Screening Times
Thursday, February 11th 2010, 12:00pm, Moriarty Arts and Humanities Building, Room 104 Showcase Film with Film Director John Kani. Sponsored by Providence Health & Services.
Friday, February 12th 2010, 7:00pm, Hollywood Theatre Showcase Film with Film Director John Kani. Sponsored by Providence Health & Services.
All films are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.
NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH
Directed by John Kani
South Africa, 2008, 118 min.
It gives us enormous pleasure to welcome John Kani, the veteran South African actor, playwright and now film director, to Portland for our 20th anniversary festival. Based on his popular play of the same title, Nothing But The Truth investigates, through the lives of a troubled family, the complex dynamic between political exiles and those who remained in South Africa during the apartheid years. Sipho Makhaya (played by Mr. Kani), a librarian, must bury his political hero brother. But what should be a dignified funeral soon turns into something altogether different as dark secrets from the past surface. Winner of the Silver Stallion Award at FESPACO 2009. In English.
Film was great! Very interesting to see overlapping belief in JESUS and the holding on of old traditions. The discussion afterward was GREAT! John Kani understanding of how families are being broken down is on point!
An interesting use of humor, particularly the ability to laugh at oneself when life is impossible. The characters were clearly representations of particular types in South Africa. Beautiful dynamic between the traditional father and the respectful and evolving daughter.
The film does a remarkable job of dealing with the tensions arising from several South African realities–tensions between individuals who went into exile and those who remained at home during the apartheid era, tensions over Africanization of previously white dominated institutions, and tensions over the Truth and Reconciliation process to cite a few. The film is very honest about these tensions and doesn’t sugar coat them. For example in the end I think it affirms the T & R process while showing how emotionally difficult it was and how it conflicted with many black South Africans’ sense of justice. All in this is a wonderful film by a man with a keen understanding of his country’s history and a sense humor brimming with humanity.