This isn't exactly a movie, but it is feature-length, and it is fascinating as Hell:
It's a filmed production of a theater play, made by the Handspring Puppet Company (the guys who made the War Horse work on stage). The original production was made in 1997, and it was inspired by, among other things, previous productions which melded classic theatre with puppetry and the landscape of South Africa, the 100th anniversary of Albert Jarry's Ubu Roi, and the newly-established Truth and Reconciliation committee. And, speaking as an American who's never left the country, and with a little knowledge of the situation in South Africa (my particular interests in Africa tend to usually be a bit farther north), it's incredible. At one performance, a Romanian woman went up to the cast to congratulate them, saying she was deeply moved by the performance. When asked why something so local could be so accessible to someone from another hemisphere, she said "That's it. It is so local. So local. This play is written about Romania." And it's not terribly hard to see parallels with American society today, with police brutality and a blatantly racist president whose policies are engendering the sort of human rights abuses that are exactly the sort of shit that the Truth and Reconciliation was created to try and reckon with.
This production was filmed in 2014. And the entire playscript can be read online, because it seems Google Books was feeling unusually generous that day.
It's a filmed production of a theater play, made by the Handspring Puppet Company (the guys who made the War Horse work on stage). The original production was made in 1997, and it was inspired by, among other things, previous productions which melded classic theatre with puppetry and the landscape of South Africa, the 100th anniversary of Albert Jarry's Ubu Roi, and the newly-established Truth and Reconciliation committee. And, speaking as an American who's never left the country, and with a little knowledge of the situation in South Africa (my particular interests in Africa tend to usually be a bit farther north), it's incredible. At one performance, a Romanian woman went up to the cast to congratulate them, saying she was deeply moved by the performance. When asked why something so local could be so accessible to someone from another hemisphere, she said "That's it. It is so local. So local. This play is written about Romania." And it's not terribly hard to see parallels with American society today, with police brutality and a blatantly racist president whose policies are engendering the sort of human rights abuses that are exactly the sort of shit that the Truth and Reconciliation was created to try and reckon with.
This production was filmed in 2014. And the entire playscript can be read online, because it seems Google Books was feeling unusually generous that day.
Comparing the Universal Oneness of All Life to Yo Mama since 2010.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.