Fly with the Monarchs and Battle with Mike Tyson at Encounters 2009

From the story of magical birds to the tale of a boxing legend, Encounters has it all!

Encounters Documentary Festival is South Africa’s premier film festival – each year the festival brings you world premiers, award winning films, and once-off screenings you can’t afford to miss. So grab a program, make your picks and head down to the Fest today!

For a complete outline of the Encounters events taking place in Cape Town, read our overview of the 2009 Encounters Documentary Film Festival.

14:30 - Sea Point Days
South Africa 2008 94min
Dir: Francois Verster Emmy

Award-winning Verster’s latest film Sea Point Days presents an unusual and impressionistic record of life on the Promenade, using largely cinematic vignettes to explore various issues.


15:45 – Music From The Inside Out
USA 2008 90min
Dir: Daniel Anker

Nominated for an Academy Award in 2000 (Scottsboro: An American Tragedy - Best Feature Documentary), Anker’s point in this beautifully crafted ode to music is simple – what is the essence of music and how does its powerful driving force shape and influence the people who make up the Philadelphia Orchestra?

16:00 – Four Wings and a Prayer
Canada / France 2007 81min
Dir: Nick de Pencier

First there was the March of the Emperor penguins, now it’s the Flight of the Monarchs!

This ode to the butterfly is not only an exceptional and in-depth view into the life and journey of this spectacular insect, but is also a reminder of the power that man continues to wield over all living things.

17:45 – Defamation (Hashmatsa)
Israel / Denmark / Austria / USA 2009 91min
Dir: Yoav Shamir

Throughout Shamir’s controversial and balanced film you know that only an Israeli could have the chutzpah to unpack the delicate subject of anti-Semitism.

On one side of the fence is the very powerful Anti-Defamation League (ADL), headed up by Abraham Foxman.

On the other side is controversial author, professor and son of holocaust survivors, Norman Finkelstein.

Shamir is a guest of the Festival. He will attend screenings on 9 July and 12 July.

18:15 - Tyson
USA 2008 90min
Dir: James Toback

A man rising from nothing to unlimited heights, destroyed by his own pride.

Tyson is acclaimed indie director Toback’s stylistically inventive portrait of the mesmerizing baddest boy of boxing and undisputed heavyweight champion of all time, Mike Tyson.

In its depiction of a man rising from the most debased circumstances to unlimited heights, destroyed by his own hubris, Tyson emerges as a modern day version of classic Greek tragedy.

20:15 - The Champagne Spy (Meragel Ha-Shampaniya)
Germany / Israel 2007 90min
Dir: Nadav Schirman

He believed his cover, became it, loved it, forsook his real life and could not readapt to an unexceptional life once it was all over.

Schirman’s film, a surprisingly frank and detailed account of espionage in the 60s, is as much a poignant personal story as it is a look behind the Mossad curtain.

20:30 – Fokofpolisiekar: “Forgive them for they know not what they do”
South Africa 2009 108min
Dir: Bryan Little

A frustrated generation, disillusioned with the lies of the church and state, finding a space for expression.

Told in interview and through original video of their first tour and album, the film focuses on how the Bellville band came to be a voice for the dislocated youth straddling the before-and-after of 1994.

Little and Producer, Filipa Domingues, will attend the Première screening of their film on 3 & 9 July.

*Tickets can be purchased online on the Encounters website or at the V&A Waterfront box office

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