Low-key biopic of graffiti vandal turned New York darling Jean-Michel Basquiat. Catapulted to art-world super-stardom after a chance meeting with Andy Warhol, the obscene amounts of money his paintings suddenly command soon sends him down the slippery slope of big-time drug abuse. Enthralling.
find out more...
BOPHA! (1993)
Certification15 Our Rating
Based on the play by Percy Mtwa, Bopha! is a powerful and moving tale set during the peak of modern South Africa's system of apartheid. Micah Mangena is a black sergeant in the police force, a man who has succeeded in his job by never questioning what he has been asked to do. It is only when Micah's son takes up the protest against oppression that he is finally forced to take a stand against the regime he has helped to keep propped up.
find out more...
BRICK LANE (2007)
Certification15 Our Rating
Based on the prize-winning novel by Monica Ali, this is the story of a beautiful young Bangladeshi woman who arrives in 1980s London, leaving behind her beloved sister and home, for an arranged marriage and a new life. Nazneen's mother always told her she was a survivor, but feeling trapped in a loveless relationship with her husband, the middle aged Chanu, she struggles to accept her lot, a situation not helped by the arrival of hot-headed young Karim. Set against the changing backdrop of multi
find out more...
CATCH A FIRE (2006)
Certification12 Our Rating
The 1980s; an innocent young South African is arrested and, along with his family, tortured. Angered by these events he becomes what he was falsely accused of, an ANC terrorist/freedom fighter. Based on a true story, Catch A Fire is a searing, adrenalin-drenched, dramatic thriller.
find out more...
FIRE IN BABYLON (2011)
Certification12 Our Rating
In a turbulent era of apartheid in South Africa, race riots in England and civil unrest in the Caribbean, the West Indian cricketers, led by the enigmatic Viv Richards, struck a wonderfully defiant blow at white prejudice and endeared themselves to the hearts of a generation; regardless of skin colour, nationality, culture, or indeed even a previous love of the ‘game’. Their gifts on the grounds, combined with a fearless spirit are a joy to behold in this excellent documentary.
find out more...
GOODBYE BAFANA (2007)
Certification15 Our Rating
Employed by the apartheid South African government as prison warden to Nelson Mandela, James Gregory would seem like the ideal man for the job, white, deeply racist and yet fluent in Mandela's native tongue, the authorities seem to have found the perfect spy. What those in power failed to grasp were a man's ability to change and the irresistible personality of Mandela himself. Based on James Gregory's memoirs, 'Goodbye Bafana' is a moving dramatisation of an unlikely friendship.
find out more...
NOTORIOUS (B.I.G) (2009)
Certification15 Our Rating
A generic, but nevertheless, reasonably good warts and all biopic of Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls, aka The Notorious B.I.G., from a drug dealing chilhood in a Brooklyn ghetto, through arrest, prison, his relationship problems, basic criminality and on to his success as a rap artist before his 1997 murder.
find out more...
STYLE WARS (1983)
CertificationE Our Rating
Style Wars is the cult documentary of hip hop and by extension graffiti art that was sweeping America by the 1980's. More a revelation on the graffiti than it is the music this film is a fascinating insight into these early pioneers and the rabid opposition from those in authority (it was also something of a revelation that most of the lads look like they've just stepped off the set of Napoleon Dynamite, but hell…every look has it's moment of ‘cool').
find out more...