It cannot be denied that South Africa has brought forth several amazing films and productions. From Tsotsi to Jerusalema, South African films have shook the big screen and have been engraved in our minds. With that being said, why is it that we are not watching South African films and movies anymore?

Whether we have paid conscious attention to it or not, Nollywood cinema and its influence on popular culture in the current digital age has been a long-in-the-works phenomenon, which has only very recently received its global due diligence.

Once a month, Marvel fans and Twilight fans gather on Twitter to reiterate the impact of watching the Avengers assemble against Thanos and the Cullens face off against the Volturi respectively, live in the theatre. Although the age of streaming has long taken over, we are still a generation that craves to make a connection with what they consume beyond watching.

Black cinema has historically been oversaturated with depictions of struggle and suffering, and although I can recognise the importance of such representations, I find portrayals of blackness wherein black people occupy typically white spaces, through depictions of the ordinary, to be a more powerful resistance to the restrictions of white cinema.

Wong Kar-wai is a Hong Kong film director, screenwriter and producer who is often lauded as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time for his atmospheric and non-linear narrative films. But what separates his work from the rest of the artsy films that have beautiful images of sunsets but lackluster stories? The pure and raw emotion. 

OVER RECENT YEARS, FILMS IN AFRICA, ESPECIALLY IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN FILM MARKET, HAVE BEEN DISCREDITED AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THEIR ATTEMPTS TO MIMIC TRIED AND TRUE HOLLYWOOD FILM TECHNIQUES, INSTEAD OF DEPICTING STORIES UNIQUE TO THE AFRICAN LANDSCAPE. I HAVE, HOWEVER, RECENTLY COME TO UNCOVER A GOLDMINE OF INDEPENDENT AND CINEMATICALLY IMPRESSIVE, UNIQUE AFRICAN FILMS IN A SPACE THAT I WOULD HAVE LEAST EXPECTED TO.

The Slapstick comedy genre arose alongside the growing silent-film industry of early Hollywood, with Chaplin-esque films garnering great popularity. Yet, despite the genre continuing to be reproduced over the decades, its relevance and reach have slowly fizzled out.

BY-LINE: HOLLYWOOD’S TROUBLING OBSESSION WITH REMAKING BELOVED FILMS AND SERIES IN OFTEN LESS-THAN-IMPRESSIVE WAYS BRINGS TO QUESTION THE TRUE INTENTIONS OF MAJOR FILM PRODUCTION COMPANIES WHO TREAD THE LINE BETWEEN PRODUCING BASED ON ARTISTIC INTEGRITY, OR FOR A QUICK PAYDAY.

Countering The Argument That The Quality Of Music Has Deteriorated In The Modern Era