Denton Record-Chronicle


Todd Jorgenson of the Denton Record-Chronicle writes about Cape of Good Hope:

"His [Mark Bamford's] directorial debut, Cape of Good Hope, is a contemporary ensemble piece about everyday South Africans encountering everyday problems. It’s more concerned with human nature than politics."

http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/drc/entertainment/stories/120405dndrcbamford.39e253a9.html

'Cape' about human nature
10:59 AM CST on Sunday, December 4, 2005
By Todd Jorgenson / Denton Record-Chronicle

It’s been more than a decade since apartheid ended in South Africa, yet most films about that country seem to be stuck in that politically volatile past.
Mark Bamford didn’t want to make another one of those films. His directorial debut, Cape of Good Hope, is a contemporary ensemble piece about everyday South Africans encountering everyday problems. It’s more concerned with human nature than politics.
“The film could really be set anywhere in some ways,” Bamford said during a recent promotional stop in Dallas. “South Africa, despite its history, is such an incredibly forward-looking, hopeful place. To do a film that’s dwelling on the past, and bleak, we didn’t feel that was representative of the country.”
Cape of Good Hope tells a few intertwining stores about a handful of racially and economically diverse Cape Town residents whose lives revolve around a local animal shelter. The optimistic film uses the canine interaction as a metaphor for human relations and prejudices while its characters search for love and fulfillment.
Originally, Bamford didn’t intend to make a movie about South Africa at all. The New York native moved to South Africa from Los Angeles about five years ago with his wife, Suzanne Kay (daughter of actress Diahann Carroll), as a “writing sabbatical” in order to develop potential feature ideas.
While living in Cape Town, Bamford (whose 2001 short film, Hero, won awards on the film festival circuit) and Kay volunteered on a refugee project during which they realized the film they wanted to make might be right in front of them.
“It really was an immersion into the culture that gave us a lot of insight into it,” he said. “After being there for a while, we became inspired by what was happening there, and the stories. We had all these unique experiences. It was only after the fact that we started developing the script.”
The film was shot in various areas around Cape Town, with most locations only minutes from Bamford’s house. He also used an entirely African cast and crew, many of whom responded to the script’s heartfelt slice-of-life structure.
The actors admit they initially were skeptical about an American such as Bamford crafting such a definitive story of their native country. But after reading the script and discovering the director’s passion for the material, they became his biggest supporters.
“It’s such an intimate portrayal of South Africa,” said actress Debbie Brown, a veteran of South African stage and television who makes her feature debut in the film’s lead role. “It’s really about South Africa right now, how people are living and the social dynamics that are happening.”
Bamford, 38, hopes the film will become symbolic of how South African cinema can break free of its political past and tell stories about its diverse contemporary culture and people.
After playing festivals for the past year, it opens in the United States this fall, including a current run at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas, with expansion to other countries likely early next year.
“This really captures the essence of that place, because there are so many different communities there, to show the way they realistically interact now,” said Bamford, adding the response from South African audiences has been reassuring.
“They feel like, ‘This is really our country, with all its flaws, and yet with all its beauty. It’s not pretending that there are no problems, and yet it’s showing that there’s really hope.’”

Posted: Mon - December 5, 2005 at 11:19 AM          

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