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Monday night’s Four Corners on ABC and ABC iview explores the lesser-known consequences of sex work in the Philippines, where contraception is often not used, and abortion is illegal. The episode, titled “Sex Tourism — My Father’s Secret,” reveals that men from Australia, New Zealand, and other countries are estimated to have fathered tens of […]

Four Corners: Sex Tourism – My Father’s Secret...

“White Lies,” a murder mystery series starring Natalie Dormer, has been acquired by Sundance Now for North America.

A collaboration between production company Quizzical Pictures and Pan-African broadcaster M-Net in partnership with Fremantle, “White Lies” is set in the wealthy Bishopscourt neighborhood in Cape Town, South Africa. Dormer (“Penny Dreadful: City of Angels”) stars as an investigative journalist called Edie Hansen alongside Brendon Daniels (“Four Corners”), who plays detective Forty Bell.

“Following her estranged brother’s murder in his luxury home, Edie’s world plunges deeper into chaos when her brother’s teenage children become prime suspects for the crime,” reads the logline. “As Edie investigates, she finds herself at loggerheads with veteran detective Forty Bell, and grapples with the crumbling local police force, a corrupt political system and the secretive world of extreme Cape wealth.”

The eight-part series is written by Darrel Bristow-Bovey with John Trengove (“The Wound”) as lead director,...

Death of a Whistleblower is a powerful drama that delves into real experiences in South Africa and the African diaspora, tackling issues of corruption and illicit trade. The film follows journalist Luyanda as she investigates the assassination of her lover, uncovering a deep-rooted state conspiracy. Directed by Ian Gabriel, the film highlights the bravery of whistleblowers and the resilience of South African women.

The exclusive trailer for Death of a Whistleblower teases a deeply effective, powerful drama that is rooted in truth and the very real experiences in South Africa and the African diaspora. Coming courtesy of Known Associates Entertainment, Death of a Whistleblower follows no-nonsense journalist Luyanda Masinda, whose life is thrown into chaos when her undercover lover, Stanley, is assassinated in front of her by the very group he’s been investigating. Left in possession of Stanley’s laptop, Luyanda enlists the help of her tech-savvy best friend,...

Shant Joshi’s Los Angeles and Toronto-based company Fae Pictures (2023 Cannes title “In Flames”) has boarded Cape Town-based company Giant Films’ “Runs in the Family.”

Fae will executive produce and handle the festival launch of the LGBTQ+ road trip family drama, a clip for which has been unveiled. The film is by real-life father-son duo Ian Gabriel (“Ludik”) and Gabe Gabriel (“No Hiding Here”). Ian directed and Gabe wrote and stars in “Runs in the Family.” The film marks Gabe’s first professional role since he came out as trans in 2019.

The film follows a reformed con artist, Varun (Ace Bhatti), and his transmasculine son, River (Gabe Gabriel), on a road trip across South Africa to break River’s estranged mother (Diaan Lawrenson) out of rehab. When injury befalls Ollie (Cleo Wesley), River’s drag partner and best friend, his mother propels father and son to partner up for a...

Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer is leading a thriller for South African network M-Net.

Filming will commence next month on White Lies, which will star Dormer alongside Brendon Daniels (Four Corners) as investigative journalist Edie Hansen and detective Forty Bell respectively. Set in the wealthy neighbourhood of Bishopscourt, Cape Town, Hansen gets caught up in the ugly underbelly that lies beneath the picturesque beauty of the city, dragging her back to a turbulent past. Following her estranged brother’s murder in his luxury home, her world plunges deeper into chaos when her brother’s teenage children become prime suspects for the crime, as she finds herself at loggerheads with Bell.

Having previously combined on International Emmy Award-nominated M-Net drama Reyka, South African indie Quizzical Pictures is producing with Fremantle.

Dormer is a great get. She is best known for her role as Margaery Tyrell in Game of Thrones and...

Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games star Natalie Dormer is set to lead the cast of White Lies, a South African crime thriller from M-Net, Quizzical Pictures and Fremantle.

