Felix, a South African feel-good movie, is this year’s choice for Powell River Film Festival’s drama for students.
The format allows it to be shown at Evergreen Theatre, Powell River Recreation Complex, and it will be open to the public as well.
Felix Xaba is 14, a cheerful aspiring musician, and clever as well. To reward his intelligence, he wins a scholarship to an exclusive private school in Cape Town. The word exclusive is another description for white, which Felix is not. Initially Felix has a very hard time. He’s bullied and his affinity for jazz gets him into trouble with his mother who considers it the devil’s music after Felix’s jazz musician father drank himself to death. His pennywhistle doesn’t win him many friends, either. But after discovering his father’s old saxophone and learning to play from his dad’s former bandmates, Felix’s fortunes begin to change.
The film has been dubbed the Billy Elliott of Cape Jazz. The joyous sounds of Cape Jazz carry the movie on a crest of music to lift every audience member’s heart. The film has won accolades and awards throughout the world. One jury said, “Felix is delightfully cheerful, inspiring and optimistic. It shows how important it is to reach the truth about oneself and to pursue one’s dreams.” A positive message of hope is conveyed, something the whole world could use.
A very different film to be shown at the film festival is the documentary, Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia. Vidal, who died this past summer, was a novelist, essayist and playwright. An outspoken iconoclast, he was known for his acerbic views. This documentary, which was primarily shot with Vidal’s full cooperation before his death at 86, is highly entertaining. Fans will love it, foes will hate it. It is unlikely anyone’s position will change, but the film is unfailingly witty and devastatingly insightful. A lifetime Democrat, he was harsh in his criticism of the US even though he ran for office twice.
He famously stated, “There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party...and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt—until recently...and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.”
The documentary uses archival footage from Vidal’s on-air career and entertaining interviews, including one with the noted atheist, Christopher Hitchens (author of God is not Great). Vidal was one of America’s most prolific and best-known writers. He wrote more than 22 books and more than 200 essays. A collection of his essays won the National Book Award in 1993.
He was the author of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace and Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Bush-Cheney Junta. Taken together, the books constitute a comprehensive attack on America’s imperialist ambitions and the military-industrial complex. Vidal was a fierce critic of George W. Bush, but his attacks were by no means restricted to living presidents. He also accused Franklin D. Roosevelt of provoking the attack on Pearl Harbour to ensure that America entered WWII. Anyone who likes hard-hitting and controversial documentaries will enjoy this one.
The film festival runs from Wednesday, February 12, to Sunday, February 16. The school program begins on Monday, February 11. Passes and individual tickets are on sale at the Patricia Theatre, Creative Rift and Breakwater Books. For further information, readers can check the website.
