Taiwanese director Julian Chou’s “Blind Love,” a drama about a sensitive teenager who discovers the secret affair between his mother and a mysterious woman, won the top prize at the 7th Joburg Film Festival on Saturday.
Chou’s sophomore feature, which premiered in the Tiger competition at the Rotterdam Intl. Film Festival, won the jury’s praise for its “fearless and brave voice whose point of view is necessary.”
In a pre-recorded video message, Chou said she was “honored and humbled” to receive the festival’s top prize and paid tribute to her fellow filmmakers whose “incredible work has brought such special energy and inspiration to the world.” The director added that she would “keep working harder to turn this honor into more meaningful films.”
The award capped off a charged night in which several filmmakers stressed the importance for Africans to wrest back control of their own stories. It was a message most pointedly driven home by director Vusi Africa, who – while accepting the award for best African film for “Happy: The True Story of Happy Sindane” – called on his fellow South African filmmakers to combat “false narratives” — an allusion to U.S. President Donald Trump’s strongly disputed allegations of a “genocide” being perpetrated on white South African farmers.
“We’re living in a crucial time right now, where it is important that we tell the South African story in the midst of all these false narratives around South Africa that are revolving around the world. It is critically important that we are deliberate about finding the South African narrative,” Africa said, drawing a round of applause.
“To everybody who is in the room, we all have a responsibility not to negate our place as storytellers, because once we negate our place as storytellers, we are opening the door to all the false narratives that are currently dominating. Can we all be patriotic citizens of this country and defend this country with everything that we have?”
Later in the evening, Oscar-nominated Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck, who won the award for best documentary for “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,” paid tribute to the trailblazing photographer who chronicled everyday life under apartheid, drawing the world’s attention to the evils of the racist South African regime before dying a lonely life in exile.
“We couldn’t have a better welcome back for…brother and comrade Ernest Cole,” said Peck. “He left this country at 26 years old and died abroad, where he lived half of his life, and he was never able to come back home. I think it’s the right time for this film to make his country aware of who he was and who he is and the legacy that he leaves for the next generation.”
A special mention in the documentary category went to director Eloïse King for “The Shadow Scholars.” The award for best editing went to Dominican filmmaker Johanne Gomez Terrero’s “Sugar Island,” and the award for best short film went to Phumi Morare’s “Why the Cattle Wait.” The festival’s Young Voices award, meanwhile, went to the film “Checkmate,” with Joburg Film Festival head Timothy Mangwedi taking the opportunity to reaffirm the fest’s support for young filmmakers.
“One of our missions at the Joburg Film Festival is to nurture emerging talent. It is no small feat to step into the world of cinema for these young creatives, facing countless obstacles along the way,” said Mangwedi. “All the up-and-coming filmmakers, we want you to know that we see you. We see your passion. We hear your voices. And we stand ready to support your films.”
An emotional capstone to the ceremony came with the presentation of a Special Recognition Award to pioneering South African producer Mfundi Vundla, best known as the creator and executive producer of the groundbreaking telenovela “Generations.”
During his acceptance speech, the 78-year-old industry icon recalled stepping into the offices of public broadcaster SABC in 1993, when the head of the station’s TV division asked him to write a telenovela for the channel as the country transitioned into a new era of democratic rule.
Inspired by the many Black entrepreneurs who failed to achieve success under the racist apartheid regime, Vundla wanted to make a series “to honor those pioneers in Black business as symbols of excellence.” The show was set in an advertising industry “where Black people are in charge of their own destinies and create their own narratives,” he said.
“‘Generations’ would not have happened had it not been for democracy — it was very much a product of democracy,” Vundla said. “Before ‘Generations,’ in the SABC, the [white] Afrikaners were writing stories for us, and the Africans were just there to translate stories by other people for us.”
The series would run for more than two decades on SABC before relaunching as “Generations: The Legacy” in 2014, making it the longest-running soap opera on South African television.
The Joburg Film Festival runs March 11 – 16.