Darrell Roodt

Darrell James Roodt (born April 28, 1962 in Johannesburg ) is a South African film director .

Life

Roodt attended King Edward School and then briefly studied theater at Witwatersrand University . After dropping out of his studies, he devoted himself to directing. He made his film debut in 1984 with Mr TNT , however, turned already with his second feature film Africa - land of hope the issues of apartheid and political conflicts. In the initially banned film Platoon Warrior , Roodt thematized the South African border war , while in Jobman he dealt with the fate of a deaf-mute African. Jobman was the last film in which Roodt worked with longtime cameraman Paul Witte, who was killed in a car accident in 1990.

In Sarafina , published in 1992 ! , which was screened at the International Film Festival in Cannes , Roodt devoted himself for the first time directly to a later recurring theme in his films: African women on the margins of society. Sarafina! is about the student uprising in Soweto and is based on a musical by Mbongeni Ngema . In the film drama A Woman Called Yesterday , nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category , an HIV -suffered mother (Leleti Khumalo) is the focus of the plot, Faith's Corner focuses on a homeless mother of two (also Leleti Khumalo) who survives only by begging in Johannesburg. Faith's Corner was shot in the style of a silent film, without dialogues but with subtitles, as well as with a hand crank camera. In Roodt's village-based, neorealist film Meisie , a father prevents his daughter from going to school, who is instead supposed to herd goats, while the director in Zimbabwe shows a young AIDS orphan who has to look after her two little siblings. Zimbabwe was nominated for a Muhr AsiaAfrica Award for Best Feature Film at the Dubai International Film Festival. With Winnie filmed Roodt finally in 2011 Anna Marie du Preez 'unofficial biography of Winnie Mandela , Winnie Mandela: A Life . Little One , who explored the rape of a girl and the aftermath, was South Africa's 2014 Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not shortlisted for a nomination.

In addition to films that dealt with South African politics and society, Roodt also made films for the US market, such as the US distribution of Sarafina! by Disney to Roodt's first Hollywood film The Kidnapper , which featured Patrick Swayze . The success of the entertainment films for the US market was rather low. Some of the works also had a trash character: Sumuru - Planet der Frauen was shown, for example, in the German television program The Worst Films of All Time (SchleFaZ) and commented on humorously in the style of similar series such as Mystery Science Theater 3000 . In retrospect, Roodt himself described other films, such as Dracula 3000 , as "awful".

Filmography (selection)

• 1984: Mr. TNT
• 1986: Africa - Land of Hope (Place of Weeping)
• 1987: City of Blood
• 1987: Tenth of a Second
• 1988: Platoon Warrior (The Stick)
• 1989: Jobman
• 1992: Sarafina!
• 1993: The Kidnapper (Father Hood)
• 1995: Cry, the Beloved Country
• 1997: Dangerous Ground
• 2000: Second Skin - Murderous Puzzle (Second Skin)
• 2001: Witness to a Kill
• 2003: Sumuru - Planet of Women (Sumuru)
• 2004: Dracula 3000
• 2004: A woman named Yesterday (Yesterday)
• 2005: Faith's Corner
• 2006: Number 10
• 2006: Cryptid
• 2007: Prey
• 2007: Meisie
• 2008: Lullaby
• 2008: Zimbabwe
• 2010: Jakhalsdans
• 2011: Winnie
• 2012: Stilte
• 2013: Little One
• 2013: Stealing Time
• 2013: The ballad by Robbie de Wee
• 2013: Safari
• 2014: Everything Wat Mal Is
• 2014: Seun: Son
• 2015: Treurgrond
• 2018: Lake Placid: Legacy

Awards

• 2000: Taormina Arte Award of the Taormina International Film Festival
• 2004: EIUC- Peris, Venice International Film Festival , for A Woman Called Yesterday
• 2005: Nomination for the Independent Spirit Award , Best Foreign Film, for A Woman Called Yesterday
• 2008: Nomination Muhr AsiaAfrica Award as Best Film, Dubai International Film Festival, for Zimbabwe

Web links

• Darrell Roodt in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Martin P. Botha: Women on the Margin of South African society: Themens in the cinema of Darrell James Roodt . Kinema , accessed January 11, 2016.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Faith's Corner ( Memento of the original from January 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on stuk.de 
2. ↑ Khumalo back in Faith's Corner ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . southafrica.info, June 22, 2005.  
3. ^ Martin Botha: South African Cinema 1896-2010 . Intellect Books, 2012, p. 188.
4. ↑ Little One South Africa's Oscar entry ( memento of the original from January 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . southafrica.info, October 1, 2012.  
5. ↑ Darrell James Roodt (writer / director) ( Memento June 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on yesterdaythemovie.co.za
6. ↑ Darrell James Roodt on nytimes.com
7. ↑ Shaun de Waal: Darrell Roodt: Dodging the bullets . mg.co.za, April 26, 2013.