DIABELLI VARIATION XXXIII

Self-portrait with Nanny (2004) is a gem from last year. The faded images of Kaganof as a baby put to retro burlesque music are a reference to the silent films of long ago. Once again, Kaganof pays homage to popular cinema, for this film is a perfect essay on the durability of cinematic time, as well as on the auto referential and egocentric dimension of the work of many great artists.-Dionysos Andronis

South African auteur Aryan Kaganof plunders George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Alain Resnais' L'année dernière à Marienbad (1961) AKA Last Year at Marienbad. On the Jozi side up there’s the mysterious cerebra of noise and relative Electronic conceits, The African Noise Foundation. Fused around the sound-design of muti-instrumentalist/multi-producer Joel Assaizky (Bunny Chow; Hard Copy) and meta-conducting of AK Thembeka, the Foundation is dedicated to re/locating and exploding Africa’s melodic distortion into song. Check out link “We promise nothing. We bring the Noise.”

Based on the writings of: J.G. Ballard, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Henry Rollins, Roberta Lannes, Edmund Emil Kemper, etc. The structure of this film is literally that of the title: ten monologues adapted from various fiction and documentary sources which combine to produce an unsettling work that does not pretend to analyse nor to understand the serial killers.

I think at bottom, that the structure of the film is the structure of the person's mind who made it, and if that is a mind that is striving for effect because it is striving for effect, the film will be empty, however interesting it happens to be on the surface. If it is a mind that has been able to organize its own experience, and if that experience is cohesive and of one piece, it will be a poetic film. Arthur Miller

The hour-long documentary, entitled Die Ander Rebellie, delves into aspects of the recent labour unrest mostly hidden from view in daily media reports. Filmed on location in places like Hangberg, Smartietown, Cloetesville, Heuwelkroon, Boesmanskloof, Rondebosch Common and De Doorns, it features interviews with so-called activists and scenes of protest. The footage was shot right at the beginning of the trouble, before the large-scale closing down of the N2, and provides a thrilling if spine-chilling picture of how the protest started as well as the political and cultural motivations behind it. A large segment of the film focuses on the struggle music of the growingly coherent group of people who have now started to call themselves "Khoisan activists", which is nothing less than a form of brown nationalism.

But happily Kerkhof the uncompromising iconoclast is back. With his newest film RON ATHEY: IT’S SCRIPTED (the original title RON ATHEY: SO MANY WAYS TO SAY HALLELUJAH had to be changed because there is already a 2 hour documentary in production under this title) he has delivered a convincing artistic achievement. Those without strong stomachs will probably find the overwhelming amount of injection needles and razor blades a bit too much, but the film is so cleverly constructed that one cannot look away.

One does not learn the art of Blind Fiilmmaking, one lives and experiences it, for no science will give you the key to the mysteries of the soul. One cannot become a good Blind Filmmaker without turning oneself into an object of study, evincing daily interest in the complexity of one's own case. To be initiated into the mysteries of the other, you must first be initiated into your own.

This is a rare unreleased Aryan Kaganof short that has never been released in any form. It features scenes from Kaganof's early feature The Mozart Bird (1993), including scenes that were cut from the film. Sweetness was also inspired by the theories of Guy Debord.

A SACRIFICE (South Africa, 2003, 13min19sec, 16mm/DVcam) A re-mix of the experimental classic CORRIDOR (1970) by Standish Lawder, with music by Jaques Casteréde and Geez n Gosh. world premiere was at the National Arts festival in Grahamstown.

A reconstruction of the history of South Africa’s first opera company, Eoan, and an exercise in getting at the truth, not only showing what it meant to be "a colored" during the apartheid regime, but also evoking the painful memories of that time. Interviews with former members of Eoan, photos, newspaper clippings, sound recordings, archive footage of opera performances and street scenes featuring the residents of District 6 in Cape Town give an impression of the world in which these people lived. By paying attention to the way in which the documentary was made – to questions that were not asked and answers that were not officially given – the painful truth behind the images and faces is gradually revealed.