Idris Elba has several thriving careers going for him, not the least of which is giving powerful performances in both feature films and on television. When I spoke with him on August 8, 2010, he explained how his career in music informs his thespian efforts, how and why he wanted to make his TAKERS character, a daring… Read More »
Raoul Peck on SOMETIMES IN APRIL
Raoul Peck is a softspoken man, but the gentle timbre of his voice does nothing to disguise the passion he feels for SOMETIMES IN APRIL, which he wrote and directed for HBO. This look at the Rwandan genocide of 1994, an event that took a million lives in 100 days, was a topic he was… Read More »
Rachel Weisz Tends THE CONSTANT GARDENER
With Rachel Weisz, you can always count on an intelligent conversation. The actress who took firsts at Oxford (think an A, but much, much rarer), has more than proven her versatility over the years from historical dramas such as THE LAND GIRLS and ENEMY AT THE GATES, to raw social commentary in THE SHAPE OF THINGS… Read More »
Gavin Hood Tells the Story of TSOTSI
Gavin Hood felt that there was more than just an Oscar ™ riding on the success of TSOTSI, based on the novel by Athol Fugard and South Africa’s official entry for the 2005 Best Foreign Film Academy Award ™. It’s one of the many things we talked about when I interviewed him on February 10, 2006. … Read More »
Forest Whitaker is THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
Idi Amin is a daunting subject for a feature film, but Forest Whitaker played the former Ugandan dictator’s charismatic side as well as the murderous rages into which he could erupt at any moment. When I spoke with him on October 6, 2006, that was the first thing I asked him about before moving on… Read More »
Connie Field Asks HAVE YOU HEARD FROM JOHANNESBURG? APARTHEID AND THE CLUB OF THE WEST
Connie Field started from scratch in putting together her six-part documentary, HAVE YOU HEARD FROM JOHANNESBURG. Undaunted, she set about assembling an archive of first-person narratives about apartheid at home and abroad in South Africa. When we spoke on October 30, 2007, she discussed how the 2000+ hours of interviews and footage would be made available to scholars,… Read More »