ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT - The African Mirror

Jul

08

2020

Film Review | Cook Off

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

PERCY ZVOMUYA On 1 June 2020, Cook Off, a Zimbabwean-made feature film, had its debut on Netflix, the first time a picture from the country was showcased on the streaming platform. The date is a significant one for Tomas Lutuli Brickhill, the film’s director and scriptwriter. “That had some meaning,” he told New Frame in an interview on Zoom. On 1 June 2015, exactly five years before Cook Off’s premiere, the iconic venue Book Café, founded by his father Paul, shut down. By the time Book Café closed, it had become one of Zimbabwe’s important cultural institutions. It was at once a meeting place,…

Jul

05

2020

By The African Mirror

Zozi celebrates pride month

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT, LGBTQIA+

STAFF REPORTER TO MARK the end of pride month, a few popular personalities took the time on social media to hold open discussions regarding equality and respect for members who are not cis-heterosexual but are gender-conforming or non-binary. This discussions has been spurred on by the battle for legalising same-sex relationships within the African continent where it is still banned and punishable with jail time in a number of countries. Some of those personalities included Miss Universe’s Zozibini Tunzi, who has been using the pageant organisation’s Instagram profle to host conversations regarding the efforts for the LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,Trangender,…

Apr

14

2022

By The African Mirror

A street art mural in Zimbabwe exposes a divided society

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE Shona and the Ndebele are Zimbabwe’s two most dominant ethnic groups. Explaining the ever-present tension between them, historian Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni points to the abuse of the post-colonial state by the ruling Shona-dominated government “in its drive to destroy Ndebele particularism”. He explains, “This sets in motion the current Matabeleland politics of alienation, resentment and grievance.” This continued marginalisation of Matabeleland (a region in southwestern Zimbabwe inhabited mainly by the Ndebele people) by the ZANU-PF-led government has rendered Zimbabwe so fragile a nation that even a street mural can expose its disunity. Author BARNABAS TICHA MUVHUTI, Ph.D. in Art…

Apr

09

2022

By The African Mirror

Will Smith banned from attending Oscars for 10 years after slap

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

LISA RICHWINE HOLLYWOOD'S film academy banned Will Smith from attending the Oscars for 10 years after the best actor winner slapped presenter Chris Rock on stage at the Academy Awards ceremony 12 days ago. The board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences took the action at a meeting held one week after Smith pre-emptively resigned from the group over his outburst at the live, televised event. "The 94th Oscars were meant to be a celebration of the many individuals in our community who did incredible work this past year," academy President David Rubin and Chief…

Apr

16

2022

By The African Mirror

Grammy star Black Coffee: winning the world, losing at home

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

I first saw Nkosinathi Maphumulo aka Black Coffee perform at Amaros Night Club in Pretoria, South Africa during the late 2000s. Dressed in a casual T-shirt, no one would have guessed he was destined for global glory. Beneath strobe lights, bathed in throbbing house music, clashing voices and perspiration, he could have been just like any other struggling deejay on the make. But he seemed impervious to the spectral faces, shapes and vapours swirling across the ceiling, walls and floors. In the middle of the Pretoria club, Black Coffee manned his throne in a scene where everything hangs in the…

Mar

02

2021

By The African Mirror

Tsitsi Dangarembga’s art and activism

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

BARBARA BOSWELL THE artist and activist elaborates on her work and the intricate, necessary relationship between her artistic production and political action in Zimbabwe. The last week of July 2020 was one of extreme paradoxes for Tsitsi Dangarembga. Three days after her novel This Mournable Body was shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize, the Zimbabwean writer, playwright and filmmaker found herself in prison after her arrest in Harare. Dangarembga, part of a two-women protest, was standing next to a highway, silently holding a placard protesting against state corruption and the imprisonment of journalist Hopewell Chin’ono. Dangarembga and her friend, Julie Barnes, were…

Mar

02

2021

By The African Mirror

Golden Globes: All the winners

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

JILL SERJEANT THE king won big at the Golden Globes and his queen made an emotional and powerful speech. The late Chadwick Boseman, known for his role as the "King of Wakanda", was today crowned Best Actor in a motion picture drama at the 78th annual Golden Globes for his role in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Boseman died in August last year after a battle with cancer. His wife, Taylor Simone, accepted the award on his behalf. Holding back tears, she said: "He would thank God. He would thank his ancestors for their guidance and their sacrifices. He would say…

Mar

23

2021

By The African Mirror

Elsa Majimbo launches a children’s book

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

MPHO RANTAO EVERYONE’S favourite social comedienne is now a published author. Picture: Instagram/majimb.o Elsa Majimbo announced online that she had created a children’s alphabet book with Italian fashion house, Valentino, answering the anticipated question of what Majimbo and Valentino had been cooking since they announced their collaboration. In a chic Instagram video, the camera zooms in on Majimbo holding her new book titled ‘The Alphabet for Kids and Adults’, adding that the published book is another sign of her dreams coming true. Elsa Majimbo wrote that the video was her ‘entry into high fashion’ and thanked Valentino for believing in…

Mar

21

2021

By The African Mirror

With traditional fabrics, Nigerian designers fashion a new aesthetic

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

NNEKA CHILE WEAVING contemporary designs into a traditional West African fabric, Nigerian Tsemaye Binitie is creating fashion he hopes can also bridge the gap between luxury and the everyday. His material of choice is Aso-oke, a hand-woven cloth indigenous to the Yoruba people and historically used on special occasions. Binitie, who cut his teeth as a design assistant with Stella McCartney in 2005, began using the fabric in 2017, and he infuses the yellow dresses that are his signature creations with cottons and silks to give them a post-modern feel. "We started to use contemporary African art and culture within…

Mar

21

2021

By The African Mirror

Widower turned sleuth reflects on old age in Oscar-nominated Chilean documentary

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

LUCILA SIGAL AN 83-year-old widower on a mission to investigate potential abuse at a nursing home reveals telling lessons about the trials of growing old in Chilean filmmaker Maite Alberdi's Oscar-nominated documentary "The Mole Agent." Although the story rings like the plot of a fiction film, the drama that unfolds is real. The tender and touching feature film, nominated for best documentary, is the only Latin American nominated for an Academy Award. With equal doses of humor and film noir, the 90-minute documentary tells the story of Sergio Chamy, a confounded but enthusiastic sleuth who barely knows how to handle…