The Hollywood Reporter can reveal that the British actress — who became a fan favorite for playing Margaery Tyrell across 26 episodes of Game of Thrones — is now in Cape Town, where shooting is due to start on March 6. Dormer also had major roles in Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Tudors, and moved into producing and writer with 2018 thriller In Darkness.

Joining Dormer is award-winning South African actor Brendon Daniels, whose credits include the acclaimed film Four Corners, Skemerdans and Trackers, another M-Net international co-production.

Created by Sean Steinberg and written by award-winning scriptwriter Darrel Bristow-Bovey, White Lies is described as an “urgent exploration of race and privilege, inequality and identity.”

Set in the wealthy neighbourhood of Bishopscourt, Cape Town, the...

Amazon Prime Video has closed a multi-picture licensing agreement with South Africa’s Known Associates, the parent company of Johannesburg-based Known Associates Entertainment (Kae) and Cape Town-based Moonlighting Films, the company announced Thursday during the Joburg Film Festival.

The deal grants Prime Video exclusive SVOD access to over 20 South African feature films, including Zane Meas’ “Klip Anker Baai,” Marvin-Lee Beukes’ “Tickets,” Jahmil Qubeka’s “You Are My Favorite Place,” Dick d’vLz Reubïn’s “Gereza” and Norman Maake’s “Piet’s Sake 2.”

The slate also includes at least eight newly produced films in 2023, among them new features from Ian Gabriel (“Four Corners”), Alastair Orr (“Triggered”), Meg Rickards (“Tess”) and John Barker, who will be filming the sequel to his 2022 Toronto Film Festival premiere “The Umbrella Men” (pictured).

“We’re delighted to be bringing Prime Video customers this diverse and compelling slate of South African movies from the dynamic team at Known Associates,...

‘Bluey’ will be among the shows on the ABC to be audio described.

Following long-standing advocacy efforts, the ABC and Sbs will officially launch audio description (Ad) services this week, making their programs more accessible to the more than 450,000 Australians who are blind or vision-impaired.

Ad is an additional verbal commentary of important visual elements in a film or television show, delivered between lines of dialogue. This may include movements, gestures, settings and costumes. It can be turned on and off as required, similar to closed captions.

As flagged last December, the broadcasters will each receive $2 million in Federal Government funding over the 2020-21 financial year to provide the service across an average of 14 hours of weekly programming.

Both broadcasters have been running Ad trials over recent months, and there have been previous trials on the ABC in 2012 and ABC iview in 2015-2016.

Prior to this, Australia was the only...

John Travolta taught Jimmy Fallon one of the signature dance moves from Grease, "the Four Corners," celebrating the film's 40th anniversary of its New York City premiere.

"Like with Pulp Fiction, I grew up with all these kind of novelty dances," Travolta said. "So in Grease, they needed a step for 'You're the One That I Want' at the end. I said, 'Well, we used to do the Four Corners – why don't we do that?' The choreographer said, 'Show it to me,' and I did."

Travolta slid naturally...

After focussing on TV dramas, David Caesar plans to direct a conspiracy thriller, his first feature since Prime Mover in 2009.

Scripted by Terence Hammond and produced by Antony I. Ginnane, Spontaneous Combustion is set during a pandemic involving government and Big Pharma.

The plan is to start shooting in Melbourne in the first quarter of 2015, with post production and VFX in Queensland. The logline reads, "When a marine biologist who saw his father burst into flames for no reason is drawn into investigating an outbreak of spontaneous combustion deaths by an investigative journalist, they uncover a Big Pharma conspiracy and put their own lives on the line in a race to stop the development of a deadly global weapon."

.David is harking back to his Dirty Deeds milieu here, and he.s a big fan of The Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor and The Conversation, which is the zone we are in here,...

Following previous announcements of their film lineup, the Fantasia International Film Festival has released their full lineup of movies to be shown at the 18th Annual festival, starting July 17.

