is raw and poignant, shot in sharp black-and-white, with oblique frames and unusual camera angles. An equally impressive and ominous sound sculpture accompanies this footage.
– Marvin and Stevie and God, 17 minutes, fiction
Directed by Cecil Moller, produced by Laura Avila-Tacsan, USA/Namibia/Costa Rica, 2009
Writer: Catherine Babcock-Carter; Production Designer: Ana Catalina Acuña Castillo; Cinematographer: Arin Picard; Editor: Michael D. Mesa; First AD: Bruno Tatalovic.
Marvin, a catholic priest, leads a content life with his best friend, Stevie, a goldfish. One day, Marvin by accident bumps the fishbowl to the ground and Stevie is no more. Not long after, a depressed Marvin dies of a heart attack. Marvin wakes up in purgatory and meets God, a kind and forgiving man with a twisted sense of humour.
Marvin and Stevie and God is a light-hearted comedy about the importance of learning to laugh at yourself.
Sophia’s Homecoming, 26 minutes, fiction
Directed by Richard Pakleppa, produced by Bridget Pickering, Namibia/South Africa, 1997, Sophia’s Homecoming reminds ones that the devastating personal effects of the massive social dislocations caused by apartheid can never be erased. Sophia, like so many other women, becomes a self-reliant provider for her family, working as a domestic for a white family in Windhoek for 12 years. When her husband, Naftali, finally finds a job, she returns home with the dream of resuming her former family life. She quickly discovers that during her absence her sister, Selna, has replaced her in the affections of her children – and her husband. Naftali reluctantly admits that he prefers Selna; he is ashamed of Sophia because she has had to support the family. Sophia pressures Selna to leave but her sister confesses she is pregnant with Naftali’s child. Sophia realises that she alone has developed the strength to make a new life for herself and returns with her three children to Windhoek, an ironic homecoming.
Jugglethorn & The Two Lost Seasons, 9 minutes, animation
Directed by Erik Schnack & Robert Scott, Namibia, 2007
This is a cyclic and humoristic tale of man on earth and his relationship to nature through machines. Jugglethorn and the Two Lost Seasons is set in the worlds’ oldest desert, the Namib, and accounts the neuropsychological states of being surrounded by the oldest mystical art form, the Rock Art of the San people, also known as the Rain-makers. From the beginning it is here that one experiences birth, growth, purpose, evolution, change, war, development, ancestral heritage, death and then finally reincarnation….
Is this a portrayal of humanities end?…or its beginning?
PAINTED SCARS – short fiction
Directed by Oshoveli Shipoh, Namibia, 2016
When a suicidal man meets a female artist for a live painting session, he learns that making the right decision is the only way out.