| Alumni, Staff and Student News, April 2007 |
| Written by Tomaselli, Keyan | |
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Thanks to all those graduates and current students who sent me news for the irregular CCMS Newsletter. Your notes, comments and updates make the editorial effort most enjoyable. The launch of the Houses of Modernity exhibition at the Durban Art Gallery was held on 4 April. This is a collaboration between Malmo University, Sweden, CCMS and the Centre for Creative Arts, both of UKZN. the CCMS host is Ruth Teer-Tomaselli, who with Alison Copley and Natalie Emslie organised a seminar in Durban in November 2006 on the topic, Memories of Modernity. Many CCMS graduate students participated in this event and Natale and Alison, with Ruth, participated in two seminars in Sweden last year. The exhibition runs until April 25th and - Show quoted text - includes Durban and Swedish artists. Susan Makore (nee Manhando) reports "Its good to read about everyone and how well they are doing. Have just completed a 5 year contract at Zimbabwe TV the last 3 years as CEO. I am taking a break from the corporate world while lecturing in Media and Comm studies at UZ." A number of CCMS delegates and students participated in a variety of conferences in the last week of March. I was the official SACOMM (SA Communication Association) representative at The Media and the Constitution Conference in Johannesburg. CCMS PhD student, Rene Smith, representing the Media Action Project talked about AIDS, gender and media issues, but regrettably CCMS graduate Jacob Ntshangase, now Executive Director of Institute for the Advancement of Journalism, was indisposed. He was due to speak on "Understanding Journalists, Their Sources and the Law". (Jacob, we hope you get better soon.) The meeting was kicked off by Prof Robin Palmer of the UKZN Faculty of Law, on "South African Media Legislation and Policy". Rene also attended the Children's Summit and facilitated the pre-symposium, Film and Publication Board and Fifth World Summit on Children on Media. Geri Coertze (MA) will briefly discuss her impressions of the Summit at a forthcoming graduate research proposal seminar. The Summit, an international event, was held in Johannesburg. CCMS Honours graduate, now Prof Jeanne Prinsloo of Rhodes University, presented a paper on youth and media consumption. The potential erosion of media freedom posed by an amendment to the Film and Publication Act was the main topic of concern at these meetings. The state wants to punish child pornographers, but the amendment does not designate this specific topic, meaning that anything the state decides to be undesirable could be thus censored. Congratulations to the following on their impending graduation: PhDs Mick Francis and Sethunya Mosime; and MA students Ed da Veiga, Brilliant Mhlanga. Kathryn Gendall, Zwaks Ngubane, Mary Lange and Aysha Mall. Students who have published in books and academic journals last year include Brilliant, Abraham Mulwo, Nhamo Mhiripiri and Arnold Shepperson. Brilliant has been selected for the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Prestigious Award which entails two workshops, one in Cape Town and one in Oxford. Congratulations Brilliant. Thumida Maistry (Hons) is working at SA Revenue Services in a senior communication and research capacity. Vuyo Mabune, Chris Logie and Kyle Sturgess are working on a Pitzer College-led Internet and video project from Howard College. This project is an outgrowth of the three year exchange between CCMS and Pitzer, based in Los Angeles. Zunaid Mansoor will be shortly taking up a Fulbright Scholarship in the USA. Zunaid is currently tutoring in Media and Culiural Studies. Well done Zunaid. Mashilo Boloka (PhD) has taken up a post with the Department of Communication, Pretoria, and Jeffrey Sehume, previously at the University of Zululand, is now with the Presidency. Damien Tomaselli is teaching media studies at Rosebank College, working as a video producer, completing a project for HIVAN and undertaking a digitisation project for Michigan State Univeristy which also involves Chris Logie. Kathryn Gendall (nee Gush) is working at Mr Price as a communication specialist and Ed da Veiga is studying for his Master in Fine Arts at the AFDA film school, in Cape Town. April 4th saw the publication of Writing in the San/d: Autoethnography Amongst Indigenous South Africans (New York: Altamira Press). Edited by Keyan, the issues contain chapters written by CCMS students based on their visual anthropology fieldwork in the Kalahari: Mary Lange, Vanessa McLennan-Dodd, Naseema Taleb, Lauren Dyll and Belinda Jeursen. Sonja Narunsky-Laden, a CCMS Post Doctoral Fellow in 2005 co-wrote the Introduction with Nate Kohn. Other co-authors of one chapter include Belinda Kruiper and Charlize Tomaselli. CCMS MA Student Gets Top Job Prof Patrick Coleman reports that "It is with great pleasure (and relief) that I take this opportunity on behalf of Johns Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa to announce the hiring of Mr. Richard Delate as the new Country Programme Director, Communication. We are very fortunate to have someone of Richard's experience, knowledge and communication skills join us. He is widely respected both in South Africa and internationally for his experience dealing with a range of HIV issues, his leadership and critical thinking in HIV communication. His background in reproductive health also is key to exploring dual protection, HIV+ women who wish to have children, prevention with positives and a host of other programme areas." This is TB Tesfu ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ), currently lecturing at the Humanities Access Programme in the UKZN's Howard College. "I have started lecturing on fixed term bases since last year (2006) but as you may remember