PROGRAMME: MINI-INPUT IN JOHANNESBURG – GOETHE INSTITUTE

119 Jan Smuts Avenue (entrance Newport Rd ), Secure parking available

FRIDAY, 2 NOVEMBER

19h00

Opening Cocktail function

SATURDAY, 3 NOVEMBER

SUNDAY, 4 NOVEMBER

DRESDEN

Director:                    Roland Suso Richter

Duration:                   90’

Original Language:             German

Country:                   Germany

Genre:                        Fiction – TV Movie

Dresden in January 1945, its baroque splendour still undamaged. Nazi propaganda is stubbornly promising Germany’s final victory, but young Anna Mauth, a nurse at Dresden’s Martin Luther Hospital knows better. In England the RAF Bomber Command has turned its attention to cities in the east of Germany , aiming to assist the Soviet Red Army with bombing raids in the back of the Wehrmacht. On return from a raid on Magdeburg , British pilot Robert Newman is shot down. Severely wounded and disguised in civilian clothes, he makes it to Dresden , where he hides in the hospital basement. There he meets Anna. Her professional desire to help him overcomes her distrust and fear; secretly she starts supplying him with food and fresh bandages. But she isn’t yet ready to admit her true feelings about him to herself. Meanwhile, the RAF has prepared its next big raid and its target is Dresden . Only a few hours later the bombardment will raise a gigantic firestorm devastating the whole inner city.

ONE MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT

Director:                    Steve French

Duration:                   13’

Original Language:  English

Country:                   Australia

Genre:                        Fiction - Animation

This series of short (1 minute) animations features anecdotes or moments from the lives of people over 60 from a variety of multicultural backgrounds. Some are joyful, others triumphant and still others poignant or creeping into tragedy. Their stories are as many and varied as anybody's, but most are touched with humour. They show what it is like to be an older person, here and now.

THE PLANET

Director:                    Linus Torell, Michael Stenberg, Johan Soderberg

Duration:                   52’

Original Language:             English/Swiss

Country:                   Sweden

Genre:                        Documentary - Factual

The Planet is a fresh attempt to find answers about the truths and untruths of the alarming global changes that many claim are already in motion. It is the most extensive documentary project ever produced in Scandinavia. The film crews have been working for more than two years and have visited over twenty-five countries around the world. The extraordinary visual style and the unexpected content in The Planet will unlock the alienated attitude many people have built up in relation to the subject. The Planet is about much more than climate change. It’s about the Earth as a whole and the overall global changes we are experiencing right now.

OUR SECRET ARCHIVES

Director:                    Noel Tortajada

Duration:                   10’

Original Language:  French / Italian / German

Country:                   Switzerland

Genre:                        Fiction – Series

The Federal Bureau for the Rehabilitation of Heroic Patrimony presents, from the seventh floor of an unusual bunker near the Swiss Federal Palace , a number of files kept secret for hundreds of years. You are about to see how the disclosure of these long-hidden documents will change the face of the world. Justice will be done. A great many Swiss heroes who were forgotten by history with a capital H will finally find the place they deserve, as great pioneers our country can be proud of. Our Secret Archives is a fiction series of 11 comedy episodes in French, German and Italian. In this episode, The Hamburger: In March 1935, a bear escapes from the famous bear pit in Bern , the Swiss capital. Lured by the smell of meat, the animal made its way to the workshop of the Bernese butcher Wenzel Bonstetten. A fierce struggle ensues between the huge mammal and the butcher. This unexpected encounter gives rise to a dish that has conquered gourmets all around the world...

GIRL IN A MIRROR

Director:                    Kathy Drayton

Duration:                   55’

Original Language:  English

Country:                   Australia

Genre:                        Documentary – Performing Arts

Girl In A Mirror traces the life of photographer Carol Jerrems, a revolutionary Australian artist who died in 1980 at the age of 31. The documentary uses Jerrems’ photographs, short films and writings, as well as interviews with friends and colleagues, to reconstruct her life and draw the audience into her world. This film traces Jerrems’ rapid rise from gifted student to fully fledged, taboo-shattering artist, intercutting her own meticulous documentation, images and journals of her slow demise from a rare blood-related cancer.

IN TREATMENT

Director:                    Hagai Levi

Duration:                   30’

Original Language:  Hebrew

Country:                   Israel

Genre:                        Fiction – Series

A groundbreaking new format that takes viewers on a journey through the intriguing and fascinating world of psychotherapy. A unique drama that follows five ongoing psychotherapy patients through nine sessions each, all shot in the therapist’s clinic. Each day of the week is dedicated to one person’s therapy session: Monday: Na’ama is a beautiful young woman who falls in love with Ruben and draws him into deep confusion that leads him to question both his personal and professional life. Tuesday: Yadin, an air force pilot, suspended from the army after bombing civilians during a military operation. Wednesday: Ayala, a suicidal seventeen-year-old Olympic gymnast. Thursday: Michael and Orna, a couple attempting to rehabilitate their fragile marriage. Friday: Ruben meets with his supervisor from his early years as a therapist. During these Friday sessions, Ruben deals with his own problems: his patients, his professional life and his crumbling personal affairs.

