Actor and Filmmaker Embeth Davidtz on Bringing Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight to the Screen
In so many ways. I had to do that whipping scene [Davidtz's character tries to expel Black squatters from her farm], and I had to play a woman who talks in a certain way to the African women who come to her for help—all of it deeply uncomfortable, deeply saddening. You know, the body doesn't forget. The body keeps the score and hobbles all that stuff inside of you. I was standing with my all-Black South African crew, reenacting things that some of them were of an age to remember. So it was very difficult, but at the same time, strangely cathartic and victorious to come back and tell the truth, and not stand there as a white woman and say, 'This didn't happen,' or be too scared to confront the racism of the past. It's still there, in the DNA of the place, and what they inherited too.
In the book, there is that painful confrontation with the racism of the parents, and their mental health and frailties. But the book also has a romance to it.
Alexandra managed to show both her love and her unease—the disconnection from the way her family might think versus how she ultimately began to think as she grew up. And the same thing holds for me. It's always both: there's loss and the return is a refueling. Alexandra coined the term when I was busy writing—she said, 'You know, this is the anti-Out of Africa.' And that's what I set out to do.
One of the amazing strengths of the movie is the African setting, which is so visceral and disordered. I gather it was shot in South Africa?
I really wanted to shoot in Zimbabwe, but we didn't have the money and we didn't have the infrastructure. But the topography is different, and I think Zimbabweans might really sort of hold my feet to the fire, but God, I tried. Even in the final mix, when I was adjusting the color, I asked, 'Can we make it more green?'
I got a great set designer [Anneke Dempsey] who understood the brief, because I said it's all broken, decaying. There's nothing shiny and clean about the Fullers' house. In fact, I think the actual Fullers' house was probably more organized and tidy than the one in the film. But I needed to tell a lot with the location. Working with my cinematographer [Willie Nel], I just said, 'I have to see the dust and the dirt, because it tells a story.' Bobo's feet are unwashed, her hair is unwashed. Her mother has drifted away from her and is not washing that hair. Her grandmother says, 'She smells.' I had to show the audience what I could visually: How does something smell and look when a system is in decay?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
NEWS OF THE WEEK: Lewis Capaldi reveals therapy helped pave his way back to music
Last month, the Scottish hitmaker made a triumphant return to the Glastonbury stage, two years after announcing his break from the music industry to focus on his mental and physical health. Just days before announcing his hiatus in 2023, Lewis performed on the Pyramid Stage but was unable to complete his set as he was struggling to manage his Tourette syndrome symptoms. In a new campaign with the online therapy platform BetterHelp, Lewis opened up about the impact of his mental health on his performance at Glastonbury in 2023.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Veteran broadcaster says first reaction to Live Aid was ‘real anger'
Veteran journalist Michael Buerk, who reported on the Ethiopian famine in 1984, revealed his initial reaction to the Live Aid concerts, which raised funds for the crisis, 'was real anger'. The iconic event, organised by musicians Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, is marking its 40th anniversary this year. Held at London's Wembley Stadium and John F Kennedy Stadium in the US, the concerts raised millions of pounds, but also faced criticism for its portrayal of Africa, with Geldof rejecting the idea that he is a 'white saviour' due to his charity work. Buerk, 79, a veteran broadcaster and former presenter on the BBC's Ten O'Clock News, now known as BBC News At Ten, was instrumental in bringing the shocking plight of famine-hit Ethiopia to the world in 1984 with his reports. 'My first reaction (to Live Aid) was real anger that I thought superficial, grandstanding pop singers were riding on the back of these people whom I felt very protective of,' he told Greatest Hits Radio. 'I didn't watch it and in fact on the afternoon of Live Aid I was in a black township just to the east of Johannesburg being tear gassed… also of course South Africa was one of the very, very few countries that didn't show it.' Speaking about the famine in Ethiopia, he added: 'I'd never seen anything like this, there was a lot of drought and a lot of hunger in South Africa in the 1980s (but) what we hadn't seen was famine, death at that kind of scale before… 'I was very concerned when I got back to Nairobi about how to tell the story because I was there I was not just seeing it and hearing it but smelling it; and I wondered what the reaction would be for people who would be sitting and watching it in the comfort of their own homes, cup of tea, glass of beer or something and it's just on in two dimensions in the corner of the living room.' Asked how he feels about Live Aid now, he said: 'I think it was extraordinary really, I think Geldof, the personality, the intelligence, the focus, the foul-mouthedness; just an extraordinary person. It was a moment in time, wasn't it?' Greatest Hits Radio is recreating the 1985 Live Aid broadcast in its entirety in a 10-hour special, hosted by Simon Mayo, featuring all of the original live performances from the likes of David Bowie, The Who and Sir Paul McCartney. Listen to Live Aid Relived from midday Sunday on Greatest Hits Radio.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
'They didn't invite us to do Live Aid so we did our own thing'
