Category: Entertainment

{A new Big Brother house has been found in Johannesburg, South Africa, following a devastating fire that gutted the original one on September 2.}

M-Net and Big Brother producers Endemol have confirmed that with this development, Season Nine of the hit reality TV show will commence on October 5, dubbed Big Brother Hotshots.

The show was meant to kick off on September 7, with contestants from 12 African countries already holed up in different hotels in Johannesburg waiting to enter the house.

But in a bizarre twist of events, news broke across Africa of the host house going up in flames, and the show getting delayed.

The search for a new house then started, with the producers also considering options from other participating African countries, following calls from fans across Africa to have other countries host the show.

“The search was concluded after exploring all possible options both locally and internationally,” say M-Net and Endemol in a release on September 12.

“As they count down to the launch, fans across the continent can look forward to some pleasant surprises in true Biggie fashion.”

Originally, contestants from 14 African countries were meant to grace the show, but following some travel document complications for Rwanda and Sierra Leone contestants, the two countries were dropped – the reason contestants from only 12 were ready to play the game.

Whether the delay will buy time for Rwanda and Sierra Leone to bounce back is not known so far. But there are chances we might see then when the show finally launches on October 5th, as anything can happen in Big Brother. $300,000 is up for grabs for the last man standing.

New Vision

{{To that effect, Big Brother Hotshots will kick of next month on September 7, with renowned Nigerian TV personality IK Osakioduwa returning for his 6th stint as host.}}

Housemates will be competing for a jackpot of $300, 000, to be taken home by the last man standing after 91 days.

Once again, total strangers selected from across Africa will be sharing living space under a complete lack of privacy, while cameras and microphones relay to DStv audiences whatever they get up to.

The housemates will be selected from 14 African Countries: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zambia, Malawi, Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Namibia, Sierra Leone and South Africa, the host.

As they backstab one another in an attempt to beat competition and evade eviction all the way, viewers will also be playing their own game – voting to either keep, or eliminate a housemate.

Although it is the same concept, the producers, Endemol South Africa, say this season has more twists than seen before.

According to Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, the M-Net Africa regional director for West Africa, this season’s housemates have hidden talents, adore the spotlight, and will let nothing stand in the way of their pursuit of fame and fortune.

“Viewers will be in for almost as many surprises as the housemates. We work hard to make each season of Big Brother Africa bigger than the last; and we have really upped the ante this year,” says Mba-Uzoukwu, adding that a uniquely African glamour is at the centre-front of it all.

Before the twists kick in, the housemates will start the game in two glamorous houses, built with fun and mischief in mind.

Also to look out for this season will be celebrity guests and brain-racking tasks presented to housemates.

To be screened 24 hours daily on DStv channels 197 and 198, the reality TV show’s launch will kick off at 8:00pm on September 7 on the said channels. Also, daily highlights will be available on GOtv.

{Miss Rwanda 2014, Akiwacu Colombe, will begin soon a 12 day Europe tour as one of the awards that she has been promised when she was crowned Miss Rwanda. }

Speaking to IGIHE, Akiwacu said travelling to Europe is an award that Simba Supermarket promised when she became Miss Rwanda.

It is expected that Akiwacu will leave Kigali International Airport on 28 August 2014 heading to France and later to Spain.

Meanwhile Miss Rwanda refused to tell this site what she plans to do once she gets to the above mentioned destinations.

She will be accompanied by Ishimwe Dieudonne, one of the Miss Rwanda 2014 organizers.

Akiwacu crowned Miss on 23 February 2014.

{{Two Days, One Night}}

Marion Cotillard stars as a woman struggling to keep her job in the latest from the Dardenne brothers, which lost out to Winter Sleep for the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

After her boss decides to sack her and give her co-workers a bonus, she forces a vote and spends a weekend begging for her job back.

It’s both an intimate portrayal of a desperate woman and a tense countdown to the final vote.

The Guardian called it “a Twelve Angry Men of the 21st-Century workplace”. Released 2 Aug in Australia, 21 Aug in Slovenia and 22 Aug in Ireland.

