Cape Town film festival to feature LGBTQ films

The Cape Town International Film Market and Festival (CTIFMF) has announced that it’s proud to present a series of films focused on LGBTQ stories from around the world.

ALSO READ: Terry Pheto Stars In Lead Role In International Movie, FACES

This diverse selection of films speak to the diversity of experiences from within the LGBTQ community and yet also resonate strongly with universal themes of love, acceptance, and self-discovery.

Two African films, one from South Africa and one from Nigeria, will have red carpet premieres during the festival.

The South African Premiere of the film Kanarie on October 10th at 8:30pm SK Nouveau V&A Waterfront (https://www.kanariefilm.com/) The film, directed by Christiaan Olwagen and starring Schalk Bezuidenhout has won numerous awards.

Set in South Africa in 1985 against a backdrop of apartheid, religion, and war, Kanarie follows a teen boy, Johan Niemand, who has always been bullied in his small town for his flair for British new wave music and love of Boy George. After he gets called on by the military and auditions for the Kanaries (the South African Defence Force Church Choir and Concert Group), he believes the choir will be his ticket out of fighting the war, but he begins to see the role he plays in the oppression and injustice around him. On tour, he develops feelings for a fellow Canary and he starts to question everything he knows about himself, leading to a confrontation with his commanding officers.

Kanarie is a love story. A film about finding individuality in a world of the oppression and uniformity.

The Nigerian / UK co-production Walking with Shadows will have its World Premiere at the CTIFMF on 12 October 8:00pm @ Nu Metro5. Based on the novel by Nigerian author Jude Dibia, the film tells the story of a man who has to come to terms with his dark secret and choose between keeping his family or accepting a life of possible loneliness and rejection.

Hot off its USA theatrical release, and a win at the Sundance Film Festival, The Miseducation of Carmen Post is based on the celebrated novel by Emily M. Danforthand ollows Cameron (Chloë Grace Moretz) as she is sent to a gay conversion therapy center after getting caught with another girl in the back seat of a car on prom night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEdngvMGjg0

Cape Town International Film Festival Director Leon van der Merwe describes this year’s selection this way: “Queer cinema has never offered a more richly complex and diverse characters and stories than we have seen recently and that shines through in the quality of films that the program team have put together. This diversity of films reflects shifts in cultural conversations around identity, but also the festival’s own spirit as welcoming and inclusive.

We try to forget the labels and look for queerness in all kinds of films. It really works because this section of the festival is very successful within the community but also for an audience who’s just interested in seeing these films.”

From the 10th -19th of October, 80 Feature Films, 20 documentaries and 66 short films will be screened at various venues at the V & A Waterfront.

Image Courtesy: Supplied 

Leave a Comment