Forty years ago a procession of the world's biggest music stars took to Wembley Stadium's stage for Live Aid to raise funds for the relief of famine in Ethiopia. Coming in the wake of the Band Aid single Do They Know It's Christmas?, it was watched around the world by millions on TV and has since spawned documentaries, films and a new musical. Yet at around the same time, on the other side of London, a similar fundraising effort with its roots in reggae was taking place, with the charity single Let's Make Africa Green Again breaking into the charts and a star-studded benefit concert attended by thousands. What was this and why was it started? On Sunday 24 February 1985, lines of musicians and bystanders squeezed into a north London recording studio to record a charity single. "Over 200 or more people were there," says Leon Leiffer, founding member of reggae vocal group The Blackstones and the man behind the British Reggae Artists Famine Appeal team (Brafa). "I had phoned Aswad, Janet Kay, Trevor Walters, Christine McNabb... There's so many names. "Then there was the general public who was nosey, inquisitive, wanted to know who all these people blocking the road were - had somebody died? "No, we invite them in to be part of the chorus!" Leiffer says he first became aware of "rumours coming out of Ethiopia of starvation" among London's Rastafarian community from people who had been heading back and forth to Africa, but seeing Michael Buerk's famous news report inspired him to do something. "My initiative was we are always singing about Africa so let's put our money where our mouth is and do something about it," he says. Leiffer says he began making calls to put on a charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall, but after a couple of weeks he abandoned his plans as others tried to take over. However, seeing Bob Geldof and Midge Ure announce their own fundraising plans rekindled his enthusiasm. "They came on with this fantastic idea, which was a mirror image of exactly what I was doing... The only difference between them and I was their platform was mega and mine wasn't, in the sense of publicity." He says seeing their efforts made him consider forgetting his plans, "but my girlfriend said: 'No, don't give up. Whatever you can do, it's better than nothing'." Shortly after, Leiffer headed to a Hackney community centre to track down fellow reggae artist Gene Rondo. "He was a Rasta man, had good ways, good thought. So I said to Genie, I hear that somewhere in Ethiopia is starvation and people are dying. And now Midge Ure and Bob Geldof are going to do something and I think we should do something as well." Calls went in again to try to organise a concert but, with difficulties finding sponsorship, the pair decided to record a charity single instead and Let's Make Africa Green Again was penned. Next came the task of finding a studio to record it. Having been turned down often, a drive past Eddy Grant's Hive Studios in Stoke Newington, when the Electric Avenue star happened to be standing outside, led to an impromptu meeting. "When I tell Eddy Grant the idea he says: 'Leon I know you and I trust you. You can have the studio all day [and] I'll give you a 24-track tape as well,'" Leiffer says. More calls were made, a plea was put out on the radio - and subsequently many of reggae's finest - along with all manner of bystanders - arrived to record the song. A distribution deal was arranged with Island Records and a music video was filmed, which had its first play on BBC programme Ebony, with the single released on 21 April. "It was a big thing, but can't be compared to the publicity [of Band Aid]," says Leiffer, noting that the coverage which Brafa received from most national newspapers at the time would often only fill "the back of a stamp". The single just made it into the top 100 (for unknown reasons the Official Charts site has it marked as being called Let's Make America Green Again), with the proceeds from sales donated to the Save the Children fund to be distributed in Ethiopia. However, the release of further details about Live Aid only spurred Leiffer on. While many hailed a line-up featuring the likes of Queen, U2 and David Bowie, some questioned the lack of diversity on the bill. "We weren't feeling pleased with Bob Geldof and Midge Ure or whoever was responsible for calling all these artists to perform," says Leiffer. "We had Aswad in the charts, we had Trevor Walters in the charts, we had Janet Kay in the charts, just to mention a few, and none of us was called upon as if we weren't important enough to play a role. "They did fantastic by raising millions and millions of pounds," he adds, "but we felt let down that we were ignored." In reaction, Leiffer and Rondo decided to set up their own benefit concert and in May the following year more than 10,000 people descended on Hackney's Shoreditch Park. "There was a massive tent. People were jumping over the railings [to break in], the place was ram-packed," recalls Leiffer. Many of the stars from the Brafa single played, while other special guests turned up to offer their support. "The famous boxer Lloyd Honeyghan, he was about to go to America to fight where he won the world championship, and I said to him, 'Lloyd, what you doing?' And he said 'I'm alright man, I'm travelling. I'm gonna bring the title back'." More than £8,000 was raised through Brafa, and Leiffer and his fellow organisers were invited to Save the Children's headquarters for a function with the charity's patron Princess Anne. Yet their work was largely forgotten, until an initiative in Hackney to celebrate the local Afro-Caribbean community in the wake of George Floyd's death led to someone mentioning Let's Make Africa Green Again. "Brafa" subsequently won a public vote for the naming of a new public square beside Shoreditch Park, where the history of what happened is now told on various plaques around the square. While Brafa's work may have created less of a splash than Live Aid, Leiffer still looks back fondly on what they achieved. "They didn't invite us so we did our own thing," he says. "We made ourselves proud that we could put in whatever small fee to what Live Aid did." Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to Sharing the Live Aid stage with David Bowie 'I played at Live Aid and toured the world with Bowie' Memories of a Live Aid lie revealed by U2's Bono Brafa Square The Blackstones
