Rio Cinema in Dalston Screens FUTURE SOUND OF MZANSI Tonight

The Rio Cinema in Dalston, east London, is delighted to host a special screening of Future Sound of Mzansi, the highly acclaimed musical documentary directed by Soweto-born performance artist and musician SPOEK MATHAMBO and filmmaker and cinematographer LEBOGANG RASETHABA. Future Sound of Mzansi is a fascinating insight into South Africa's cultural landscape via electronic music, the sound pioneers, the musicians, producers, dancers, singers.

The screening is set for tonight, March 14 at 11:30 p.m. at Rio Cinema, 107 Kingsland High Street London E8 2PB. Tickets: http://bit.ly/1wZOtyW.

There are interviews with many emerging and established artists such as DJ/promoter Rock Silver, Naked Boys, Black Coffee, Felix Laband, Krushed & Sorted, Okmalumkoolkat, and many more. Future Sound of Mzansi traces the explosion of music making across South Africa and its growing worldwide popularity thanks to the internet. All the artists who are interviewed in this lively documentary explain that music such as Ogom (house music from Durban) or the superfast dance beat Makwaya can be made with accessible technology; the days of unaffordable studio costs are long gone - great music is coming out of South Africa and being heard - and performed - around the world.

Dubbed the prince of Township Tech, sound pioneer Spoek Mathambo performed at London's 100 Club on March 5th with his band, Fantasma which combines traditional Zulu maskandi music with shangaan electro, hiphop, punk, and electronica.

Future Sound of Mzansi will also screen on March 21st/Cambridge United Reformed Church and April 11th/Rich Mix, London.

Spoek came to attention in the UK four years ago with his brilliant beat-heavy version of Joy Division's 'She's Lost Control' with a video by renowned South African photographer Pieter Hugo and cinematographer Michael Cleary and a cast of dancing kids from Langa, Cape Town. Future Sound of Mzansi is part of the SA at 20: The Freedom Tour, a programme of eleven film titles produced by South African filmmakers which is making its way around the UK. Documentaries include Meg Rickards' recent 1994: The Bloody Miracle, a chilling look at how the democratic process was nearly derailed by criminal intent; the late independent American filmmaker Lionel Rogosin's fascinating Come Back, Africa which he was forced to film under cover in 1959 when apartheid was at its height; the chilling Miners Shot Down directed by Rehad Desai about the 2012 strike by platinum miners that descended into a terrible and tragic bloodbath; and Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa, a fascinating portrait of lawyer, writer and legendary freedom fighter Albie Sachs directed by the renowned documentary filmmaker Abby Ginzberg.

Music features strongly in the SA at 20 tour: Hear Me Move is a high energy dance movie by the young director Scottnes L Smith, which features dynamic choreography from Paul Modjadji, award-winning dancer, choreographer and social activist. Hear Me Move has just been released in South Africa to great reviews and will be distributed by Aya Distribution in the UK from September. Future Sound of Mzansi, directed by performance artist and Soweto-born Spoek Mathambo and filmmaker Lebogang Rasethaba (who spent five years in China studying for his master's in film) explores South Africa's cultural landscape via emerging electronic musicians and Felix, a charming feature about a 13 year old budding saxophonist.

Says SA at 20's Director and Executive Producer, South African-born Lizelle Bisschoff: "South African films are very rarely screened in UK cinemas, so this is the perfect opportunity of opening up the wealth of South African films to UK audiences. Cinema production in South Africa has absolutely exploded in the post-apartheid era; during apartheid there was an almost total lack of black South African filmmakers who simply did not have access to the training, funding and production tools necessary to make films. But now there are many important and internationally recognised black South African filmmakers emerging: directors such as Khalo Matabane, Lebogang Rasethaba and Scottnes Smith, whose work all feature in the Freedom Tour."

Lizelle is a cultural practitioner and researcher in African film and founder of the Africa in Motion (AiM) film festival, the annual African film festival that has been taking place in Scotland for the past nine years. In 2014/5 Lizelle launched SOUTH AFRICA AT 20: THE FREEDOM TOUR as a partnership between the five African film festivals in the UK.

Full programme: www.safilmtour.uk.

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