{{The Trip to Italy}}

Steve Coogan (Philomena) and Rob Brydon swap the Lake District for the Med in their latest gastronomic road trip. A sequel to The Trip, also directed by Michael Winterbottom, it’s heavy on banter and impersonations: choice moments include Coogan’s turn as an incomprehensible Tom Hardy in The Dark Knight Rises.

Coogan has described the approach as “we drive through the most spellbinding scenery that I’ve ever seen in my life, and then we diminish it by talking crap”. Released 15 Aug in Sweden and the US.

{{Love is Strange}}

Variety has called Ira Sachs “one of the most perceptive and personal directors working in American cinema”. Now he follows up his 2012 feature Keep the Lights On with a drama focusing on an older couple.

Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) finally marry after 39 years together, but are forced to live apart after George loses his job teaching at a Catholic school.

What follows is a well-observed ensemble piece with a narrative that, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is “constructed almost entirely of in-between moments rather than the big turning points and tragedies”. Released 3 Aug in the US, 21 Aug in Macedonia and 28 Aug in Serbia.

{{Frank}}

One of the oddest pop stars in history is the subject of this comedy drama from director Lenny Abrahamson. Cult British musician and comedian Frank Sidebottom is played by Michael Fassbender – complete with giant plaster head – while Maggie Gyllenhaal and Domhnall Gleeson co-star.

Loosely based on the experiences of journalist Jon Ronson (The Men Who Stare at Goats), who co-wrote the script and was a member of Sidebottom’s band, Frank has been praised by critic Mark Kermode for getting “beneath the mask and the skin of its eponymous antihero in a manner that bridges the gap between absurdist laughter and all-too-tender tears”. Released 1 Aug in Sweden, 22 Aug in the US and 28 Aug in the Netherlands.

{{Sin City: A Dame to Kill For}}

Co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller team up again for the sequel to their 2005 surprise hit Sin City, bringing more stories from Miller’s neo-noir graphic novels to the screen.

Jessica Alba stars in the crime thriller, transformed from a stripper with a heart of gold to a woman seeking revenge for the death of her mentor (Bruce Willis).

It might not be as long to wait for the next instalment: depending on box office turnout, Rodriguez has said that Sin City 3 “could go as soon as we want to”. Released 21 Aug in Greece and Russia and 22 Aug in Canada.

{{Calvary}}

Writer-director John Michael McDonagh and actor Brendan Gleeson reunite following 2011’s action comedy The Guard: although Calvary is a comedy of an altogether darker shade.

During a confessional, an unseen man threatens to murder an Irish Catholic priest (played by Gleeson) the following Sunday, setting off a drama that is part morality play and part “existential detective story”.

With plenty of gallows humour and a good dose of fatalism, it has won praise for Gleeson’s performance and McDonagh’s writing, described by the Sydney Morning Herald as “lyrical and thoughtful and challenging”. Released 1 Aug in the US.

{{Night Moves}}

Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard star as three radical environmentalists plotting to blow up a controversial dam in this eco thriller from Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy).

Combining suspense with musings on the moral ambiguity of political extremism, it was praised by The Boston Herald for being “an impressive piece of neo-noir filmmaking”. Released 14 Aug in Germany and 29 Aug in the UK.

{{The Two Faces of January}}

Screenwriter Hossein Amini (Drive, The Wings of a Dove) makes his directorial debut with a thriller adapted from a novel by Patricia Highsmith. Set in Greece and Turkey in 1962, it follows an American couple (played by Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst) forced to go on the run with a scam artist (Oscar Isaac) after a murder at their hotel.

Time Out described it as “an unhurried, louche thriller that gives way to claustrophobia as it starts to get its clammy hands around your neck.” Released 1 Aug in Lithuania, 14 Aug in Slovenia and 28 Aug in the US.

