FCCT beats the drum for world cinema
A writer for South Africa’s Drum magazine gets caught up in his country’s anti-Apartheid movement in the 1950s in “Drum”, the opening entry of this year’s Contemporary World Film Series at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand.
Screening at 7pm on Monday, “Drum” is a fact-based 2004 South African drama. Taye Diggs stars as journalist Henry Nxumalo, a sportswriter who switches to covering crime, which leads to stories about slavery and racism. Gabriel Mann also stars.
“The film’s arresting international cast, wonderful African music rhythms, stark and moving simplicity created waves at many festivals, including Toronto and Sundance. It won the Best South African Film Award at the Durban International Film Festival,” enthuses the FCCT’s website.
South African Ambassador Ruby Marks will be on hand for the screening, bringing South African wine and snacks. Entry is Bt150 for non-members. For more details, check FCCThai.com.
Also showing
German Film Week – The Goethe-Institut’s annual showcase continues tonight with “A God Send” (“Ein Geschenk der Gotter”), in which an unemployed actress takes a job teaching theatre to other jobless folks. Tomorrow has “Jack”, about a 10-year-old boy looking for his missing mother. And the week concludes on Sunday with “Patong Girl”, about a dysfunctional German family vacationing in Phuket. It was shot there with a Thai and German cast, with coordination from Bangkok-based production-services firm De Warrenne Pictures. Shows are at 7pm at Paragon Cineplex. Tickets are Bt120 and Bt150. For more details, check www.Facebook.com/|goetheinstitut.thailand.
Friese-Greene Club – Billed as “the movie Trump doesn’t want you to see”, the 1999 documentary “Trump: What’s the Deal?” started out as puff piece but evolved into something less flattering, and fearing legal action by its easily litigious subject, the film was shelved. But now, with the bloviating property tycoon becoming a frontrunner for the US presidency, the filmmakers could keep their work under wraps no longer. Showing no fear of being sued by Trump, the Friese-Greene has specially licensed “Trump” for screenings in its nine-seat boutique cinema, and is charging Bt150 a head to recoup the costs. It screens at tomorrow, March 19 and March 26. Shows are at 8pm. For more details, check FGC.in.th.
l German Film Series – In addition to the ongoing German Film Week there is the year-round German Film Series, which has monthly screenings at the Thai Film Archive and the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. This month’s entry is “Love Steaks”, a sexy indie romance about the unusual relationship between a resort’s trainee masseur and the hotel’s chef-in-training. It screens at 1pm on Sunday at the Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom, and at 6pm on Tuesday at the BACC.
Alliance Francaise – Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut were pals, and the friendship between these two founding fathers of the French New Wave is covered in the 2010 documentary “Deux de la Vague” (“Two in the Wave”), screening at 7pm on Wednesday. For details, check AFThailande.org.
