Archive for the ‘Biography’ Category
by Carolyn on Jun 12th, 2013
The film based on Nelson Mandela’s autobiography A Long Walk to Freedom is set to be released on 29 November this year, producer Anant Singh told The Witness. The film, with Prometheus star Idris Elba playing Mandela, was shot on location in South Africa.
Singh relates that, after he had shown images from the film to Madiba, Graça Machel and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela – specifically one of Elba in the iconic Madiba shirt – the former president remarked: “Is that me?”
Other actors participating include Tony Kgoroge (Walter Sisulu), Riaad Moosa (Ahmed Kathrada), Zolani Mkiva (Raymond Mhlaba), Simo Magwaza (Andrew Mlangeni), Fana Mokoena (Govan Mbeki), Thapelo Mokoena (Elias Motsoaledi) and Naomie Harris (Winnie Mandela).
On the 50th anniversary of the first arrival of Nelson Mandela as a prisoner on Robben Island, film producer Anant Singh announced that the film, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, which is based on Mandela’s autobiography, is currently in the final stages of post-production. It is on schedule to be released in South Africa on November 29 this year.
The film, shot entirely in South Africa, started principal photography exactly a year ago in KwaZulu-Natal and went on to shoot for 16 weeks at authentic locations in Cape Town, Robben Island, Johannesburg and the Eastern Cape.
Book details
Images courtesy Lanka Standard and The Witness
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by Maggie Marx on Jun 12th, 2013
Uitspraak: wortel
Hierdie boek bestaan uit twee dele. Die eerste deel daarvan was vir my uiters interessant. Die tweede deel was uiters ongemaklik.
Die eerste deel van die boek handel oor Verwoerd se kinderjare, huwelik met Wilhelm Verwoerd, politieke ontwaking, jare as ANC-parlementslid en ampstyd as Suid-Afrikaanse ambassadeur in Ierland.
Boekbesonderhede
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by Lindsay on Jun 12th, 2013
At the Andrew Murray book prizes award ceremony in Wellington last month, Michael Lapsley received the Andrew Murray / Desmond Tutu prize for Christian and Theological publications, which had been awarded to his memoir, Redeeming the Past.
The other winners were Ernst Conradie, who received the Andrew Murray Prize for Afrikaans Christian publications for his book Lewend en kragtig?, and Neels Jackson who received the Special Andrew Murray Prize for his reporting on religious issues.
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by Maggie Marx on Jun 11th, 2013
Uitspraak: wortel
Ná Boy se dood het die gesin met ’n soort forensiese ondersoek begin, soos Shand, vrou van die akteur David Butler, dit noem. Die verskriklike hoekom.
Dié woord het soos ’n donker wolk oor haar en oor Peter John Butler, of Boy (14), se pa en sy susters gehang. Ook oor Fikile, die vrou wat hom help grootmaak het – ’n vriendin wat moontlik ’n grepie lig kon werp op dié verskriklike ingryp in die eens sorgelose, gemoedelike, gelukkige gesin. Sy was die een wat ’n laaste gesprek met Boy gehad het.
Boekbesonderhede
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by Carolyn on Jun 11th, 2013
A film based on renowned Nigerian author Wole Soyinka’s 1989 memoir Ake: The Years of Childhood is in development, reports Tambay A Obenson on Indiewire.
Ake is set in the years before and during World War II in Nigeria and is the story of Soyinka as a boy who attempts “to grasp the often irrational and hypocritical world of adults that equally repels and seduces him”.
According to the film’s website, it will be narrated by Soyinka himself. The project, with director Yemi Akintokun at the helm, has been on the cards for as long as 25 years and was first mooted as a television series. Finally, this month, production will start in Abeokuta and Ibadan, in the hopes of completing it by Soyinka’s 80th birthday on 13 July 2014. The film budget is estimated at N350m million Naira (2.5 million US Dollars).
Thanks to our friends at Nollywood Mindspace, I’ve learned that a feature film based on the 1989 memoir of Wole Soyinka – the internationally-renowned prolific Nigerian playwright, poet, novelist, and critic, who was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Titled Ake: The Years of Childhood, the memoir is described as a lyrical account of one boy’s attempt to grasp the often irrational and hypocritical world of adults that equally repels and seduces him. It is told from the POV of Soyinka’s 11-year-old self.
