Danielle Flockton, CityVarsity’s Head of Department in Film, is currently attending the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, representing a film “Past Tense” which was made by CityVarsity lecturers, students and alumni. 

The film was chosen as the 3^rd runner up in the 48 hour Film project in Los Angeles and  as a result was invited to Cannes.  Dani will be blogging her experiences from  Cannes.

Senior lecturer in Acting for Television and camera at CityVarsity, Cape Town Mark Hoeben recently returned from performing in award winning playwright Saartjie Botha’s play Balbesit (possession of the ball in rugby lingo) at the KKNK festival in Oudtshoorn. Balbesit  won  the Kanna best actor award. This is the first time best actor award goes to an entire cast in this case twenty - four men.

A year ago I submitted a proposal for a crime series to e-tv through Penguin Films. Because I was so distracted with ‘Felix!’, my feature film, for the remainder of the year, (rewriting the screenplay, auditioning around the country, casting, coaching the young actors and then working on the production) I forgot all about the series. This is the third series I have pitched, and in the previous two cases, I heard nothing back from the channels. You submit these things to the vast anonymous ‘channel’ along with probably  hundreds of other proposals and tend to just write off all the hard work as ‘experience’.

There is no time to waste for last year’s CityVarsity Film graduates. Following the success of 2012’s  '3rd year screening' they are about  to launch a romantic movie called 'Queuing’.

Understandably, the excited team were reluctant to give away too much information. "Like we've said to everyone who asks, it's a Surreal romantic comedy, that's got ample intrigue. The romance kicks off in the queue of a supermarket, a pretty unlikely romantic environment " they said.

Following it’s European release in Stockholm to enthusiastic audiences in March Taste of Rain will have a  screening  at the Labia in Cape Town starting on the 19th April 2013.

Set on a Namibian Desert farm, the feature film is the story of one woman’s journey through drought, loss and love to healing.

Nicola Hanekom, a two-time 2012 Fleur du Cap winner, puts in a searing performance in the leading role as Rachel, who is fighting to survive a vast, barren, waterless landscape, both internal and external.  Grant Swanby a veteran of the South African industry plays her husband, TOMAS.  Pope Jerrod puts on an electric performance as a former guerilla fighter who has to find water but also find healing from his own past.
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Amelia Johnson Contemporary presents Disjecta Membra, South African artist Barbara Wildenboer’s first solo exhibition in Asia.

The latin phrase, disjecta membra, is often used to refer to surviving fragments of ancient poetry, manuscripts and other literary or cultural objects. In this her new body of work Wildenboer intertwines contemporary and ancient texts to create two dimensional works that often take on a three dimensional form. By her deconstruction and reconstruction of texts the artist conveys the notion that narratives are not linear but rhizomatic. The assumed authority of the author is undermined in favor of a myriad of abstract interpretations; emphasis is placed on the weaving of disparate and seemingly disjointed parts to create fresh stories. Ultimately in this work we are confronted with the infinite possibilities of meaning.

Staying in Cape Town for the second leg of its tour, the Loeries Exhibition will visit CityVarsity at the Kloof Street campus from 2 – 5 April. It will showcase the recent award-winning work in a gallery format, providing the perfect platform for students and industry professionals to view the best brand communication from our region.

“CityVarsity is thrilled to host the Loeries Exhibition at our campus once again. We look upon this as an opportunity for our students to be inspired and rub shoulders with creatives working in advertising, marketing and the media arts. We extend the invitation to the industry and the public to come view the best brand communication produced in South Africa,” says Anita Kruger, Academic Manager at CityVarsity.

Dani Flockton blogs about the CV Bench Teams time in Hollywood.

Wed 6th March

Two very weary travellers after 33 hours of planes, terminals, buses and trains walked up the final flight of stairs laden with luggage we stepped into the neon lights of Hollywood Boulevard. Shell shocked and exhausted we looked across the road to see the three smiling faces our crew waving down to us from a balcony across the road - we had arrived! Alan, Simon and Hisham showed us the way into our hostel - a generic dorm style hostel on Hollywood Boulevard. After a well needed shower and cup of tea the CityVarsity Bench Team was ready together to take on Hollywood. A gentle drizzle rained down on us as we walked the streets. Famous Hollywood names framed in stars dot the walkway the Chinese theatre lit up, a special press screening of Oz the Great attracts hundreds of camera flashes and high heels.

The Cape Town-based film company BENCHfilms, comprised of CityVarsity staff Dani Flockton, Riaz Solker, and Simon Antonelli, as well as graduates Hisham Samie and Alan Shelley, have been honoured with two nominations and an award at the Los Angeles’ Filmapalooza Film Festival.

‘People loved the film,’ said director Riaz Solker.

Their film, ‘Past Tense’, an eight-minute quirky time travel romance, was awarded the Third Runner Up for Best Film in the competition by an International Jury. The Festival, the culmination of the international 48-Hour Film Project (48HFP), was comprised of over 22 000 films from 115 cities around the world.

CityVarsity sound engineering lecturer Simon Ratcliffe walked away with the South African Film and Television Award for Best Sound Design for a Feature Film for his team’s work on the film ‘Retribution’.

Ratcliffe, who is head engineer at Sound & Motion Studios, said he got ‘the fright of his life’ when the team’s name was called, since the competition was ‘very stiff’.

The accolade for Best Sound Design for a Feature Film, known as the Golden Horn, is highly sought after.