For those of you looking to make your mark in the next big African- American SGL/LBGT Feature Film here's your chance!

DETROIT- 08. 12. 2007 - From the prolific filmmaker that brought you, 'Keith & Greg' and the documentary, 'Just Between Us,' Ken Jackson is currently casting for he's next feature film, being shot right here in Detroit. 'At Last' is a tear jerking, dramedy about one man's tragic loss of his long time partner and his triumphant journey towards rediscovery.

Jamie Foxx is set to play another musical genius, this time a mentally unstable violin player.

Foxx, who won an Oscar in 2005 for his portrayal of Ray Charles in 'Ray' will play Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a Juilliard student who had a nervous breakdown at aged 20.

Ayers quit the famed school and lived homeless on notorious Skid Row in Los Angeles until Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez spotted him playing violin near a statue of Beethoven.

The pair became friends, and Lopez helped Ayers to get back on his feet. The friendship is set to be the focus of the movie which will begin filming in January. Who will play Lopez has not yet been determined.

One of the South African film industry’s most anticipated events, the 5th North West Film Festival (NWFF), is taking place from the 14th to the 23rd September 2007 across the North West Province.


­­­­­­­­­­­The theme of the festival is Ke Ya Rona (Setswana for “It is Ours”) and its primary objective is to encourage people to take ownership of the industry either as active audiences or film makers. The Festival aims to ‘edutain’ using film as a medium.

Zanele Muholi, a gender activist and renowned photographer will show a film called Enraged By a Picture. This film speaks about gender and sexuality in a way that presents the platform for society to talk about such matters. This film, together with eight others, form part of the Out in Africa gay and lesbian focus.

With 9/11-themed films dominating the Toronto International Film Festival this week, Indian filmmaker Parvez Sharma is grabbing attention with "A Jihad For Love," a documentary six years in the making about Islam and homosexuality.

"We are presenting Islam's most unlikely storytellers," Sharma said Friday of his debut feature about gay and lesbian Muslims battling racial profiling and harassment after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and subsequent terror attacks in London and Madrid.

IT WAS A touchy subject to bring up, but how could I let Shemar Moore come to town and not ask him about that photo of him emerging from the surf with nothing on his naked body but drops of water?

By the way, in person, the star of the CBS drama "Criminal Minds," more than lives up to his reputation for being one of Hollywood's hottest hunks, as they say. Despite having to fight against being known for his famous six-pack and his pretty-boy looks, the 37-year-old actor has managed to hang onto the spotlight for nearly 20 years, beginning as Malcolm on "The Young and the Restless." Moore's goal is to do more feature films and one day reach Denzel Washington status.

How does a Broadway lowlife get to heaven? Morgan Freeman talks about his journey from obscurity to Hollywood elder statesman — and taking on the role of Nelson Mandela

by Nicola Graydon

The air in Memphis is so humid you could drink it. It’s trying to rain but that doesn’t deter Morgan Freeman from practising his golf swing. I’m under a canopy watching Will, the coach, give him a master class at Southwind golf club. It’s all about the hands and the hips (he’s stiff around the hips, apparently). He claims to be protecting a torn muscle in his back, but Will isn’t giving him a break. “I know you like a challenge,” he says. Freeman is all elegance in grey slacks, a pistachio-green shirt and a snappy white panama hat. “My work isn’t work,” he says, with a grin. “In that sense I’m to the manor born. It’s easy. Now this,” he brandishes his club, “this is work.” He’s only been playing golf for nine months but, according to his coach, he’s better than some who’ve been playing for years.

It’s difficult to imagine that this is a man who turned 70 in June. While I’m immobile and wilting in the heat, he hits one ball after the other while his coach prods his hips and adjusts his shoulders. Two hours later he’s as fresh
as a daisy, and as we adjourn to the bar he orders a double vodka on the rocks with two fat olives.

Hollywood's veteran actress, Elizabeth Taylor, 75, has a new man in her life - the one who introduced her to Hawaii.

