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INTERVIEW
form of lviosle, 's crooked boss frank Nugent l[)avid Morsei, Opening With a liquor store shooting; l)l()llll)lt:(l by Mosle, "f. IllElIHlll‘, to p; ss the (lay .‘.”llllfilll alcohol, the action builds to a tense hostage situation on lmald a
SONG OF THE SOUTH Tom Dawson talks to Mark Dornford-May, the director of a new African township version of the opera Carmen.
‘Everyone thought we were completely mad’, recalls the filmmaker Mark
Dornford-May of peoples’ reactions when he first told them that he wanted to make a film in Xhosa of Bizet’s nineteenth century opera Carmen and to set the story in the South African township of Khayelitsha. ‘Did you know that 95% of white South Africans have never been to a township? They’re conditioned by the myth that these are violent places. But we never had any problems filming there.’
The British-born Dornford-May, whose CV includes stints directing at the RSC (aged just 21) and the National Theatre, moved to Cape Town some six years ago, with the aim of setting up a lyric theatre company. Having auditioned over 2,000 candidates, he recruited 40 members to form the DDK (Dimpho Di Kopane), whose first two theatrical productions The Mysteries and Carmen toured around the world. ‘People were talking about the performance of Pauline Malefane [who has since become Dornford-May’s wife] as Carmen, and we started to think that we should record it somehow’, he continues. ‘We didn’t want that stilted quality that opera on film often has, and because it was a South African company we decided to set it in Khayelitsha and have it sung in the Xhosa language. To
outsiders that seems like quite a leap. For us though it was the equivalent
to Woody Allen setting a film in Manhattan.’
U Carmen eKhayeIitsha won the coveted Golden Bear at the Berlin Festival in 2005, yet what gives Dornford-May particular satisfaction is that he has been able to show his film to black South African audiences. ‘Most of the cinemas in South Africa are in shopping malls and they are difficult to get to unless you have a car’, he says. ‘And the tickets are expensive and most of the films have little relevance to black peoples’ lives. So we turned the concert hall in Khayelitsha that we used in the film, into a cinema, and got audiences of 1,000 people a day.’
Dornford-May and DDK have already completed a second feature, Son of Man, in which Jesus Christ is born in a contemporary African country occupied by an army seeking to introduce democracy. Is the director, I ask, surprised at how much he has achieved in a short space of time? ‘If somebody had told me five years ago that our company would do all this in terms of film and theatre’, he smiles, ‘I would have said it’s a fantasy, and that it would take 20 years. Somehow everything has come together.’ I U Carmen eKhaye/itsha is at Fi/mhouse. Edinburgh from Fri 5 May. See review. page 45.
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I General l<?/c’.'l.‘§i? from Fri 26 Apr,
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THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON (12A) 110min 00.0
Daniel Johnston himself has said that he would have liked to see more of his music making in this documentary portrait of a manic-depressive genius Singer-songwriter. But it's to director Jeff Feuer/eig's credit that he balances detailing Johnston's music career (championed by. variously, Kurt Cobain, Thurston Moore. Tom Waits and Matt Groening) With his personal history, particularly Johnston's battle With debilitating mental illness Which has seen him incarcerated in a number of psychiatric hospitals.
Whatever Johnston's own misgivuigs about the film. he nevertheless made such an iii-depth. warts-and—all portrait possible by. firstly. making himself and his family available for intewiews and, secondly. by handing over to Feuerzeig hours of home mowes and audio tapes which afford real insight into the mind and heart of Johnston, man and boy.
MiXing that material With archive footage and commentaries by Johnston’s friends and musical peers. Feuerzeig has fashioned a film that's alternater shocking. touching and funny, punctuated With his subjects Wildly idiosyncratic and deeply passionate muSic. You can't help but be affected by the stOry of a man who lost his mind Just as his talent was being uncovered in the thriving music scene of Austin. Texas in the 808 (Johnston dropped acid at a Butthole Surfers gig and was never the same again, according to singer Gibby Haines). Also movmg is the fact that Johnston has been Supported through his hardest times by lovmg elderly parents leven though he attempted to kill himself and his father whilst they were airborne in a two-sealer plane) in this rich ponrait of an adult surViVOr Who continues to make mLiSic today. (Miles Fielder)
I GFT. Glasgow and Cameo. Edinburgh from Fri 5 May. See profile in listings.
Film news and giveaways to keep you amused
I With just only a few weeks to go before the 59th Cannes Film Festival kicks off, organizers have unveiled the anticipated lineup. Ron Howard’s world premiere of The Da Vinci Code will open the festival on 17 May and Algerian/French director Tony Gatlif’s drama Transylvania starring the mighty Asia Argento, will close the 12-day festival on May 28th. Other highlights include Sofia Coppola’s Marie-Antoinette and Richard Donnie Darko Kelly’s LA based comedy/thriller Southland Tales. Richard Linklater has two films in competition, Fast Food Nation (based loosely on Schlosser’s book) and A Scanner Darkly. Our hot tips for the fortnight are Almodovar’s Volver (pictured), his return to the all female hysteria of All About My Mother and Nanni Moretti’s II Caimano in which the great Italian filmmaker demolishes the recently unseated Silvio Berlusconi in a withering satire.
I Don’t miss a rare public appearance by Robin The Wicker Man Hardy at the book launch of The Quest for the Wicker Man. Blackwell bookshop. South Bridge. Edinburgh. 6:30 pm on Fri 5 May.
WIN A DVD PLAYER AND COPIES OF BREAKFAST DN PlUTD
Breakfast on Pluto is released through Pattie Distribution Limited on DVD from 18 May and to celebrate we are givmg one very lucky Winner the chance to Win a JVC DVD player and a copy of this bittersweet tale of lore and loss On DVD. Plus we have fi fl: runner up DVDs of the film. To enter, Just send an email to promotionsmlistcouk no later than 10 May 2006. Usual List rules apply.
27 Apr—1 1 Ma,’ 2006 THE LIST 43