A Mile in My Shoes

Durban International Film Festival 2016: Short, sharp reviews by Brenda Daniels

A Mile in My Shoes

The full title of this Moroccan/Canadian film is “You don’t me know me until you have walked A Mile in My Shoes”. This appellation is borne out in the action of the film as a convicted criminal tells his story to a journalist, a journalist who is prepared to listen to the man behind the crimes .The underlying premise of the tale is clearly that criminals are made not born; under favourable conditions they would not turn to lawlessness. The latter is all I can use to explain the surprising – and I feel unrealistic – ending of an otherwise tense and brilliantly acted movie.

Visit www.durbanfilmfest.co.za for further screening times.

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The Journeymen

Durban International Film Festival 2016: Short, sharp reviews by Brenda Daniels

The documentary, The Journeymen, was filmed solely on GoPro cameras strapped to the chests of three millennials, Sean Metelerkamp, Sipho Mpongo and Wikus De Wet. The South African friends – White English-speaking, White Afrikaans-speaking, and Black Xhosa-speaking men – examine the state of South Africa today, 20 years after democracy. They travel across South Africa into the less salubrious township areas, speak cross-culturally to its residents, and have difficult race-based and political conversations amongst themselves and with the people they meet. A brave and unique endeavour, The Journeymen, is both sobering and heartening to watch. Sobering because of the staggering problems so many people in this country face. Heartening because if these three young men are anything to go by, then perhaps we have a chance of making SA’s race relations work. Visit www.durbanfilmfest.co.za for further screening times.