New additions to the lineup include 2014 Cannes Selection When Animals Dream, directed by Jonas Alexander Amby and the return of Fantasia’s showcase of animated films, Axis.

Tickets for the festival go on sale starting July 16, and the festival runs through August 5.

View the whole press release of additional announcements below:

Fantasia Celebrates Its 18th Birthday

With Over 160 Feature Films Montreal, Thursday July 10, 2014 – 2014 is the year that Fantasia turns 18. We can’t believe it either. Fantasia’s 18th birthday means over 160 features and something in the neighborhood of 300 shorts, many being shown for the first time on this continent, a good number screening here for the first time anywhere in the world.In addition to being stacked with a multitude of breathtaking debut filmmaker discoveries,...

Veteran programmer Tony Watts has slotted two Cannes market titles into the upcoming inaugural Niagara Integrated Film Festival (Niff) in Ontario, Canada.

Watts, who serves as director of programming for the inaugural Niff, has picked up Ian Gabriel’s Four Corners from South Africa and Jim Mickle’s Cold In July (pictured).

Four Corners was the official South African selection for the Oscars earlier this year and is a coming-of-age crime drama set amid gang culture. Gabriel will attend Niff.

Crime drama Cold In July is based on the cult novel of the same name by author Joe R Lansdale and will open in the Us through IFC.

The festival is set to run from June 19-22.

Best Foreign Language Film Oscar 2014 submissions (photo: Ziyi Zhang in ‘The Grandmaster’) (See previous post: Best Foreign Language Film Oscar: ‘The Past,’ ‘Wadjda,’ Andrzej Wajda Among Omissions) In case you missed it, here’s the full list of submissions (in alphabetical order, per country) for the 2014 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. The list of contenders was originally announced on October 7, 2013. Of note: Saudi Arabia and Moldova were first-timers; Montenegro was a first-timer as an independent country. Afghanistan, Wajma — An Afghan Love Story, Barmak Akram, director; Albania, Agon, Robert Budina, director; Argentina, The German Doctor, Lucía Puenzo, director; Australia, The Rocket, Kim Mordaunt, director; Austria, The Wall, Julian Pölsler, director; Azerbaijan, Steppe Man, Shamil Aliyev, director; Bangladesh, Television, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, director; Belgium, The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen, director; Bosnia and Herzegovina, An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, Danis Tanovic, director; Brazil, Neighboring Sounds, Kleber Mendonça Filho,...

Ian Gabriel's ensemble gang-lands coming of age thriller Four Corners, is South Africa's contender for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. It's also a film that I have a screener for and will be watching likely this weekend, which will be followed by a review. Based on all I've seen and heard about the film, I'm looking forward to checking it out. The film centers on a 13-year-old chess prodigy who's drawn into Cape Town’s "notorious child-gang culture." His absent father, recently released from prison, tries to break the pattern of violence and keep his son away from the aforementioned Four Corners (The Four Corners - ‘Die Vier Hoeke’ - is South African...

Located just outside Cape Town, South Africa's Cape Flats have been plagued with issues of poverty and gang violence for generations. In a nation that currently has the 15th highest murder rate on the planet, the Cape Flats district of Mitchells Plain posts the highest rates of murder, violence and property crime in the nation by a healthy margin with neighboring districts also posting what reports describe as 'abnormally high' murder rates for more than a decade. All of which makes the Cape Flats a compelling setting for Ian Gabriel's Four Corners - this year's official South African submission to the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film.Cape Town today. Home to South Africa's toughest maximum Security prison - Pollsmoor. When Farakahn (Brendon Daniels) a general...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Four Corners, South Africa's Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. U.S. : None Yet. International Sales Agent: The Little Film Company.

Engraved beneath their tattoo-covered skin, a yearning desire to be part of a family is the motivation of most individuals who identity themselves as part of a gang. Of course there are the financial benefits that come with that life, but the primal need to belong is probably the more compelling reeason to stay loyal. Gangs thrive on the impoverished and undereducated sectors of the population; they demand obedience and, to some extent, they provide security for its members. Although an innumerable amount of films have been made about the subject, Ian Gabriel's gritty crime drama Four Corners uncovers the unknown South African version of these sub-cultures with uncanny poignancy and gripping intensity.

