Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.
[New Podcast] A landmark anti-Apartheid South African film gets a 4K restoration
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Hello Reader, "It's a miracle this film was made. It's a miracle this film survived." This is the opening title card on the new 4K restoration of the landmark anti-Apartheid film, Mapantsula (1988). The film was made in South Africa during one of the most oppressive periods of Apartheid, and it's a film that centres Black people's perspectives and Black talent. It was Oliver Schmitz's first feature as a director, but the film is co-written by its lead actor, Thomas Mogotlane, who also served as the film's casting director and a major co-creator. In the press notes, Schmitz writes: "Mapantsula is not just a film, it is an act of defiance. It is guerilla filmmaking and a cameo of some of the best talent from South AFRICA in the 1980’s — and by that, I mean Black talent, that had been held back, had no voice, and could not speak freely. Mapantsula was a taste of freedom at a time of the worst repression in South Africa. It was a loud and clear expletive at the Apartheid Government. It was a film that should not have been made, and yet, it was.” This week on the podcast, I talk to South African director Oliver Schmitz about Mapantsula, the challenges of making an Anti-Apartheid film during Apartheid, the film's legacy, the restoration process, and why you're never freer than when you make your first feature. The film is currently rolling out across cinemas in North America, and is already available on VOD/streaming in the UK and on Netflix in Africa. Listen to my interview with Oliver Schmitz on Mapantsula Alex
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Seventh Row
Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.
Hello Reader, With Young Mothers, the Dardennes’ new film, premiering in Competition at Cannes next week, I’m finally publishing something I’ve been sitting on for nearly a decade. In 2016, I interviewed the Belgian Palme d'Or Winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) about The Unknown Girl. (The film stars Adèle Haenel, the co-lead of Portrait of a Lady on Fire.) We spoke in French — no translator, just my rusty comprehension and their willingness...
Hello Reader, Are you ready for Cannes? The 2025 Cannes Film Festival kicks off today, and while everyone's focused on the Palme d'Or contenders, I'm here to tell you there's a whole world of incredible cinema waiting to be discovered beyond the main competition. For example, Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman (1975) — the film crowned as the greatest film of all time in the 2022 Sight & Sound Poll — screened in one of the festival's unofficial sidebars: Directors' Fortnight. In fact, Akerman's...
Hello Reader, You are receiving this as a paying subscriber to The Globetrotting Watchlist (which includes Film Adventurer and Cinephile Members), a monthly newsletter that helps you expand your cinematic horizons through streaming recommendations for the best socially progressive under-the-radar films worldwide. Your support helps us pay our expenses to keep Seventh Row, a non-profit, ad-free and online. What's Inside the Globetrotting Newsletter This month, I'm recommending: A queer wedding...