Title of film : Sew the Winter to My Skin
Director Name : Jahmil X.T. Qubeka
Cast & crew :
Producer : Layla Swart,Michael Henrichs
Editor : Layla Swart
Cast :
Synopsis : The true story of John Kepe explores the inherent desire and need in humanity to not only seek out heroes but also to fabricate and create them. The film depicts the cinematic ballad of the outlaw, John Kepe. This self-proclaimed "Samson of the Boschberg Mountains" who stole primarily livestock from farms in the vast arid expanse that is South Africa's rural Great Karoo region and shared his spoils with the impoverished poor. This notorious miscreant terrorized white settler farmers for over a decade before events culminated in his capture at the pre-dawn of apartheid. He was subsequently prosecuted for a murder he did not commit and condemned to death by hanging. Led by General Botha, a decorated world war 2 veteran, a manhunt ensues for the capture of Kepe in the very mountain where he was rumored to occupy a Noah's Ark like cave. This spectacle ingratiated Kepe in the hearts and minds of the marginalized and poor indigenous population who turn Kepe's miscreant deeds into the stuff of legends, instantly making him a threat to the very fabric of the developing colonial society. Not only has he audaciously stolen and outwitted the settlers, he has become something of a mythological rebel hero to the native populous. Sew the Winter to my Skin dissects the psychosis and existential romantic interpretation of legend and heroism. It is an aggressive exploration of the effects of colonial displacement that sewed the seeds for one of the most viciously racist, political regimes in history.
Director Bio : September 2017 Award-Winning Filmmaker and screenwriter Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's career has spanned over 15 years covering an entire spectrum of filmmaking disciplines. Most notably, his documentary and feature film work has enjoyed screenings at various prestigious international film festivals including Toronto International Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, London International Film Festival, Pusan International Film Festival (Korea), Dubai Film Festival amongst others. In 2005 an AIDS documentary he directed for Sesame Street won the prestigious Peabody Award in America for best actuality programming. Among many successes in his career, Jahmil was the 2014 South African Standard bank Young Artist of the year in the Film category. His second feature film Of Good Report (2013) has the inauspicious reputation of being the first feature film to be effectively banned in Post-Apartheid South Africa. The film went on to garner many international plaudits and awards. It had it's World premiere at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival in 2013. It is also the first African film to be selected in official competition at the London International Film Festival in 2013. The film went win the BAFTA LA Best Feature Prize at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles in 2014. It also won best feature along with a plethora of other awards at the Africa Movie Academy Awards in Nigeria. It also took an unprecedented seven statues at the South African Film and Television Awards in 2014. Jahmil is working on several directorial projects including the poignant Sew the Winter to my Skin which has been selected for the exclusive Cannes L'Atelier programme for 2017 and will go into production in November 2017, the football film "The Kings of Kwano" as well as the epic South African boxing tale "Knuckle City".
Filmography :
