IN THESE DAYS of earth-shattering news from every quarter, you might have news-fatigue. You might find yourself aimlessly scrolling through social media, not allowing your eye to catch on things that will tear holes in your sense of hope. And further to all of that, you might find […]
ONE OF THE ingredients necessary in every generation is a voice of fire. Particularly if it is a generation beset by hurt. Sandile Dikeni had that inimitable quality. A poet, an arts editor and a man of words who originated in a thirsty Karoo hamlet in an apartheid-stained […]
YOU MAY HAVE your opinion about how other people lead their lives or live within the confines of their bodies, but have you ever really considered taking the proverbial ‘stepping into someone’s shoes’ all the way? Stripping its narrative of sweet or sweeping platitudes, Jerry Rothwell’s film The […]
WHICHEVER WAY YOU look at it, the little sliver of land at the heart of the Middle East is a hot potato. Enough to get otherwise intelligent and rational people spouting vicious invectives at strangers who have different opinions about it. Or its right to exist. That’s Israel […]
A CERTAIN LEVEL of cold-bloodedness seems a requisite in writing a critical biography of someone the author loved dearly, with the knowledge that strangers will read this book. And that the publisher wants a serious work on the shelves. But an enormous level of skill is necessary in […]
Take an old and revolting story of disrespect and abuse, of entrenched behaviour and broken dreams. Put it into the mouth and sensibilities of young filmmakers and you may find yourself in the presence of an unexpected bit of pure poetry. This is what you can anticipate in […]
THE GROUND THAT you think is firm enough to hold you and your history and values may not be as solid or kind to you as you think. Or hope. It’s a concatenation of ghosts, of the detritus of dead buried there and of the messy issues associated […]
EPISODE 19 OF the podcast series The End of the Line takes the premises of the project and reaches into an even more complex situation than a quizzical ‘why don’t you want to have babies?’ posed by a stranger to a pretty young woman. Naomi, played by Jennifer […]
IT ISN’T EVERY day that one hears of a South African artist who took their work to the ultimate in commercial possibility, without, on many levels, allowing it to lose its idiosyncratic flavour. With an oft-spoken injunction against ordinariness that punted being extraordinary with a bit of naughtiness […]
WHEN YOU LIVE in an overtly political context, wherever in the world you are, the issue of having babies is coloured by The Struggle. Why? Is it because it’s another sensibility to march on your side? Another voice to sing to your tune? Perhaps. This is the focus […]
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