Umhambi at the One Minutes Belgian Open Film Festival

My short film Umhambi is an official selection at the One Minutes Belgian Open Film Festival and Competition which takes place in Ghent, Belgium between April 27-May 1, 2011.

Umhambi has been nominated to compete in the Documentary and Portrait category. There are 20 films in the category and the juried screening takes place on April 30 at Cinema Sphinx in Ghent at 7:30 pm.

It's an honour to be included in the category as the only North American selection. Films come from all around the globe representing Indonesia, Germany, Poland, Belgium, France, Poland, the Netherlands, Romanian, and the Republic of Benin.

I made Umhambi while living in South Africa. It's based on the Little Traveller dolls created for Woza Moya, the income generation program at the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust outside Durban.

The selection into the One Minutes Belgian Open Film Festival means Umhambi continues to travel the globe. Most recently, it was an official selection at the Chicago International Film Festival in October 2010.

Bill Cunningham New York and My Tweet Review

I've been tweeting film reviews for some time, and I've always wanted to document them in a post.

Here's a slight re-write of my tweet review of Bill Cunningham's New York which I posted yesterday. I used the hashtag: #BillCunninghamNY. A screengrab of my tweets is below.

Bill Cunningham New York a film about a kind man who is passionate about photographing/documenting fashion -- especially fashion on the streets.

Cunningham's an original. A passionate journalist with a distinct eye for fashion, he's also v. principled & kind-natured. The documentary offers a glimpse into New York's fashion world and the people in it.

I was delighted to see NY street fashion documented through the decades thru his lens. BTW, he shoots on film, not digital.

There are details about his personal life that were addressed. But these questions seemed functional, a bit Barbara Walters.

What makes this a v good doc is its look into the way a photojournalist works & its look into the NY fashion world. B+/A-

David Beckham in Toronto

I usually reserve this space for my creative projects. But I'll digress now so that I can post about English footballer David Beckham.

Beckham was in Toronto last night with his current club LA Galaxy to play against TFC in what was a scoreless tie at BMO field. 

I wanted to share a short video clip of his deft touch off the boot. I'm not a soccer expert but my pal and I were lucky to have great seats to capture his skill in an iPhone video. Sure, LA didn't score in this one sequence, but it was entertaining.