Shaun de Waal
Behind the Screen
The image and the text

Perhaps I am over-dutiful as a film reviewer. I often feel I have to read a famous book before I see the film adaptation, and frequently try to catch up with a filmmaker's other work before reviewing his or her new movie. Sometimes I tell myself that...

Mike A asks some honest, meaningful questions in his take on my recent God blogs. Instead of battling on about the existence or provability issues, he asks about the implications of atheism, so I feel it’s worth giving some serious, honest replies,...

I’m glad my God blog got so many responses. The conversation continues, which can only be a good thing, though I do rather sympathise with those who say: “What? Are we still talking about this issue?” I didn’t mean to reopen the debate abo...

A few weeks ago (April 25), in the “Courses” section, the Mail & Guardian carried two pieces in counterpoint to each other. The question was “Is religion a threat to rationality and sciences?” and replies were provided by the eminent phil...

I was amused to see the February 22 front page of the Daily Sun, peppered with its usual plethora of exclamation marks. “Ex-lover slashed my 4-5!” That was the headline, and the story went on to explain: “He was sitting happily with h...

You can file your tax returns on the internet! What a good idea, I thought. (I think we should be able to vote on the net as well.) But we should have been given some vital information. We should have been told: you can file your tax returns on the i...

Oh dear, more movies to watch. It’s not like I don’t have three or four previews in a week, and then there are the DVDs piling up at home ... The second edition of 1 001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (Cassell) is out. The previous ed...

Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, Jay Brannan, to be seen engaged in a sexually explicit (and hilarious) gay threesome in Shortbus, was “raised religious”. Brannan is in South Africa as a guest of the Out in Africa gay and lesbian ...

Publicists Total Exposure have announced a “Festival of Festivals”, showing at Ster-Kinekor’s Cinema Nouveau theatres from November 2: “For two weeks in November, Johannesburg will be transformed into Cannes and Cape Town into Venice when som...

The Out in Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (OIA) is, this year, in fact two festivals, or is happening in two halves. This is partly a result of the shift from Ster-Kinekor’s Cinema Nouveau to Nu Metro, and to do with conflicts of time with ot...





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Shaun de Waal was the M&G's literary editor from 1991 to 2005 and has been its chief film critic since 1998. His recent publications include Pride: Protest and Celebration and To Have and to Hold: The Making of Same-Sex Marriage in South Africa..
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