Taylor ended all the speculations about her relationship with African-American businessman Jason Winters by admitting to New York gossip columnist Liz Smith that the reports were indeed true.

"Jason Winters is one of the most wonderful men I've ever known and that's why I love him," Contactmusic quoted her, as telling  "He bought us the most beautiful house in Hawaii and we visit it as often as possible," she said.

The eight-times married Taylor told Smith that she plans to return to her new Hawaiian adopted home next week with Winters.

The businessman had met Taylor while promoting her jewellery line.

By TAMARA McKENZIE

While members of the Rainbow Alliance will continue to lobby for the inclusion of a gay network on Cable Bahamas' lineup of channels, several local pastors, including the president of The Bahamas Christian Council (BCC), are planning to meet next week to discuss what may become another burgeoning issue between homosexuals and the church.

However, BCC president John Humes told The Nassau Guardian yesterday that the Council is strictly against the "gay agenda."

"I don't think it would be in the best interest for Cable Bahamas to proceed with incorporating this channel," said Humes in a telephone interview. "There may be a market there but we already have enough problems with what we have now [in terms of channels on Cable Bahamas]. And to bring a gay agenda into the mix, we will not stand by idly and allow that to happen, for sure."

Erin Greene, public spokesperson for the local gay advocacy group Rainbow Alliance, took her case to the media earlier this week. She wants Cable Bahamas to offer the LOGO channel, a network that specifically caters to bi-sexual, gay, lesbian and transgender (BGLT) viewers. The channel, according to its website, www.logoonline.com, offers a variety of programs from sitcoms, dramas, full-length movies, news and documentaries.

When Mohsin Hendricks an Imam in South Africa revealed that he is gay he expected protests and calls for his death.

But he never imagined he would talk about his sexuality and religion publically.

Hendricks appears in Jihad for Love a documentary about gay Muslim men and women in Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt and South Africa.

Indian filmmaker Parvez Sharma, who is gay himself, wants his movie to reach Muslim communities even where being homosexual remains a crime punishable by death.

"This film is a remarkable opportunity to change consciousness. The next few years are going to see me and the characters in this film, engaged in discussions, using the film as a platform and as a door into opening people's minds, into opening people's hearts," said Sharma.

Sharma focuses on men and women struggling to reconcile their sexuality with being Muslim.

And he interprets Jihad in terms of personal struggle, not holy war.

Denzel Washington will reteam with frequent collaborator Tony Scott on a remake of "The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3" for Columbia Pictures.
David Koepp, who penned "Spider-Man 4" for the studio, wrote the screenplay.

Washington will take on the role of Zachary "Z" Garber, which was played by Walter Matthau in the original 1974 Joseph Sargent-helmed film. The story, based on a novel by John Godey, also spawned a 1998 TV movie starring Edward James Olmos.

The latest incarnation takes place in contemporary New York and is set in motion when four hijackers take over a subway train and hold the passengers for ransom.

Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch are producing through their Sony-based Escape Artists banner.

Sony will launch production in the first quarter of 2008.

Washington and Scott have worked together on a number of films, including "Deja Vu" and "Crimson Tide." Washington's upcoming credits include "American Gangster," helmed by Tony Scott's brother, Ridley.

Washington recently wrapped production on his latest directorial effort, "The Great Debaters."

Scott's recent helming credits include the Keira Knightley starrer "Domino."

Bounce back

By Michael Janusonis

Documentary filmmaker Christian Liffers looks at the plight of homosexuals in Cuba in his provocative Dos Patrias Cuba y La Noche (Two Homelands, Cuba and the Night) showing as part of the Providence Latin American Film Festival.

Liffers uses the writings of Reinaldo Arenas, who provoked Cuban authorities with his openly gay lifestyle in the 1970s, as a jumping-off point for his interviews with homosexuals living in Cuba today. Arenas was a poet and philosopher who was imprisoned by the government in the 1970s, fled to the United States in 1980 and died there in 1990, a suicide because he was suffering the maladies of AIDS.

