oia marks 15 years anniversary of film screening festival

By Mongezi (BTM Intern)

SOUTH AFRICA – August 22, 2008: This year’s South African Out in Africa Gay and Lesbian film festival kicks off in early September in Johannesburg while middle of the month in Cape Town.

The 2008’s festival marks fifteen years of Out in Africa’s film screening sessions, and both the Cape Town and Johannesburg screenings will run at Nu Metro theatres.

According to the Out in Africa’s website, the film festival this year promises a non-stop pack of different genres of comedy and romance which start on 4 until 14 September in Johannesburg and 11 until 21 September in Cape Town.

The film festival promises products from different countries as far as Argentina, Australia, France, Germany, Hungary, South Africa, Spain, UK and the US.

Furthermore this year’s event attracted legendary filmmakers such as director of Brother Outsider: The life of Bayard Rustin, Bennett Singer. Singer’s documentary is quite riveting as it explores the life of a gay man who mentored Martin Luther King.

Also from the guest list is Mr. Justice Edwin Cameron of the Supreme Court of Appeal in South Africa. Other guests are Lisa Thrasher and Jammie Babbit who are producer and director of Itty Titty Bitty Committee respectively. Babbit is the president of POWER UP (Professional Organisation of Women in Entertainment Reaching Up.
 
According to deputy director at Out in Africa, Sharon Jackson, each year the festival comes with different approach. For this year, Jackson says; “Every year the focus is different, and it’s been 15 years running which has been a milestone, this year’s festival hopes to be different from the previous festivals.” 

She further stressed that this year’s festival hopes to bring about live debates and pleads to the film revelers particularly the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) organisations to participate in the after-screening debates.

This year, the film festival has in store a total of nine films and three documentaries. The most awaited screening is For The Bible Tells Me So, which intends to engage viewers to unravel the highly controversial discussion of homosexuality and religion.