Poverty, opulence, opera at SA film fest

Cinema-goers are in for a dose of reality as the country’s popular documentary festival Encounters opens for its 15th edition on Thursday.

The festival features a selection of local and international documentaries covering a wide selection of realities: from the lavishness of the lives of rich Americans, to the story of a struggling young man in eastern Europe.

New festival director Lesedi Oluko Moche says, “Documentaries broaden our experience of the world, showing us places few of us would otherwise see… We’re incredibly excited about this year’s streamlined lineup.”

The Good Weekend was able to sample a few of the films, ahead of their screenings, which take place at The Fugard and V&A Nu Metro.

The Queen of Versailles (June 11 at 8pm, June 13 at 8.45pm and June 16 at 8pm, all at the V&A)

There was an old man who lived in a big house. He had many children so he built a bigger one. In fact, time-share tycoon David Siegel tried to build the biggest private residence in the US. So big, the Versailles mega-mansion was designed with 30 bedrooms, a bowling alley, oh and a sushi bar for wife Jackie.

Queen of Versailles is jaw-dropping reality fun. In the vein of Kardashian-gawking, the film is styled to meet the tastes of the reality TV generation. Watch as the Siegels have to adjust to pinching their pockets and hold on to their extravagant dreams.

Park Avenue (June 11 at 6.45pm at the V&A)

Park Avenue is a street of contrast. On the Manhattan end, it is inhabited by the highest concentration of billionaires in the US. The other end is in the much poorer community of the Bronx.

Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream attempts to answer whether the US really is a land of equal opportunity. It zones in on 740 Park Avenue, home to powerful billionaires who have influenced American history. Some of their secrets come out through an interview with a doorman from the block of flats.

Mr Shakes – The Passion to Live! (Friday at 8.45pm at the V&A)

This film is best described by its director Shelley Barry. “It’s about disco, cancer, tik and Jesus.”

Port Elizabeth’s disco scene was run by Mr Shakes, who owned an empire of clubs around the city. Barry and her camera tour through PE, looking at Shakes’s old clubs. He is now a cancer patient in remission, who is trying to solve PE’s tik problem. Barry tells The Good Weekend she chose his story as she found him fascinating when she was younger.

“I used to go to his clubs when I lived in PE. He is extremely fascinating – his outfits, they way he performed, he is an entertainer.”

The film has nostalgic elements for kids of the nineties, a time when disco matinees were still in. Shakes is portrayed holistically: as a keen businessman and now a philanthropist. One of the coolest things about the festival is that he will be here for the screening and will play a gig at G-Spot in Epping after it that evening.

The White Picket Fence Project (June 8 at 8.15pm and June 13 at 6.45pm, both at NuMetro)

This film was a labour of love. Made over seven years, it documents the loves of two young men: Valon, a Roma (gypsy) butcher in Kosovo, and Loyiso, a Gugulethu school pupil. The film cuts between their similar stories of poverty and their journeys to a better life.

The film was co-produced by the locally based Gathered Moss Productions (who filmed Loyiso) and the overseas companies Silverwood Films and Tfor2 films.

Tamarin Kaplan, of Gathered Moss, said she developed a bond with Loyiso during the film.

“His life interwove with my life. He put my life into perspective,” she says.

Loyiso’s life from high school into tertiary education has the potential to be a tear-jerker as he tops his class. Valon, on the other hand, has just a primary school education and struggles to finish his schooling as an adult.

Kaplan says the title refers to a privileged perspective of viewing Loyiso and Valon’s lives.

An Inconsolable Memory (June 10 at 8.15pm at the Fugard and June 15 at 8pm at the V&A)

This was the least interesting of the films I selected, but try it if you are a fan of the finer arts.

The film is about the Eoan Group, a Cape Town grassroots amateur opera, ballet and drama organisation. It features old footage of the groups performances, but the film painfully shows it for lengthy periods.

Stephanus Muller, a researcher on the film, says the project began when an archive of material on the group was found under the Joseph Stone Auditorium.

• For more on Encounters see www.encounters.co.za or follow @encountersdoc on Twitter.

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Twitter: @WendylMartin