Cinematography
Two storylines involving artists in lockdown intersect in this South African drama about creativity, mindfulness and wellbeing. Jabu is an ambitious auteur plagued by demons, who accepts a place on the jury at a film festival in Johannesburg so he can be closer to his young son. He has been clean for months now, and is working on the side as part of the scriptwriting team for the most popular soap in South Africa. All with the aim of becoming the father he previously failed to be. Roxanne is a filmmaker on the verge of her international breakthrough, struggling with an unwanted pregnancy – which in South Africa cannot legally be terminated.
Camera Operator
Battle-hardened O’Hara leads a lively mercenary team of soldiers on a daring mission: rescue hostages from their captors in remote Africa. But as the mission goes awry and the team is stranded, O’Hara’s squad must face a bloody, brutal encounter with a gang of rebels.
Cinematography
A teen boy runs errands while being followed by various figures of authority. As he shares his experience with friends, this tense and controlled drama deftly explores the cyclical effects of victimization on the wider community.
Director of Photography
Anyone who grows up in Sandton spends a lot of time hanging out at pools and drug-filled parties – for this part of Johannesburg is the richest spot in the whole of Africa. Necktie Youth portrays this first post-apartheid gilded youth in striking black-and-white. Soft colours are reserved for their childhood memories of the early years of the rainbow nation. White 19-year-old Emily did not understand the codes of their set and could not take the pace of the ever-changing, fleeting liaisons, says the super cool, black and privileged September when he tries to explain to a TV reporter why Emily hung herself in her parents’ garden. She even positioned her camera in such a way that her suicide could be streamed live.
