Film & Cinematography News South Africa

Doccie festival looks at the environment

The 2008 Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, which began yesterday, Thursday, 19 June 2008, at Nu Metro Hyde Park in Johanneburg, intends to build upon the success of last year's Environmental Focus by screening films such as Distant Cousins, Urban Cowboy, Laxmi's Blessings and Birdman, all of which explore special relationships between humans and animals - baboons, horses, elephants and pigeons in particular - and the healing power of the veld as revealed to cabaret artist Antoinette Pienaar in The Shaman's Apprentice.

The Nuclear Comeback by Justin Pemberton resuscitates the pro- and anti-nuclear energy arguments, and sheds new light on developments - good and bad.

When Clouds Clear documents real people-power, the battle that a village of Ecuadorian campesinos put up against their government and the multi-nationals whose plans threatened their livelihoods, their fields, their water, their health. Directors Slick and Bernstein prove that abiding by Gandhian ideals, and winning, is still possible 70 years after the Mahatma's death.

The festival is supported by SABC, NFVF, Cape Film Commission, Western Cape Government, Jan Vrijman/IDFA, Africalia, Gauteng Film Commission, Goethe Institut, French Embassy, Tempest, US Consulate, British Council, French Embassy, Holland Film, The Times, Nu Metro and Exclusive Books.

The first leg of the festival takes place in Johannesburg at Nu Metro Hyde Park, 19 - 29 June, before moving on to Cape Town at the Nu Metro V&A Waterfront, 3 July - 18 July. Go to www.encounters.co.za for further information and booking details.

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