/ 8 December 2011

Jo’burg cinema picks: December 9 2011

Forty international artists have joined forces to create a ­multifaceted international film to be shown ­simultaneously at the big COP17 bash.

Letters from the Sky is part of the COPART Cultural Action ­festival, curated by Cape ­Town-based Kai Lossgott. The film will ­showcase a series of messages from ­artists and filmmakers around the world. The artists were briefed to present personal responses to the effects of climate change on their ­communities, families and lives.

The festival has been endorsed by the British Council and the City of Cape Town’s climate-smart programme. ­Lossgott says the artists come from Brazil, Argentina, the United States, Germany, the United Arab ­Emirates, Sweden, France, Portugal, Italy, Hawaii, Indonesia, Canada, the United Kingdom, China, India, ­Australia, Malawi, Senegal, Nigeria and South Africa. The “­letters” take the form of documentary, animation, experimental film, artist’s film, video art, screen dance or video poetry.

The Bioscope, Arts on Main, on December 11 at 3pm.

? To coincide with the annual 16 Days of Activism campaign, a ­number of organisations, ­including the department of arts and ­culture and the United Nations, have joined creative forces to host a film ­festival titled From the Bedroom to the Battlefield.

The festival will be accompanied by a programme of workshops and seminars on ­gender and filmmaking, prejudice, violence and pornography. Films include, among others, A Love ­during the War — about wartime rape crimes — by Cameroonian Osvalde ­Lewat-Hallade and the Ghanaian- inspired documentary The Witches of Gambaga by Yaba Badoe.

Main Theatre, Market Theatre Complex, until December 10. For additional venues and schedules call 011 648 6903 or visit: www.un.org/en/women/endviolence/.