PROMISED PARADISE

Director:                    Leonard Retel Helmrich

Duration:                   52’

Original Language: Indonesian

Country:                   Netherlands

Genre:                        Documentary - Factual

Indonesia , the country of the eternal smile, has been disturbed in the last few years by terrorist attacks of Muslim fundamentalists. The confusion in the country is a source of inspiration for many Indonesian artists. In Promised Paradise we follow the troubadour-puppeteer Agus, who criticizes the turbulence in his country in his performances. After another bombing in Jakarta , Agus decides to go searching for answers. It is often the clown who makes the most profound comments on the human condition. Here an Indonesian poet and puppeteer sets out on a mission to find out why there are people in his country blowing themselves up, and to see if jihadist martyrs really do get to heaven.

HIP HOP: BEYOND BEATS & RHYMES

Director:                     Byron Hurt

Duration:                   60’

Original Language:  English

Country:                     Unites States

Genre:                        Documentary – Factual

Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymesprovides a riveting examination of manhood, sexism, and homophobia in hip-hop culture. Director Byron Hurt, former star college quarterback, longtime hip-hop fan, and gender violence prevention educator, conceived the documentary as a “loving critique” of a number of disturbing trends in the world of rap music. He pays tribute to hip-hop while challenging the rap music industry to take responsibility for glamorizing destructive, deeply conservative stereotypes of manhood. The documentary features revealing interviews about masculinity and sexism with rappers such as Mos Def, Fat Joe, Chuck D, Jadakiss, and Busta Rhymes, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, and cultural commentators such as Michael Eric Dyson and Beverly Guy-Shetfall. Critically acclaimed for its fearless engagement with issues of race, gender violence, and the corporate exploitation of youth culture.

THE CHASER’S WAR ON EVERYTHING

Director:                    Mark Fitzgerald

Duration:                   26’

Original Language:  English

Country:                   Australia

Genre:                        TV - Entertainment

In just one season, The Chaser’s War On Everything has become a cornerstone Australian entertainment programme, securing ABC TV’s formidable reputation for broadcasting the best in groundbreaking, unique comedy. Each week, the Chaser boys poke fun at national and international politics, sport, celebrities, big business, and whatever else pops up in Australian news: all with the hallmark Chaser flair, individuality and take-no-prisoners attitude, making for compelling, edgy social commentary. The Chaser approach to comedy includes satirizing topical issues with real-life experiences. For example, in Episode 25, Julian Morrow demonstrates the inadequacies of Australia ’s terrorism protection at Australian airports. At the height of the passenger profiling controversy, Julian books two online Virgin Blue e-tickets for a flight from Sydney to Melbourne under the names of Terry Wrist and Al Kyder.

SOUVENIRS

Directors:                 Shahar Cohen & Halil Efrat

Duration:                   75’

Original Language: Hebrew

Country:                   Israel

Genre:                        Documentary - Docudrama

Shahar is an unemployed filmmaker. His father, Sleiman, a strict 82-year-old Yemenite, suggests that Shahar makes a film about the Jewish Brigade in which he had served during WWII. Shahar becomes enthusiastic only when he realizes that his father may have left behind some ‘souvenirs,’ by having impregnated two Dutch women. He decides to make the film hoping to find his father’s lost offspring, and maybe take off some of the burden of his father’s criticism. Retracing history by car, father and son set out together on the trail of the Jewish Brigade, beginning in Israel, through Italy and Germany, and ending in Holland with a surprising discovery. The film exposes the complex father-son relationship between Sleiman and Shahar with humour and compassion, and raises universal questions about the tension between myths of bravery and reality and between memory and historical truth. An engaging and humorous journey by a father and son in search of the father’s untold past. Did the filmmakers have any idea of what they were getting themselves into? How did making the film affect the family? Were there other stories that the father did not tell his sons?

PARZ: DUTY OF A SON

Director:                    Temirbek Birnazarov

Duration:                   23’

Original Language:             Kyrgyz

Country:                   Kyrgyzstan

Genre:                        Fiction – TV Movie

A young man returns home from prison. He tries to begin a new life, but his old father dies. He has to slaughter a horse to bury his father according to Kyrgyz traditions. In spite of his poverty, he must follow the tradition. The dramatic interpretation of a son’s responsibility for his dying father. The production is visually compelling and told with deliberate, sustained and often symbolic imagery. Some critics would question the pace of the film and the general lack of dialogue or narration, however these are the issues that create tension when compared with modern Western sensibilities. How effective is this style of storytelling?

