Award-winning documentary, “Buddha in Africa”, coming to the Garden Route.
Buddha in Africa, the award-winning documentary that follows the intimate story of a Malawian teenager growing up in a Chinese Buddhist orphanage in Africa, by KwaZulu-Natal Midlands based filmmaker, Nicole Schafer, will screen at this year’s Knysna Film Festival (29 Oct -2 Nov)
This powerful documentary was recently awarded “Best Documentary” in the International Panorama ‘A Window onto the Future’, section of the Visioni dal Mondo International Documentary Festival in Milan. In July the film was awarded “Best South African Documentary” at the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF). DIFF is included as a Documentary Feature Qualifying Festival by the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences, which means that Buddha in Africa, automatically qualifies for consideration for an Oscar nomination.
The film had its World premiere at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in April, and opened the Encounters Documentary Festival in Cape Town and Johannesburg in June where it received a Backsberg Encounters Audience Award. It was also in the official selection at this year’s Sydney International Film Festival in June.
Director/Producer Nicole Schafer says, “I am so excited to show “Buddha in Africa” in Knysna and revisit this town that has played such an important role in my development as a filmmaker.”
Nicole Schafer is no stranger to the Garden Route. Besides for having familial ties in the area, her first documentary The Ballad of Rosalind Ballingall, about the unsolved mystery surrounding the disappearance of a 20-year-old University of Cape Town student into the Knysna forest in 1969, was filmed and shown in there in 2006. She submitted the film towards her MFA at the University of Cape Town and was awarded distinction. Today Nicole is based in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands where she heads up her production company Thinking Strings Media.
Dates & Times:
Wed 30th Oct 2pm - Premier Hotel Resort (George Rex Drive)
Fri 1st Nov - Turbine Hotel (Thesen Island) Filmmaker in attendance for Q&A
Sat 2nd Nov - Il de Pain Restaurant (Thesen Island) Filmmaker in attendance for Q&A
Ticket Bookings:
https://www.knysnafilmfestival.com/tickets-passes
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/buddhainafrica
Trailer Link Facebook:
https://facebook.com/buddhainafrica/videos/2409166019303775
PUBLICIST
Versfeld & Associates
Email: sharlene@versfeld.co.za
Website: www.versfeld.co.za