From the film’s website:
Ake is set in the years just before World War II; the author himself was born in 1934. Apart from a narrative aesthetic and lucidity of prose which is rare in Soyinka’s regular literary works, it combines a beautiful child-view narrative technique with direct echoes from the war as heard or imagined down in Ake, Abeokuta.
Mrs. Funmilayo Rasome-Kuti (aunt of the writer) wonders in a telephone conversation with the colonial district officer why the United States of America would drop a lethal bomb on crowded cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the same could have been made to detonate upon empty Japanese hills to dramatize the appropriate message.
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Image coutesy Gist Media
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by Carolyn on Jun 11th, 2013
Verdict: carrot
THIS book documents the last months of Craig Schonegevel’s life as he made the decision to commit suicide because of his disease and its effects on his body. Suffering from neurofibromatosis, Schonegevel was in and out of hospital many times for operations dealing with tumours that had developed as a result of his condition.
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by Lindsay on Jun 7th, 2013
Jenny Crwys-Williams is launching the monthly Gautrain Book Club with Redi Tlhabi, author of the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award shortlisted book, Endings and Beginnings, as her first guest.
The book club will meet at Rosebank Station and you’ll travel with Tlhabi in Gautrain style to Pretoria Station where wine and snacks will be served in the Blue Train lounge. You’ll meet Tlhabi, get books signed and then travel back to Rosebank. You’ll be in Joburg no later than 9 PM.
As it is the inaugural event, the evening will be free of charge. People living in Pretoria can also attend the event in the Blue Train lounge for free.
Don’t miss it!
Event Details
- Date: Wednesday, 12 June 2013
- Time: 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM, it’s imperative that you arrive on time as the train won’t wait.
- Venue: Gauteng Rosebank Station
Corner Oxford & Bolton Roads
Johannesburg | Map
- Parking: Gautrain Rosebank Station
- RSVP: justjenny@iafrica.com, 076 780 6383 – please call this number if you get lost.
Book Details
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by Lindsay on Jun 6th, 2013
Verdict: carrot
What Dawid Knew is the culmination of an extraordinary journey Patricia Glyn took with the Kruiper family and their elected leader, 76-year-old Dawid Kruiper (who preferred to be called a Bushman and not a San, for reasons well-explained in the book).
Dawid was the closest thing the Khomani people had to a king and, in the last months of his life, he asked Glyn to assist him in a journey into the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park to visit almost-forgotten locations of great significance to the Bushmen people: where they had been born, lived and died, mystical spots and hallowed hunting grounds, and even places where important colonial battles in Namibian history were fought.
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by Carolyn on Jun 6th, 2013
Following on from our previous lighthearted piece on JM Coetzee, today we bring you a collection of tweets from the amusing twitter account @FunnyJMCoetzee. The account, run anonymously, jokingly provides a public voice to the private Nobel laureate. @FunnyJMCoetzee ironically tweets about plurality of identity and comments on any mention of Coetzee in the media.
Coetzee’s latest books, his novel The Childhood of Jesus and the collection of his correspondence with Paul Auster Here and Now, get several tweets, with @FunnyJMCoetzee remarking, “I am always mystified when friends declare excitement at the prospect of a new JM Coetzee novel. Not sure what they could be thinking of”.
His participation in the Venice Biennale is explained with “YOLO” (You Only Live Once) and his inclusion in the Folio Society Academy labelled “ironic”. When the JM Coetzee archive was opened at the University of Texas, @FunnyCoetzee cautioned: “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”. @FunnyJMCoeztee also explains that the article citing Coetzee’s love of cricket had it wrong – he meant “crickets” – and clarifies that his move to Australia was because South Africa doesn’t have a “Skywhale”.
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by Maggie Marx on Jun 4th, 2013
Uitspraak: ‘n wortel met kritiek
In Dubai, ’n land waar ’n kameel meer werd is as ’n vrou, het die Suid-Afrikaner Selna Visser ’n paar lewenslesse geleer.
Soos om alle mense met respek en deernis te behandel. Of dat mense jou maar kan vergeet, want God onthou jou altyd.
En alles in die lewe gebeur met ’n rede.
Boekbesonderhede
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May
