Stephanie Meyer is coming back to the big screen. Who’s that? Remember Twilight? It shouldn’t be too hard considering the last part, Breaking Dawn, came out not too long ago. Meyer is the author behind this famous vampire-human-werewolf romance series, for those who don’t know. The series developed quite a loyal following in terms of the books and the film adaptations. While some snubbed the books and movies for focusing more on the damsel-in-distress point of view, and others complained about the unoriginality of vampire stories, they gathered a huge following, especially among teenage girls.

Another one of Meyer’s works has been adapted for the big screen. This one is called The Host and while the story is vastly different to Twilight, romance is still at its heart.

Finding outstanding films in this day and age can be a mission. It’s even harder to find outstanding action, science-fiction and fantasy films now. While plenty of such films have been released within the last year (The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Dark Knight Rises), they have provided good reasons why high quality offerings of these genres are rare.

Public opinion – the one that counts

A movie’s success is greatly dependent on how much it makes, which means it’s dependent on public opinion. The problem with this is that sometimes the population at large doesn’t fully appreciate a well-put together movie, unless it’s direct and action-packed, with only a sprinkling of drama and minimal dialogue. A lot of people have woken up to the fact that maybe there are too many typical action and sci-fi movies, but these stereotypes still sell.

The first Jozi Film Festival, held this year, was a major success; with the result that mobile telecommunications giant Vodacom as decided to partner with the festival to present Joburg’s first ever mobile phone film competition.

The competition opened on 15 November and closes on 30 December, 2012. The top ten films will be uploaded to a dedicated YouTube site in January, 2013 where the public can vote via SMS for their favourite film. The best films will be screened at next year’s Jozi Film Festival, which runs from 15-17 February.

“We love Jozi and we love film,” says Lisa Henry, one of festival’s founding members. “A lot of people have aspirations about making a film. Here’s your chance, Joburg.”

Flamedrop Productions, Cinemaniacs & WildFire present:

The X FEST Extreme Film Festival Chapter V

The festival takes place from 11-13 MAY, 2012 @ The Labia Theatre – 68 Orange Street, Gardens, Cape Town

The most outrageous film festival on South African soil claws its way to the half decade mark, defying cinematic convention! Set to rip the screen to shreds at the X Fest’s resident home, The Labia Theatre (Orange Str., Cape Town), this year we’ll be pushing the boundaries of the expected norm in feature films, documentaries and short films and expand to cover ground like freestyle moto-cross, zombies, martial arts legends, forest demons, Viking religious exploration, the porn industry, apocalypse, psychos, ghosts, terrorists, Japanese Harakiri, experimental, myth, fantasy, and even musical inclusions.

Wolwedans in die Skemer (Wolf Dance in the Dusk) is an Afrikaans feature film produced and shot in South Africa, and is based on a radio drama series that was created by Leon van Nierop in 1982. The film gives rise to new aspiring film directors in South Africa, such as Jozua Malherbe.

In short:

A young woman, Sonja Daneel, crashes her car near the spectacular Hotel Njala in Hazyview and loses her memory.

Upon her arrival at the hotel, she gets involved with an obsessed family whose lives are controlled by this spooky, eerie hotel. She also quickly discovers that family secrets and an obsession with the past haunt and control their every move.

“Perhaps it sounds ridiculous,” Stanley Kubrick said, “but the best thing that young filmmakers should do is to get hold of a camera and some film and make a movie of any kind at all.”

If this master filmmaker was still alive, I wonder if he’d find the social media revolution as fascinating, confusing, empowering, terrifying and avant-garde as many a South African sees it.

With South Africa’s Facebook population growing by over 600 000 in the last six months, reaching its record high of over 4 million active users, it is no surprise more South African film-makers are attempting to fund their films independently through social media.

Leon Schuster is perhaps most famous for the two Mr Bones movies, which broke box office records across South Africa (only Titanic sold more tickets than the two Mr Bones movies). He’s also famous for his candid camera type stunts, the most well-known of which has to be when he got slapped around by heavy weight boxer Jimmy Abbot (now a globe-trotting evangelist). His new movie, which he’s only just started shooting, looks like it will be bigger than all his previous films put together, especially if Disney has anything to say about it.

And the Walt Disney Company will have something to say about it because it’s putting up some of the financing for the film. It will also handle distribution and marketing, which means that for the first time in life, Schuster could go global.

If you’re familiar with the popular musical Grease you’ll know that years ago going to the drive-in was a favourite pastime for families, friends and young lovers. When I was a kid my family took a trip up to Rustenberg, about two hours’ drive from Johannesburg, and we decided to go to the local drive-in one night. I absolutely loved it; the massive screen ahead, the tuck shop where you could buy popcorn, sweets and coke and all the cars parked neatly into rows was something new to me, especially because we were outside. Now Cape Town’s residents can enjoy a drive-in of its own in Stellenbosch.

If you were in South Africa in the late 80s and early 90s you probably had Mango-fever; it was characterised by an addiction to the country’s newest music sensation: Mango Groove. The band thumbed its collective nose at South Africa’s dubious political policies by comprising black and white musical artists. In fact, one of its founders was the iconic Aaron “Big Voice” Jack Lerole. From 1988 to 1992 Mango Groove dominated the South African airwaves and then they seemed to fade away. Now they’re back to prove their staying power with a brand new live DVD, Mango Groove Live in Concert; their first live DVD concert ever.

Can you survive the dark?

It’s a suitably intriguing tag line for a horror movie, isn’t it? Especially when you consider that the director says that it’s “gory as hell”.

Night Drive is an entirely South African horror film, with an SA-born and bred director (Justin Head) and a local cast. It’s set in a game reserve where a night game drive goes horribly wrong for a group of average holiday-makers. It incorporates topical issues such as poaching and persistent problems such as muti-murders, with some heartfelt human interest thrown in for good measure.

South Africans will relate to the cast of characters who share our problems and echo our views, as opposed to the often botoxed, plastic mannequins US film-makers serve up.