York’s The Independents presents South African filmmaker Khalo Matabane

As part of its ongoing speakers series, York’s Department of Film is presenting award-winning South African Filmmaker Khalo Matabane. The presentation will take place this evening at 7pm in the Accolade East Cinema Theatre, ACE102, on York’s Keele campus.



Right: Khalo Matabane


Matabane’s films include Poetic Conversations (1996), a half-hour profile on the black consciousness poet Ingoapele Madingoane; Two Decades Still (1996) which offers a look at the 1976 uprising in Soweto 20 years after; The Waiters (1997), stories of hope about people waiting for lost family members to return home after being caught in the political crossfire of South Africa; and Young Lions (1999), about three former youth activists at the centre of the struggle in the 1980s. Matabane will discuss his role as a director and will present excerpts from a number of his films.


His first feature film, Conversations on a Sunday Afternoon (2005), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.


Matabane’s work has brought him national and international acclaim and invitations to workshops and festivals around the world. In 2004 he gave creative writing courses at the National Electronic and Media Institute of South Africa.


“I was born in a village where they used to tell stories,” he says. “I grew up with stories. I am the village storyteller. I have directed more than ten documentaries, political yet deeply personal films about one of the most interesting countries in the world, South Africa.”


Matabane will be introduced by Cameron Bailey, a writer, broadcaster and film programmer in Toronto. He reviews film for Toronto’s NOW Magazine, CBC Radio One and the CTV network’s “Canada AM”. Bailey presented international cinema nightly on Showcase Television’s “The Showcase Revue”, and also produced and hosted the interview show “Filmmaker” on the Independent Film Channel Canada.


For more information contact Natasha Bissoon, secretary, Centre For Film & Theatre, at ext. 33592