October 2, 2007 - Wesley Snipes has dropped out of Spike Lee's forthcoming WWII drama Miracle at St. Anna, and will be replaced by Antwone Fisher star Derek Luke.

Snipes, Variety says, left the production after it became too complicated for him to travel abroad for filming while facing federal tax evasion charges. Snipes has pled not guilty in the case.

Luke will now star as one of four members of the Army's all-African American 92nd Division who become separated from their squad while behind enemy lines. The soldiers, bitter about racial discrimination and the feeling that their own government treats its enemy better than it does them, find humanity in the small Tuscan village of St. Anna. The script was written by newbie scribe James McBride.

A coming-of-age drama about a lesbian teenager has won the £25,000 Iris Prize - thought to be the largest ever award for a gay and lesbian short film.

Its director Dee Rees, from the United States, will now use the money to make another short film in the UK.

Her film Pariah was chosen by judges as the best entry of the 30 shortlisted at the end of a three day film festival in Cardiff.

It also won the NewFest festival award in New York earlier this year.

Ms Rees' 27-minute film follows the teenage girl as she unsuccessful tries to juggle multiple identities to avoid rejection from her friends and family.

He has played many a singer on the big and small screen, from David Ruffin in The Temptations to Little Richard, to one of the members of the urban classic The Five Heartbeats. Now life is imitating art.

Yes, party people, you can now groove to the reggae-soul sounds of Leon and his band Leon and the Peoples. Leon has channeled his inner Bob Marley and has independently released his band's debut CD The Road Less Traveled. VC hasn't heard the entire CD, but from the tracks we've heard on his website his music is a lot better than Eddie Murphy's "Kill De White People" SNL skit from back in the day.

But fans of Leon's acting need not despair; he hasn't put the scripts down yet. He is still making movies and acting in stage plays. But until his next acting gig, you can find Leon and the Peoples on tour with reggae legends Beres Hammond and Marcia Griffiths across the U.S.

Bounce back

The second leg of the Out in Africa Gay & Lesbian Film Festival for 2007 is again being hosted by Nu Metro and contains a fabulous line-up of 29 films (including short films and television series').

Kicking off in Johannesburg on 1st November and in Cape Town on the 8th November, the Festival has something for everyone. Films originate from South Africa, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK and USA.

Mark Harris, National Product Manager, Nu Metro Theatres says, "We are delighted to again be associated with this prestigious festival, the genre is a favourite with discerning audiences."

Many special guests will be welcomed at the November Festival including Jesse Archer, Archer is the lead in Casper Andreas' latest film, A Four Letter Word, which he also co-wrote. Jay Brannan, most recently seen on our screens in John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus (he plays the third in the James and Jamie triangle), will also attend the Gay & Lesbian Film Festival to introduce Holding Trevor. In this engaging film, Brannan displays his talent as a singer and songwriter.

Émilie Jouvet, a Parisian based photographer and filmmaker, will present her film One Night Stand whilst Sandi DuBowski will introduce the director of his latest production A Jihad for Love.

Parvez Sharma, an Indian born Muslim and the director of A Jihad for Love, presents the often life threatening difficulties facing Muslims that are gay or lesbian in this important and ground-breaking film.

LEON makes his “gay” debut in soon to be released Bill Duke film “Cover”

NEW YORK - "There is a stairwell someone is being chased down.  Bang!! Bang!!  A body falls down in the rain.  A person passes.  She goes out in traffic and runs away.  Lou Gossett is the detective with the fingerprints from the gun."   "It's a murder mystery", Bill Duke legitimizes and explains to me in a phone interview from his offices in Los Angeles , about his latest film adventure "COVER".

Cover, is a play on words using the slang phrase -- "Down Low" or "DL".  "Black women are the number one victims of  HIV/AIDS in our country. They are contracting the disease at rates that are frighteningly similar to that of third world nations", Duke emphasizes.  

Though an official release date hasn't been announced or whether or not the film will go to the theaters or straight to DVD, but Director Bill Duke's down-low film, 'Cover', is slated to come out this year.

