Los Angeles, United States | AFP | One day in mid-March, Fox News ran a story about a pair of Donald Trump supporters sporting Nazi-style armbands emblazoned with their candidate’s last initial. “Armbands are a fairly new phenomenon in American presidential politics. And so is Donald Trump,” the station’s reporter …
Read More »ENTERTAINMENT: Brad Pitt hasn’t answered divorce petition
Los Angeles, United States | AFP | Brad Pitt has missed the deadline to respond to Angelina Jolie’s divorce petition, seeking to avoid sparking an acrimonious legal battle that could harm the children, media reported on Friday. The 52-year-old actor will not file an official reply, despite being two days …
Read More »George Best film opens up football’s flawed genius
London, United Kingdom | AFP | George Best’s prodigious rise to football superstardom and plunge into alcoholic self-destruction is laid bare in a new documentary film that focuses on the character behind the tragic tale. “George Best: All By Himself”, which has its world premiere at the London Film Festival …
Read More »Queen of Katwe’ shows power of dreams
Phiona Mutesi, the Ugandan girl who became a chess sensation at the age of 10 stands out for something else. She was raised in the slum of Katwe, on the edges of a city, Kampala, but quietly worked her way up. Her journey to fame crested when it was documented …
Read More »Ugandan family’s life in movie on a rare talent for chess
Kampala, Uganda | AFP | Michael O’HAGAN | Standing on a drab side-street next to an open sewer in the Ugandan capital Kampala, Brian Mugabi points to the site of his former family home and reflects on how much the game of chess has changed their lives. Ten years ago Mugabi …
Read More »VIDEO: Raila Odinga in Uganda for Queen of Katwe premiere
VIDEO: Kenyan opposition chief Raila Odinga says cooperation between the East African countries should be in a manner that does not hurt the prospects of the neighbours. He said this at the weekend while in the country for the premiere of the film Queen of Katwe. He reassured Ugandans that he …
Read More »Ugandan premiere of girl’s slum-to-chess-champ story
Kampala, Uganda | AFP |Michael O’ Hagan | Phiona Mutesi used to forage for food in the impoverished slums of Kampala. On Saturday she attended a Disney movie premiere about her life in the Ugandan capital. What happened in between is that Mutesi became a chess champion and the resulting film …
Read More »Battle over film money in Uganda
Uganda’s film industry has five faces – and almost everyone is in it for the money. Unfortunately, as their interests clash, the industry suffers. Take Cindy Magara, a film producer with a company called Nyati Motion Pictures. Her biggest quarrel is about film producers being left to fund what she …
Read More »Daughter of Sudanese film legend preserves his legacy
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | As she drove past an apartment complex on a street in Khartoum, Sara Jadallah turned silent. It was here that her late father, the legendary film-maker Jadallah Jubara, set up Sudan’s first private film studio in the 1970s. But in 2008, following an eight-year court …
Read More »‘Ghostbusters’ backlash reflects Hollywood’s sexism problem
Los Angeles, United States | AFP | An all-female reboot of “Ghostbusters” hits theaters next month amid a savage backlash by Internet trolls that has thrown the spotlight back onto Hollywood’s gender discrimination problem. The film’s first trailer has become the most reviled in YouTube history, having amassed almost 900,000 …
Read More »