Montreal !

The Material movie is screening at the Montreal film festival next week. Here are our screening dates :

MATERIAL Aug 30 19h10 CINÉMA QUARTIER LATIN 16 

MATERIAL Aug 31 16h30 CINÉMA QUARTIER LATIN 17

MATERIAL 1 Sept 11h50 CINÉMA QUARTIER LATIN 16

Cinéma Quartier Latin : 350, rue Emery, Montreal (Métro Berri-UQAM)

We are playing at a number of key international film festivals over the months ahead. We will have lots of exciting news to share soon.

Please vote for Material on IMDB : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1899240/

Sleeper's Wake is playing next month in Toronto at TIFF.

Action packed month ahead!

Posted by Ronnie Apteker

e-World

I caught something on CNN recently which really got my imagination going. It was a story about the women oriented sex-thriller series of books called "Fifty Shades of Grey" and how it has sold almost 20 million copies in the US. They even compared it to Harry Potter when it comes to the numbers. The news story said that women around the world can’t get enough of this series.

But here is the interesting part of the story. The news update said that a very big part of the sales have been as an e-book ... and this is where it gets very interesting!

The e-book version has been purchased mainly by men, because they want to read this book without anyone knowing. They don't want to sit on the subway or the bus holding a copy of this book, but on a Kindle or an iPad, for example, no one can see what they are reading, because you can't see the cover of the book when you read it on an e-reader.

Yes, this story really got my imagination running wild. The e-World is cooking!

 

Posted by Ronnie Apteker

Bicycle Ride

A friend sent this to me - I had to share it:

A Priest was about to finish his tour of duty, and was leaving his Mission in the jungle where he has spent years teaching the natives, when he realizes that the one thing he never taught them was how to speak English. So he takes the chief for a walk in the forest.

He points to a tree and says to the chief, "This is a tree."

The chief looks at the tree and grunts, "Tree."

The Priest is pleased with the response. They walk a little further and he points to a rock and says, "This is a rock." Hearing this, the chief looks and grunts, "Rock."

The Priest was really getting enthusiastic about the results when he hears a rustling in the bushes. As they peek over the top, he sees a couple of natives in the midst of heavy sexual activity.

The Priest is really flustered and quickly responds, "Man riding a bike."

The chief looks at the couple briefly, pulls out his blowgun and kills them.

The Priest goes ballistic and yells at the chief that he has spent years teaching the tribe how to be civilized and be kind to each other, so how could he kill these people in cold blood that way?

The chief replied, "My bike."

ENJOY YOUR DAY and remember to keep off the roads when riding somebody else's bicycle.

Posted by Ronnie Apteker

August !

The JHB chapter of the annual IS conference, Internetix, took place at The Campus on Tuesday, and the feedback has been fantastic. World-class event!

There is so amazing stuff on the go this month. In a few weeks we will be in Montreal for the world film festival there. Material made the cut. We are proper excited about this.

We are currently waiting to hear from another key international film festival. We are hoping to get some more good news soon.

Then, my brother Alon is playing bridge in the Olympics for the third time. Last time he was in Beijing. And, yes, bridge is an Olympic event for the past 3 games.

On the 5th of September we will be able to share the big news - we got into a major first-tier film festival and we are all over the moon about this. We are allowed to publicise the details in the new month.

August is the bomb!

Posted by Ronnie Apteker

We are in the game !

We had a very exciting week now. So many good things happened. The annual IS conference, Internetix, was held in Cape Town on Thursday and it was a hit. The Johannesburg installment is on Tuesday, and I am confident all will go well.

But the big news is material, er, about "Material". We got accepted into a major film festival and now we are in with a chance. We are only allowed to announce the details in the new month, so there will be more news soon.

Riaad Moosa should finish up on the Long Walk to Freedom at the end of this month, and by all accounts, he is going to be fantastic in this epic film.

Yes, very exciting times ahead.

Posted by Ronnie Apteker

A good idea !

I am often asked about what I think of the local film industry, and lately I just give this colourful answer that I find amusing. Read on.

They once asked Gandhi what he thought of Western civilization. His priceless reply "I think it would be a very good idea."

And that is my response to this naïve question about the alleged South African movie business. Yes, it would be a very good idea! I hope someone kick starts this puppy very soon.

Don't get me wrong, there is a solid Leon Schuster movie industry, and more than the fair share of Afrikaans films stack up when it comes to the numbers, but for the rest of it, it is casino, with very very bad odds.

Posted by Ronnie Apteker