Great film, great film-makers, and the exciting, annoying, intriguing, frightening, relentless challenges of our shared heritage as Africans... and the demonic delights of getting that on film, and seen by the rest of the world.
Awards
RHODESIA COUNTDOWN Starring: Dominic Kanaventi "A moving statement about racialism." Montreal Star. Five festival awards including the Mannheim Peace Prize, ’Grand Prix’ Festival of Heyres, France, Director’s Fortnight, Cannes International Film Festival 1969
JIT "Washes like sunshine… has the antic, anything-goes spirit of the Beatles’ first movies." New York Times Festivals: New York/New Directors 1993 “Best Cinematography” Festival Panafricain du Cinema (FESPACO) 1991, “Best Actor” Dominic Makuvashuma, Festival d’Amiens
THE GRASS IS SINGING Starring: Karen Black, John Kani, John Thaw "Karen Black triumphs in one of the most demanding roles of her career. It takes us into a world as beautiful as it is harsh, and we can all but feel the heat that’s so unbearable. It ends on a note of authentic ambiguity that few films attain." LA Times Festivals: Toronto, San Francisco, London, ’Best Film’ Sydney International Festival 1982
ZIMBABWE COUNTDOWN (feature documentary) 2003 "An instructive historical synthesis, full of subtleties, directed by an exiled Zimbabwean. Once an opponent of the racist Rhodesian regime, and a champion of Mugabe, he now denounces the racist policies of the country’s rulers." TéléStar Festivals: 1st Prize - Festival del Cinema Africano di Milano, Prix Italia – Festival Catania, Sicily, ’Beyond Borders Prize’ & ’Region Council Prize’ - Life Tracks Festival Clermont-Ferrand, France, ’Signis International Jury Award’ Cape Town World Cinema Festival, London Film Festival - double-bill with ’Rhodesia Countdown’, Etats Généraux du Documentaire, Lussas, France, Festival Black Movie, Geneva
HOME SWEET HOME (docu-drama) 2000 (co-directed with Heidi Draper) "African Nouvelle Vague" “...a film that sums up the characteristics of a new tendency in African cinema: a stateless film, a docu-fiction, a breaking of all barriers both geographical and cultural." Segno Cinema Italy Festivals: Cannes International Film Festival ’Académie du Documentaire’, ’C.E.I. Prize’ Festival del Cinema Africano di Milano, Cape Town World Cinema Festival, Festivals of Carthage International, Gotteborg, Vue d’Afrique - Montréal,Cinéma du Réel - Paris, Film Francophone - Namur
VENT DE COLERE (aka WINDS OF RAGE) 1998 Starring: Patrick Bouchitey, Coraly Zahonero, Bernadette Laffont “This pearl of a movie has an extraordinary story with a touch of Poe. Few contemporary feature films are founded on such solid screenwriting.” Le Figaro
About me: To follow the film production on the Triomf blog, click here
Michael Raeburn has achieved international acclaim as a director, screenwriter, and novelist.
And yes, from his youth onward, he has won some of the most prestigious awards offered worldwide to an independent filmmaker. But much more importantly, over a career that has seen him release films in five different decades (he started young, kept working, and has persevered against the odds), he has laughed loudly at the absurdities of Africa, and given us a vision of how profound its dignity might be.
His most important distinction may well be this one: He was banned from his own native land because a film he made 1969 told the truth about the racist regime that ran what was once known as Rhodesia; then, in our own decade, he was once again banned, putting his life and personal property at risk, when he made yet another film that explored and examined what had happened to his country, Zimbabwe, under its current regime. How many of us would have dared take one of those risks? How many of us would have managed to make movies in the process,many movies, and manage to get them seen?
Currently, Michael is working on a new film, Triomf, a hilarious horrendous comedy based on the award-winning novel by Marlene van Niekerk. Meet Michael and view our first test shoot for the film here:
With English Subtitles (For a French-subtitled version, click here):
For almost three decades Michael has struggled for a free independent voice in a world that is increasingly homogenized and where the rules of commerce push artists into compromising situations.
Born and bred in Africa, his best work emanates from there, and is appreciated for an authentic insider's understanding and vision.
Michael has provided script and directing workshops in Europe and Africa for: UNESCO; the Conservatoire du Scenario, Paris; Moonstone; the French Institute, London.
THE CAPE TIMES - Interview with Michael Raeburn by Karin Schimke
16 March 2007
"Author and filmmaker Michael Raeburn is wearing a bright yellow shirt, and his hair and beard are a blaze of orange. He appears in all senses to be a conflagration of a man. The kind of person flung upon your path to either irritate or inspire you. A person who pushes you up against your ideas and forces you to look at them. A challenge presented as a friendly human being.
Review of Night of the Fireflies, A Novel by Michael Raeburn
MAIL & GUARDIAN - November 10th, 2006
JANE ROSENTHAL
"This book must surely rate as one of the stranger phenomena of postcolonial Africa. The author is the well known film maker who was expelled from Zimbabwe by Ian Smith after he made the film Rhodesia Countdown. His most recent film, Zimbabwe Countdown, shown at the 2006 London Film Festival, examines the rule of Robert Mugabe, the hero of his youth. He is currently working on the film version of Marlene van Niekerk's Triomf. So he is no lightweight on the African continent."
hey!!! thanks so much for the add : ) let's keep in touch and if you want to find out what's on in cape towns' electrifying music scene - just take a look at my profile, wohooo!!!
we could flaunt it, and every other home town we've ever had! Oh yes, dublin, kilkenny, paris, bosnia, paris, dublin, paris, paris, kilkenny, paris, dublin, paris...How's that?! Maybe not. kasia's covering the parisian ponceing about in terms of... well everything. though I'm just about to put up a Mad K video, photos of various outings etc etc! Viva TRIOMF!
Hi there! Thanks for the wonderful comment / compliment! It's a huge honour getting such a compliment from someone like you! Let me know if there is every anything I can do for you. Thank you so much! You made my day! Hope you have a great day!
Hello to Michael Raeburn, and all the cast and crew of Triomf. Thanks for adding us to your list of friends, and good luck with your production. The Black Hotels.
