Saturday & SunDay

Saturday….

A day of darker descent than yesterday, Saturday started of slowly but gently, like a lovers nibble on the ear good morning. Those jaws turned quickly to hyenas as I was forced to laugh at myself and the way the universe always has a bigger plan.

I'd plann'd to complete my video submission for the www.mobstar.co.za competition long ago. So there I am, and it’s a quarter-to-five and I'm still editing the second clip, and I'm meant to be in the projector's booth from 6-10 and the competition closes tonight, and I've got to throw my coin in t roll round the wishing well at least once. A blur of cuts, voice-takes, sending failed, and whoops of delight, as the bum made it to the seat for Bunny Chow.

Essentially the tale of three stand-up comedians that leave lovers and enemies behind to travel to a performance at Oppikoppi. A road trip with funny characters, hilarious events and a well-known bunch of actors, this movie clearly suffers from the cut-n-past mistakes of drawing in too much culture, and not exposing enough of what is there. The storyline was loosely setup for a quick string draw, but the directors lost their grip and frayed ends of a half-baked storyline appeared. [For the random character picked up by the three; insert Jon Depp's Hunter S character with the stranger they pick up at the beginning of Fear & Loathing.] Of all the situations the team could have faced and addressed in the little town scene, the one chosen shows the level of scripting involved. Something serious could have been developed through a conversation later in the movie referencing or commenting on it, tho it did serve to push the unlikedness of some characters, and the general theme of betrayal and deception. Sure, overall, the movie was funny, the Old Boy reference was enjoyed and the camera work, angles and tones were great!, wet it turn'd out to be a soggy chow.

Sunday..funday..and every1 was having fun sumwere else. Quiet nights at Kwacinema , Shooting Ghosts looked like Screening 2ghosts. The behind the scenes look at the shooting of a movie delved heavily into the production landscape, showing the real edginess that some shots take. The section of Ghosts with a submerged vehicle really was a near-death experience for the filming crew and actors, as the shots revealed broken sets.

Mahaleo was an inspirational tale of four musicians who play in a band, and how their daily lives intertwine. Social commentary and a great deal of culture was slipped through the content.

And that was how the KwaDiff007 rolled end credits, title sequence, cut.

Fin

FRIdAy 29 juNe oo7

FRIDAY Panoramic IceBoxxing….

Now this Friday, was a Friday I will remember. A day that involved lots of tromping round getting missions done. I was looking forward to a Festive Friday night, with Indian Ocean islands and the Massive IceBox on the roll. The evening did the day justice. Both events were commercially unstable. Not enough people arrived, not nearly as many as should have.

The choice of movies for the Panorama didn’t inspire death defying wheel stunts to get to KwaCinema at 6, surely though, there is a segment that would like to see these sorta movies, perhaps the location could have been accessible to foreigners, even guerilla screenings in Albert Park? There is a massive contingent of French speakers that live closer to the city that most of us do. The price of R15 was decent, so the real question is: did anyone advertise these movies in French?

Ice Boxx was a really sad affair, not entirely sad, but bittersweet, half-reluctant sad, like the way Durban gets sometimes. There were some really amazing storylines , animations and digital crafting projected at KwaCinema, indeed. The Balloon Monkey and the Bread with eyes that cries 'Loaf' when it cut it! The Lark video with a really pissed-off teddy bear! The fractal eye candy. The Dating Tips. It really was a great line-up of digital and animation trickery and wizardry, a sort of brain food for creatives. The one disappointing thing was the real lack of presence of anything related to IceBoxx or RustPunk. No music, no people, no sights, no sounds, no url links. It seemd as though the screenings were tossed aside as an after-something, rather than being the central connecting focal point and networking mechanism it could have been. I expected IceBoxx to forward us some correspondence, so that we could at least inform those that arrived, or that RustPunk could have sold a screening/party combo ticket. Just ideas from this dear..

KwaCinema Music Video Shoot - IceBox Party

Its not very important on the bigger radar, when you zoom into the sector, and see that this could have been an important engagement event, all parties will realise they'd miss a trick.

It's good to see that the Durban Electronic Musicians are getting together. Finally!

ThursDay 28 june 007

Well, well, its already drifted past, and slowly these eyes are uncurling, and peeking at this very circular world we live. In. DIFF007 has been and been scene, not a has-been scene but a token bar scene, with beers and popcorn.

I have been away from my desk, and so these posts are coming thru a little slower than I had hoped. Here are the final days' posts:

The WAVESCAPE Finale'.

I'm referring to, of course, the KwaCinema Finale' - a supreme evenings viewing, for water babies and land-lovers too. I've never ally been fascinated by 'surf genre' movies, cos it looks like surferWanking material. A Penthouse of Waves. Lots of them do have good music though. And this we like. Personal favourite was Glass Love. Even though I caught most of it in the foyer, the music had a driving element, that thing about the surfer way of life, the eternal search for the eternal wave. Any movie that features a track from Neil Young's 'On the Beach' album as part of the soundtrack, gets serious thumbsup! Great to have soothing, calming and terrifying waves to soundtrack the eyes.

The final movie, one the first I saw with my bum to a seat was Sipping Jetstreams. A moving collage of people and places from the world hand pasted together in a collage of discovery and delight. Really fractions of culture from places in the world, with the sea and the rhythm as the connector, this really had an impression on me. if you get a chance to see it, its worth the 50 minutes.