The third annual Vancouver South African Film Festival will get underway on Saturday, April 13th at the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema, located within the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts at SFU Woodwards, 149 West Hastings, at Abbott, in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. All proceeds from VSAFF go to support the important educational development work Education with Borders has been doing in South Africa since 2002.
As founding co-director of VSAFF, David Chudnovsky, told the Georgia Straight’s Travis Lupick in an online interview published on Thursday …

“South Africa is a very complex society with an amazing abundance of cultures and a tremendously inspiring history and fascinating politics. That is my motivation for the Festival: to try and help explain some of that complexity and diversity.”

Unofficially, VSAFF got underway Thursday evening with a sold-out performance by acclaimed South African comedian Nik Rabinowitz, who will be seen on screen Saturday in VSAFF’s gala film, Material, which Variety critic Guy Lodge describes as …

“a Johannesburg-set study of a young Muslim store assistant caught between his conservative family and a calling in standup comedy, (as well as) a warm-hearted, sturdily crafted film.”

Photos of Rabinowitz’s Thursday night show may be found on VSAFF’s Facebook page, along with a wealth of other info concerning the Festival.
Here’s the schedule of films that VSAFF will present on Saturday, April 13th and Sunday, April 14th, commencing at 11 a.m. Saturday with …

• 11 a.m. Me, You, Mankosi. In this remarkable film, three ordinary but very different individuals from the microcosmic Transkeian community of Mankosi share their views on what it means to be sitting on the brink of the modern world. With one foot in a simpler kind of life, and the other striding firmly towards participation in the global economy, this village constitutes an unlikely nexus of big issues around what it means to exist on the margins of the Western world. Linda Hughes’ poignant, insightful and intimate documentary examines the deeply pragmatic kind of multiculturalism that is unique to places where very different kinds of people depend on each other for survival.
• 1 p.m. Not Cricket 2. This sequel to the award-winning Not Cricket: The Basil D’Oliveira Conspiracy completes a two-part 60-year history of South African politics by the telling of the extraordinary tragedy of Hansie Cronje, the iconic hero of South African transformation who, by taking bribes to fix international cricket matches, betrayed Mandela’s ideal. Not Cricket 2 will be followed by a screening of Paul Yule’s White Lies – Secret History.

• 3 p.m. Reconciliation: Mandela’s Miracle Mandela’s Miracle. As someone in Michael Henry Wilson’s award-winning documentary says, “soft vengeance is the triumph of a moral vision of the world.” Marty Mapes writes, “If you were intrigued by South Africa and Nelson Mandela after watching Clint Eastwood’s Invictus, then Reconciliation: Mandela’s Miracle was made for you.”

Saturday’s VSAFF events conclude with a gala 7pm screening of Material, about which we wrote at the outset of this article.
At this writing, there are only 21 Festival passes (cost: $60) remaining, so you’d better hop on it if it’s your intention to catch all 10 of the films on view at VSAFF 2013. Individual tickets are $12 (or $10, student), and may be acquired online.
Sunday, April 14th’s VSAFF screenings include …

• 11 a.m. White Boy, Black Nanny. The white boy is Mark Rossiter, the black nanny the woman who was the family maid when he lived in South Africa until the age of 10. Now Mark wants to find the person who was like a surrogate mother to him, and to find out what it was like working for a white family during apartheid. But as he visits his old neighbourhood, he begins to wonder how much has changed – the black “domestics” are still there looking after the white children – and what difference the end of apartheid has really made. White Boy, Black Nanny is followed by a screening of Journey to Nyae Nyae, director Daniel Riesenfeld’s documentary follow-up to The Gods Must Be Crazy, the most successful African film ever made.
• 1 p.m. Hopeville. The story of a man – Amos Manyoni (Themba Ndaba), a recovering alcoholic – who wants to restore a broken relationship with his son, Amos tries to gain his son Themba’s (Junior Singo) trust after disappointing him time after time, moving with his son to a small town called Hopeville to start over and begin a new life. Determined to mend his relationship with his son, he sets about restoring the town’s dilapidated communal pool, in spite of the opposition of municipal officials. A heartfelt and inspiring story of transformation, there is humour in the film, serving to relieve the intense emotion that plays out through much of the film. One to catch at this year’s VSAFF.
• 3 p.m. Tracks Across Sand. Sponsored by the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation, Tracks Across Sand explores the history of the dispossession of the peoples of the southern Kalahari. The screening of Hugh Brody’s film will be followed by a panel discussion on South African and First Nations land claims.

• 7 p.m. Little One. The closing VSAFF film, South Africa’s 2012 entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar, tells the story of a 6-year-old rape victim who is left for dead in a township near Johannesburg and rescued by a middle-aged woman. After rushing the girl to the hospital, the woman becomes entangled in her life, ultimately launching her own investigation into the girl’s attack. A powerful tale of hope and redemption, director Darrell Roodt has called Little One “a film for the new South Africa,” where an estimated one in three girls is raped by the time they turn 21. In praising the film, the Oscar selection committee described it as “a universal story made local,” calling it “a poignant, moving and minimalist narrative which is unapologetically South African.”

A great many people have come together to present the Third Annual Vancouver South African Film Festival. One of those “once in a lifetime” events, you’ll want to make a point of attending one or more – or perhaps all – of the VSAFF films on view this inclement mid-April weekend.