WHEN WE WERE BLACK

Director:                    Khalo Mathabane

Duration: 

Original Language:             Zulu / English

Country:                   South Africa

Genre:                        Fiction – TV Drama Series

An awkward, self-doubting but intelligent teenager on a quest to lose his virginity falls hopelessly in love with a young political activist’s girlfriend. In trying to win her affections, he enters into the dangerous world of revolutionary politics that and his journey culminates in her premature death on June 16, 1976, a day that was to become etched in the collective memory of black South Africa. A coming of age story set against the backdrop of the June 1976 student uprisings in Soweto . South Africans are still struggling to capture the drama of their recent past. This tale of love, courage and devotion meets the challenge of telling a simple yet compelling human story that plays out while dominant historical forces have been set in motion. For young Director Khalo Mathabane this film is very much about his own coming of age.

THE GLOW OF WHITE WOMEN

Director:                    Yunus Vally

Duration:

Original Language:             English

Country:                   South Africa

Genre:                        Documentary - Factual

A documentary that was part of a series called “Black On White”… black South African filmmakers (who often experienced life as “the other”) turned their lenses on white people and whiteness. “The Glow”is the personal journey of a first time filmmaker, Yunus Vally, whose sexuality and awareness was shaped by white female icons in a conservative Afrikaner town. Take one impressionable, highly talented Muslim boy in the heart of an Afrikaner rural world of narrow boxes, funnel down his throat a bizarre kind of white beauty and top it all off with the insanity of apartheid supremacy. The result is a rare and insightful kick-ass look at issues of sexuality, sensuality and identity. Come and check how gun toting white girls in bikinis shape our world today.

SHADYA

Director:                    Roy Westler

Duration:                   53’

Original Language:  Hebrew/Arabic

Country:                   United States

Genre:                        Documentary – Docu Drama

Shadya Zoabi, a 17-year-old Muslim girl from a small Arab village in northern Israel and a World Champion in karate, lives according to her own distinct principles and does not want to be like other Muslim women. Shadya’s brothers are against her involvement in karate. In their view, a Muslim woman has a specific path in life – and it is forbidden to stray from this destiny. In spite of Shadya’s father’s support of her karate, the social pressure from her brothers and the surrounding community is difficult to overcome. Shadya is a story about the coming of age of a young Muslim woman who desires to succeed on her own terms, but who is still committed to her life within the Muslim community. Will she succeed in balancing her ambitions after her marriage? Will she remain a World Champion?

REAL ONLINE

Director:                    John Jsu

Duration:                   77’

Original Language:  Mandarin

Country:                   Taiwan

Genre:                        Fiction – TV Movie

The online game Ideal Online introduces a new game zone, Hero Country. The game zone deals in profit, disputes, alliances and slaughter. This inverted image of reality is reflected entirely within the striking clothing and scenery. A convenience store employee in Ideal Online is facing marital crisis and divorce looms. Three hoodlums in Ideal Online are killed for gain by a brutal gamer. A female high school student and a primary school student in Ideal Online are now faced with a moral tragedy. In order to recoup what they’ve lost, gamers shuttle back and forth between the real world and the game zone. However, in today’s crazy mixed-up world where the border between reality and the online world is blurred, given the desire and regret caused by living within these worlds, can the two worlds really complement one another? Can they make up for the gamers’ loss and reward them with consolation?

LET’S MAKE A BABY

Director:                    Helen Sage

Duration:                   57’

Original Language:  English

Country:                   United Kingdom

Genre:                        Documentary – Series

Mischief was an innovative and wildly ambitious series tackling topical and often serious issues by using humour combined with solid journalism and taking unique approaches to stories that are often only the preserve of more serious current affairs programming. In Let's Make A Baby– one of the lighter episodes in the series – the idea was to test how far reality TV makers and contestants would be prepared to go. A proposterous, fake but almost believable idea was hatched and then presented, promoted and pitched to the world's TV organizations. Auditions were held for willing contestants to take part in this most ethically grotesque reality TV format. Would anyone actually believe it was real? And worse, would anyone want to buy it and take part in it?

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE - JONESTOWN

Director:                    Stanley Nelson

Duration:                   90’

Original Language:  English

Country:                   United States

Genre:                        Documentary – Factual

On 17 November 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan traveled to an isolated rain forest in Guyana to investigate the concerns of his San Francisco-area constituents. Their alarming stories focused on a jungle compound known as Jonestown, a group called the People’s Temple , and its leader, Rev. Jim Jones. According to news filtering back to America, U.S. citizens were being held against their will in prison-camp conditions. There were allegations of physical and sexual abuse and even rumors of a planned mass suicide. Congressman Ryan, an impassioned human rights advocate, decided to get the facts for himself. Within 48 hours, Ryan, Jones, and over 900 Jonestown settlers were dead: casualties of the largest mass murder-suicide in history. American Experience goes beyond the salacious headlines to provide a revealing portrait of Jones, his followers, and the times that produced the calamity in the Guyanese jungle.

Press release: Read more about the Joburg Mini-Input