{{Finding Fela}}

Documentary film-maker Alex Gibney – who won an Academy Award for Taxi to the Dark Side – turns his hand to Afrobeat music pioneer Fela Kuti in a feature that mixes period interviews with highlights from the Fela! Broadway musical. The Nigerian band leader fused jazz, funk and Yoruban rhythms to create a new sound; he also recorded songs protesting government corruption, and was repeatedly beaten before he died from an Aids-related illness in 1997 – the film tackles the complex life of a counterculture hero. Released 1 Aug in the US.

{{Italian director Daniele Luchetti poses during the photocall of La Nostra Vita (Our Life) presented in competition at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2010 in Cannes.}}

{{An Italian director best known for telling complex on-screen love stories will begin shooting the first film about Pope Francis in Argentina later this year, Italian radio has reported.}}

Daniele Luchetti said he would start filming the biopic in October, after he had become fascinated by the pontiff’s openness on various issues.

“I want to tell the story of (Francis) before he became pope,” Luchetti told Italy’s RAI2 public radio.

Asked which actor could play the pope, Luchetti mentioned Argentine star Rodrigo de la Serna, who played Che Guevara’s friend in the biopic “The Motorcycle Diaries”.

The director is most famous for his film “My Brother is an Only Child”, a story of two working class brothers growing up in the 1960s that was shown at the 2007 Cannes film festival.

His short film “Portaborse” (The Bag-Carrier) was about political corruption in Italy.

The 57-year-old said he also plans to make a television series about the pope.

AFP

{{Solange Knowles has finally commented on that fight with Jay Z in May following the Met Gala.}}

In an interview with Lucky Magazine, she referred to the altercation with her brother-in-law as “that thing.”

“What’s important is that my family and I are all good,” she told the magazine. “What we had to say collectively was in the statement that we put out, and we all feel at peace with that.”

Beyonce’s sister, 28, added her parents instilled a true family bond within her and her megastar sibling.

“We’ve always held each other down no matter what,” she said.

Video of the fight broke a week after the May 5 incident allegedly took place, showing Solange kicking and punching her rapper brother-in-law.

Later that month, Jay Z, Solange and Beyone released a statement to the Press, which read, “As a result of the public release of the elevator security footage from Monday, May 5th, there has been a great deal of speculation about what triggered the unfortunate incident.

But the most important thing is that our family has worked through it. Jay and Solange each assume their share of responsibility for what has occurred.

They both acknowledge their role in this private matter that has played out in the public. They both have apologized to each other and we have moved forward as a united family.”

Genevieve Nnaji has denied ever calling Nollywood ‘bland and mediocre’.

While explaining her absence on screen, the star actress in a recent interview with Punch Newspaper was reported to have said she wouldn’t be returning to the ‘blandness and mediocrity that characterised Nollywood in the past’.

Genny says the publication misquoted as she never used those words. She took to her Instagram page to explain;

” never called my industry bland and mediocre. Truth or not, they were NOT MY WORDS. As a person/writer, you can ‘assume what you like about my thought process but DO not project those thoughts as ‘quotes’ by me‘, she wrote.

She also said the move from the publication was ‘distasteful, insensitive and quite unprofessional’, adding that she remains loyal to the industry that made her who she is today.

“It’s distasteful, insensitive and quite unprofessional. It’s insulting to those limited few working hard to make a difference in the industry. I am a product of Nollywood and my loyalty remains unshaken‘, she ended her statement.

The actress’ alleged opinion on Nollywood has been met with harsh reactions, especially from movie director Collins Chidebere who has charged the actress to take the first step forward if she’s so eager to see Nollywood improve.

{{Katy Perry is being sued by Christian hip-hop star Flame and three other rappers for allegedly ripping off the award-winning gospel song ‘Joyful Noise’ for her hit track ‘Dark Horse.’}}

Flame – real name Marcus T. Gray – and a three other musicians have filed a lawsuit in St. Louis, Missouri against the 29-year-old singer, accusing her of ripping off their award-winning Christian gospel track ‘Joyful Noise’ for her hit song ‘Dark Horse.’

The 32-year-old rapper claims in court documents that Katy, whose parents are extremely religious, hijacked their music, tarnished it with black magic, witchcraft and paganism, and ruined their reputation in the Christian music world because of the imagery that appears in her music video, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper.

