Hot docs at Diff

My fifth and last day at the cinematic wonderland that is DIFF consisted of three

documentaries.

The films are very diverse - two were made by Western filmmakers and the third one is

by an Iranian who was stopped from filming his latest film and this doccie was smuggled

out of Iran on a flash drive hidden in a cake!

I kicked off my day with Semisweet: Life in chocolate that focuses on 4 different stories

about chocolate - the top chocolatier in France, a spiritual couple's chocolates from

Canada, the story of Hershey and cocoa producing in the Ivory Coast. The doccie offers

serious food for thought. I also had lunch with the director, Lalita Krishna, afterwards

where she told me it was her doccie's first screening after Toronto where it premiered. I

give the film an 8.

I spent the afternoon away from movies and visited the tranquil Holocaust Centre, where

I couldn't help thinking about the superb 5 Broken Cameras that I saw on Monday..

The night session started with This is not a film where the Iranian director Jafar Panahi

was awaiting his fate of maybe going to jail for speaking out against the regime. In the

very personal doccie he reads his banned script to the camera. I give the film a 9. The

documentary has another screening at Sneddon on 28 July.

The breathtaking The art of flight was my last film of DIFF 2012. This snowcross

spectacular took my breath away. Apparently it was shown at Cannes in 3D and I would

have loved to see it in Durban in that format. It was also sold out. This trance infused

adrenaline feast scores a 9.

The festival will conclude on 29 July and some of the other cinematic highlights coming

up are Cannes winners Goodbye by Mohammed Rasoulof and The Kid with a bike, To

Rome with love, Trishna and the closing film, SA's first 3D film titled Adventures in

Zambesia.

The prizes will be announced on 28 July and they will be published on my blog.

Au revoir till 2013