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African Couch Potato
African Couch Potato is a South African perspective on all things film and television. Hosted by award-winning TV producer, Gino Shelile, it mashes up in-studio interviews with industry professionals, titles to check out each week, a current film or series review, and a look at old movies that are worth rewatching.
African Couch Potato
S3 Ep38 Jonty Acton on “The Reconciliation” (Film)
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Over the last 30 years or so, we have seen many films and TV productions that have, in different ways, looked at the issues of South Africa's troubled past, but very few have looked from the white, English-speaking perspective.
The Reconciliation is an art-house drama about people who believe they’ve changed, until change asks something real of them. Anchored in a particularly South African context, the film explores the true costs of reconciliation when holding on to the past begins to suffocate the future.
The story unfolds over a single Christmas Day at an old family home in an affluent suburb of Cape Town, where a mother tries to bring her fractured family together for what may be their final Christmas together. Determined to keep everyone at the table and preserve the appearance of unity, she finds her belief in reconciliation put to the test.
ACP managed to hook up over Zoom with independent filmmaker Jonty Acton, currently in Germany, to talk about the film, his own childhood experiences that had such an influence on the storyline, and what finally pushed him to look at "crowdfunding" as a way forward.
The film asks a simple, but perhaps uncomfortable, question:
What happens when reconciliation becomes a way of avoiding real change?
You can find Jonty's project at the Indiegogo.com link below. They are at over 80% of the required funding at the time of writing. Check it out.
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