LEON "Waiting to Exhale", "Five Heartbeats", usually known as the love interest, expands his acting abilities as Brian Chambers, the romantic interest for the doctor; Greg is the doctor, Glenn Plummer. Other film stars include Vivica A. Fox, Paula Jai Parker , Lou Gossett Jr., Mya, Roger Guenveur Smith, Aujanue Ellis , Victoria Platt and Patti Labelle

By Vanessa Loy

Bill Cosby’s career as an actor, comedian, author and activist has spanned over 40 years. While Cosby has starred in numerous films and adult-oriented television series, he is most fondly remembered for his children’s programs.

One of his most famous works is "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids," a cartoon which ran from 1972 to 1985, a length of time unheard of for most television shows. In “Fat Albert,” Cosby was the host for the live-action segments, the voice of several animated characters, a writer and executive producer for the show. “Fat Albert” used the situations of a boy named Albert and his friends to entertain and educate young children in important life lessons. During this time, Cosby also had recurring roles on “The Electric Company” and hosted "Bill Cosby's Picture Pages."

After Nine
South Africa 2007 4x 48min
Dir: Sechaba Morojele
Starring: Sidu Majola, Aaron Moloisi, Lucky Khoza, Bokang Maema, Khanyisile Mbau

One of two home-bred, four-part experimental gay mini-series to hit the South Africa's local screens early this year, After Nine explores a successful but closeted man with all the outward elements of South African life: entrepreneurial success within the BEE framework, societal pressure and the expectations of culture.

China is a success - his construction company has hit the big time and he's in a steady relationship with Bokang. Then China meets Hector, an architect who shares China's passion for basketball and when they fall for each other, the wheels begin to fall off. China's new association with Hector is complicated further when his girlfriend announces that she is pregnant and he is pressured into marrying her. China finds compromise by living straight during the day and gay after nine, but pressure from both sides of his unsteady love triangle makes living a lie difficult.

By NOOR-JEHAN YORO BADAT

On the tiled rooftop of XM's offices Hector, an architect, and China, a successful businessman, sit shoulder to shoulder and talk.

Hector, holding a bottle of wine, lights up a cigarette. They gaze into each other's eyes, their desire for each other nakedly clear, and then they share a passionate kiss.

Scene ends.

So closes the first episode of His Story - After Nine, a new local TV mini-series commissioned by SABC1, which will be aired from Thursday.

The series, to be broadcast in Zulu, Tswana and English, with English subtitles, and produced by Lesego Majatladi and Sechaba Morejele, explores the sensitive issues surrounding China (played by Lucky Khoza), a gay black man in a heterosexual relationship, who secretly delves into his sexual preferences. It touches on his inner struggles, his double life, and society's and his family's expectations of him.

Majatladi says that, in producing After Nine, the brief given to him by the SABC was to explore "the different ways masculinity is expressed and what challenges men face in contemporary society in defining their masculinity".

"In a weird way the story was inspired through a conversation with a friend," says Majatladi.

"He works for a law firm in Jo'burg and he talked about how to advance one's career in certain professions, how being married is an advantage. You are seen to be reliable, more rooted, more focused.

"And in another conversation another person spoke about how men have much more to lose when they have children.

"It got me thinking about what heterosexual marriage represents to broader society, so I started researching," he says.

Through research, focus groups and talks with story consultants, Majatladi stumbled upon an issue that has often been overlooked because of societal norms.

There was always someone who knew of men who were gay but made the choice against being openly gay so as not to jeopardise their social standing and professional standing, he says.

"I was quite surprised when I socialised with people and I would talk about this storyline, and they would say: 'I know someone like that'."

Though the series is played out in a world of his design, the truth isn't too far off. "It's quite real," says Majatladi.

"My objective was to stay true to the character as much as possible. I didn't want to do a documentary on being gay or being an 'after nine'."

But, what is an "after nine"?

"They are gay people who choose to live heterosexual lives," explains Majatladi. "From morning till nine (pm) they are straight. After nine they come out, as it were.