Cho’zyn Boy, who is Flame’s DJ, told christian hip-hop website Rapzilla that “What listeners are hearing is Katy Perry’s ‘Dark Horse’ at 66 beats per minute and they’re hearing Flame’s “Joyful Noise” at 76 beats per minute,” he said.

“When they’re separated, they seem a bit different, but when you bring them to the same tempo and you just change her pitch down one octave, they’re identical … When things are that similar, it’s hard to dispute.”

The group, who released their track five years ago, are seeking unspecified damages and want the ‘Roar’ singer, who is currently on her ‘Prismatic World Tour’ to be banned from using any form of their music immediately.

Following the success of ‘Dark Horse,’ Katy was crowned the new RIAA Gold & Platinum Program’s top digital artist of all time last week, with 72 million digital singles sold.

The star co-wrote the track with singer-songwriter Sarah Hudson in her native Santa Barbara, California, and previously claimed it was inspired by the 1996 film ‘The Craft’ for the song, which is “about warning a guy that if you’re going to fall in love with me, make sure you’re sure because if not, it’s gonna be your last.”

{{Award Winning African Artist of the Year, Davido (David Adeleke Adedeji) from Nigeria, will be the headlining act at the official Liberation Day Concert on the 4th of July at Amamhoro Stadium starting 4pm. }}

The concert has been organized as part of a concept dubbed “NIWOWE” – an initiative to highlight Rwanda’s exemplary leadership and in doing so, underline Rwanda’s achievements over the last 20 years, the lessons learnt and how to apply them to our future and across the continent.

The “Niwowe” Inititiatve seeks to place Rwanda’s future in the hands of its people. “Niwowe Munyarwanda, ufite uruhari mu kubaka igihungu cyawe.”

The aim of the concert is to get the young generation to pledge a promise that the foundation laid over the past 20 years will hold for generations to come.

“NIWOWE” will highlight African success stories whilst educating the youth on the tools, attitude and commitment required and enabling them to actively participate in the transformation in their own country and ultimately the continent” said Eddy Sebera, Chair of the Umurinzi Reflection Centre, the organizers of this concert.

A host of Rwandan artists will also perform at the concert including Jay Polly, Dream Boys Urban Boys amongst many others including DJ Bissosso who take to the decks on the night.

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{{“The Rwandan Night” is Ndahayo’s second feature documentary and will have its African premiere at the 2014 Zanzibar International Film Festival. The film is nominated for OusmaneSembene Award, one of the top prizes for African filmmakers.}}

According to the Swiss Anthropologist and one of the executive producers of the film Andrea Grieder, “Gilbert’s first film is unpleasantly rough. The Human Rights Film Festivals don’t like his work. But why?” The Nigerian Author OnyekaNwelue confirmed the facts, “Mr. Ndahayo’s images are gory… from the moment you see survivors of genocide digging out corpses from mass graves, arranging the bones in coffins, you start to shiver.”

“I don’t think I am angry enough towards what has happened,” said Gilbert Ndahayo, who lost 52 close family members including his parents and both grandparents from his mother’s side and more than 300 people from his father’s side.

Born in 1975 in the traditional village of Save (Butare), Gilbert Ndahayo currently lives in New York City. For the 20th commemoration of the genocide the Tutsis in Rwanda, he conceived, directed and edited “The Rwandan Night” which has been translated into Italian, German, French and English.

In a 2013 interview on Deutsche Welle’s “Forum des cultures” with Audrey Permentier, Gilbert Ndahayoconfirmed his plan on characters of his 480 min film trilogy about Rwanda’s history.

Ndahayo says his inspiration came from his mentor Kris Boden and his professors at Columbia University’s Grad film school especially the only two-times winner in Sundance history film director Eric Mendelsohn and the internationally renowned educator Annette Insdorf.

Filmed over the course of three years (2010 – 2013) in three countries (Rwanda, USA and Switzerland), “The Rwandan Night” is 107-minute documentary estimated at US$75,000 and executive produced by Ambassador MathildeMukantabana, Swiss Anthropologist Professor Andrea Grieder and fellow survivor Olive Mukabalisa.

