As if pivoting to digital earlier this year wasn’t enough of a filmic treat, the Sydney South African Film Festival is back with more goodies for your weekend movie fix. SSAFF On Demand will showcase 16 hits plucked from the previous two years of cinematic excellence that draws on South Africa’s rich diversity, and its complex political and economical realities.
Offering you a second chance to see highlights you might have missed, or ones so good you're itching to see them again, each movies costs $8, or you can grab the lot for the bargain price of $60.
The digital platform includes uplifting documentary Beyond Moving. A Billy Elliot story with a South African twist, the film shares the story of Siphe November, a gifted ballet dancer discovered as a boy in the townships. Also in the documentary category, Buddha in Africa offers a revealing look at China’s influence in the region as it follows a Malawian teenager’s upbringing in a Buddhist orphanage.
The feature offering includes Oscar-nominated director Angus Gibson’s Back of The Moon, which centres on Sophiatown, the black ghetto in Johannesburg which was the first target for removal by the Apartheid government during the 1950’s. In The Last Victims, another film inspired by the country’s conflict-ridden history, a former member of South Africa’s infamous death squad seeks to atone for his past when he helps one survivor search for the bodies of a missing anti-apartheid cell.
Just jump on their website between at Friday, July 3, and Sunday, July 12. Ticket proceeds go towards supporting Education without Borders’ programs that assist young South Africans in some of the country’s most disadvantaged communities.