Adrift in a world governed by two brutally violent gangs, 13 year old Ricardo (Jezzriel Skei) is ambivalent about following the same road as most kids his age who live in the Four Corners neighborhood, part of the projects-like community known as Cape Flats. The criminal organizations that fight over the area's control are the 26s and the 28s who are heavily influenced by American gang culture and even sport the U.S. flag and Statue of Liberty as part of their inked trait marks. Ricardo's saving grace is his exceptional ability to play chess and his friendship with detective Tito Hanekom (Abduragman Adams ). However, strategizing on the board proves very different from winning the life or death battles he must endure in order to become either a worthy apprentice in the illicit gang hierarchy, or to escape his hopeless hometown. One of the expatriates is Dr. Leila Domingo (Lindiwe Matshikiza) who has come from London to bury her father, But returning demands more of her when a childhood friend shows her the cruel truth about this town she had managed to escape. That intriguing character is Farakhan (Brendon Daniels), a high-up “general” in the 28s strata who wants to leave his gruesome past, find his long lost son and create a peaceful haven for their lives.

More powerful than any religious affiliation, the allegiance to their respective "Numbers" goes beyond family or any moral reservations. If ordered to kill a rival soldier by a higher ranking official, that command becomes a righteous act to honor and perpetuate their kind. The psychology behind this overruling devotion is mindboggling to outsiders, but sufficiently reasonable for those growing up and making a living because of this unconditional alliance. Within this kingdom of ruthless men full of bravado there is a mysterious plot involving the murders of several of these soon-to-be young killers who have been slaughtered by a psychotic self-proclaimed savior who wants to eradicate them before they join the ranks of either gang.

Reminiscent of films like the Brazilian child-gang staple City of God, director Ian Gabriel manages to embue the genre with genuine freshness while maintaining thematic elements unique to his national sensitivities. His film is one about choices and the ties that must be broken in order to rise above the crowd. Ricardo has a chance to be something greater than manage to become just another statistic. He could easily be just one more victim of the ravaging madness of this lawless place in which the only rules are those dictated by the ones who survive the bloodshed.

Gabriel manages to elicit extraordinary performances from his cast. Especially noteworthy is that of young Jezzriel Skei whose coming-of-age becomes the driving force of the film. Just like in the ancient board game which is in fact a civilized depiction of war tactics, every character plays a role and every action has an irreversible outcome. Without knowing it, Ricardo is orchestrating a real-life chess game of deadly proportions. Inevitably comparisons are sure to be drawn between Gabriel’s feature and other similarly themed movies. Nonetheless, his work transcends the preset limitations and is utterly authentic. Four Corners is an open invitation to enter an unknown world of violence and survival. It is also a marvelously directed sophomore effort.

Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards...

The Four Corners - ‘Die Vier Hoeke’ - is South African prison slang for the four corners of a prison cell. Ian Gabriel's ensemble gang-lands coming of age thriller titled Four Corners, is South Africa's contender for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. The film centers on a 13-year-old chess prodigy who's drawn into Cape Town’s "notorious child-gang culture." His absent father, recently released from prison, tries to break the pattern of violence and keep his son away from the aforementioned Four Corners. More... Fatherless and brought up by his granny, Faita, his gift for playing chess and his involvement with feisty girlfriend, compete with the...

The Four Corners - ‘Die Vier Hoeke’ - is South African prison slang for the four corners of a prison cell. Ian Gabriel's gang-lands coming of age thriller titled Four Corners, is South Africa's contender for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. The film centers on a 13-year-old chess prodigy who's drawn into Cape Town’s "notorious child-gang culture." His absent father, recently released from prison, tries to break the pattern of violence and keep his son away from the aforementioned Four Corners. More... Fatherless and brought up by his granny, Faita, his gift for playing chess and his involvement with feisty girlfriend, compete with the street...