Gilbert Ndahayo filmed recent testimonies of survivors in diaspora and brought to the screen the longest monologue in the recorded history of survivors in Rwanda.

At the age offour, FideleSakindi is stuck insmoke and almost burntwhen he is saved by ajigger-infested Hutu during“umusambirawaSecyugu”(the 1959 Hutu revolutionwaves code-named “TheLizard’s Share”).

Ndahayo confesses that filming the testimony of Sakindi was the hardest ever in his career. Sakindi has a scar on his forehead where he was hit with a club-studded with nails (known as ntampongano or “without pity”) in 1994. So, Ndahayo decided to film Sakindi’s half face in low angle shot.

Ndahayo says he was lucky because with the light and candles of more than eleven thousand candles of survivors gathered at the stadium in Nyamirambo in 2006, Sakindi’s face illuminates on the screen as he tells his story of survival for the first time. Sakindi accounts of his family drowned in Ndiza river in ofhis family drowned inNdizariver in 1960s.

He grew up and watched the Rwandan drama unfold over him, his country descent into the genocide in 1994. Sakindi recalls, “does one kill his neighbors, eat their cows and then set on fire their home.”

In November 2011, Ndahayo was invited to attend the third international conference at California State University, Sacramento. He interviewed the survivor MathildeMukantabana at her home. Ndahayo went on to film other eyewitnesses including AtiMosupyoe and former US Marine Lionel Rawlins among others.

When Ndahayo first visited Switzerland, Andrea Grieder took him to RigiKulm, the highest peak of Mount Rigi, also known as the Queen of Mountains. Because of the mountainous terrains, he felt the beauty and wanted to film. Now, Ndahayo has one film completed “The Rwandan Night” and another one in pipeline “The Rwandan Silence”.

Andrea Grieder remembers the experiences of making the film, “Gilbert does not oversimplify the post-genocide realities. He is dynamic, comfortable but very protective when it comes to his film work.

I invited him to come to my hometown Zürich to show his film Rwanda: Beyond The Deadly Pit, but he brought his camera and told me that he wanted to film his trip. I do not know what he was filming but he kept filming.”

In 2006, Grieder went to Rwanda as a PhD student to work on her dissertation. She says that Rwanda is sometimes called “the Switzerland of Africa”. She says, “Gilbert had hired a cameraman but at some moments, he would take the camera off the tripod and simply walk far from the scenes he was filming… just like that. I could see his determination to get images.” In the film, Andrea Grieder contributes as “the other”, and she is also filmed.

Olive Mukabalisa, one of the producers, believes that “The Rwandan Night” is a landmark in the film cult. It is an African poem on film capturing the horror of the killings of the Tutsis.

Mukabalisa recalls that Ndahayo wanted some help, but not the psychological kind of. Sharing the story about the making of the documentary, Mukabalisa intimately disclosed, “Ndahayo felt he would die if he does not make the film. He was very frustrated by watching events culminating into the complete wipe out of his family and friends. In the end, we made a film that sings to the spirit of endurance of our people.”

“The Rwandan Night” was part of the prestigious Berlinale Talent Campus Doc Station 2013 and received a production grant from Friends Of Rwanda in the United States. At its world premiere at Silicon Valley African Film Festival, Gilbert Ndahayo received the 2013 Best Documentary Feature for the film; making him the only two-times winner of SVAFF in recorded history.

His films “Scars Of My Days” (2006) and “Behind This Convent” (2008) premiered in Zanzibar. Ndahayo also won Verona African film Award and Signis Commendation for African Documentary Award at the 2008 Zanzibar International Film Festival.

“The Rwandan Night” is the first film trilogy in the Rwandan trilogy. The film will be shown on Wednesday, June 18th, 2014 at Kisiwa Hall – Double Tree, Hilton Hotel.

More information about the premiere:
http://www.ziff.or.tz/2014/06/08/rwandan-night/