I was the coordinator of the Peer Education at HIVAN's Campus HIV/AIDS support Unit from 2004 until 2005. While I was there I was applying entertainemt education to the extent that one of our task teams in the peer education was entertainment education task team, this task team was organizing dramas on HIV/AIDS related issues. While I was in the unit I produced and directed a promotional video: Introducing the Campus HIV/AIDS Support Unit, the video introduces the unit and it its activities and it clearly shows the fact that we used entertainment education to do our campaigning. My first degree is in English and my Masters is in CCMS and my Masters research article was around the role of Media in HIV/AIDS" Brian Mpono ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) writes: - have gone into property development and investment and joined two ex-Marriott and Investec property gurus. We have portfoilios all over the country and are endeavouring to move even farther interms of magnitude. - quite interesting and starkly different from CCMS however, I never forget to use the fundamentals I was tought by yourself and ProfTeer-Tomaselli in my approach and application to certain tasks. Thumida Maistry ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it )has landed a challenging research and media monitoring job at SARS Previously, she was captivated by a fascinating project to produce biographies of struggle heroes - those lesser known. Nick Heygate ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) was a CCMS Honours graduate in 1991. In 2003 he founded a Digital Media company and he has to date produced a number of Corporate and Social Awareness DVD¹s along with several TV Commercials. WHeare currently working on a Pedestrian awareness campaign for the KZN department of transport. "Hot Report", a zany send up of "e-tv's Third Degree", in this case hosted by Zebra Chatter, is a 15 minute M-Net EDIT production screened repeatedly on DStv for over a year. The video was made by students from Culture, Communication and Media Studies (CCMS) and from Drama and Performance Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College Campus. The team was awarded an M-Net Special Mention for Best Script Writer (Brian Wallace). The 15 minute mockumentary stars Wallace (a bit of scriptwriter's self nepotism) as Ricardo Quarantino, Superintendent van der van der Linde, Rocky Ridge … well all the male roles (alas the necessary evils of a student budget). Keri-lee Miller plays all the female roles (now your getting it!). Zebra Chatter investigates the sordid life of Ricardo Quarantino; a man married to a Television set named Candy. Zebra unperturbed by this sordid love story uncovers the details of this unique love; a love that ultimately lead to both their deaths, when in desperation the lovers decide to rob a library. Directed by the Ed da Veiga, now studying for an MFA at AFDA; Wallace is studying further at the London International Film School and Damien Tomaselli, editor and sometime camera, is freelancing in Durban, and completing a video for HIVAN. The M-Net EDiT (Emerging Dynamics in Television) competition is a unique opportunity which provides South Africa's future film makers with a platform to showcase their emerging talents, by offering them the chance to have their work screened on DSTV. Executive Producers were Keyan Tomaselli and Subeshini Moodley of the University. The programme has been screneed non-stop for over a year on DStv channels. Keyan Tomaselli was invited to participate in an Institute of the Humanities at the 2007 Pan African Film and TV Festival in which directors, academics and others discussed relevant issues under the theme, "Cinematographic Culture and Aesthetics in Africa". Having spent four days in planes and airports, three days at the Festival, he is now back in Durban Keyan's new book, "Encountering Modernity: 20th Century South African Cinemas, will be published shortly by UNISA Press. The international edition was released in October 2006. This book follows Keyan earlier and seminal book, "The Cinema of Apartheid: Race and Class in South African Film (1988). Jean Barker is Entertainment Editor at MWEB. She writes: "People can visit the site she built at http://www.mweb.co.za/hubs/entertainment/. I also run a maverick site www.africans.co.za and freelance as a columnist for Mail & Guardian, Sunday Times, Sunday Independent, Marie Claire and various other publications. I did my honours at CMS in 1996 and then moved to Cape Town, where I am very happy - though I miss Durban right down to the way it smells. Would love to hear how and where others are so feel free to stick my email address in the newsletter. This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it I remember Susan. She was wonderful. Hope everything goes really well for her." Weldu Ghebreslasie < This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it > (Hons, MA 2003-3) Writes: "Great to hear from my university which I am really proud of, University of KwaZulu Natal. Now i am a lecturer at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Asmara, Eritrea." Jo-Anne Hen-Boisen (Hons) ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) writes: "Great to hear everyone's news" Jo-Anne, who previously worked at UKZN and who became an intrepid Kalahari traveller, is now Fundraising Manager, Red Cross Childrens Hospital Trust, Ph: 021 - 6867860. Ruth and I attended the funeral of Vetkat Regopstaan Kruiper over the weekend. He had died of natural causes last Wednesday. The funeral was held at !Xaus Lodge in the Transfrontier Kalahari Park, and involved a 4 hour convoy of 4 vehicles which left Welkom at 6pm. We drove a symbolic 58 kms through the Park and the dunes at night to the Lodge which is 38kms off-road. There, a number of ceremonies, prayers and eulogies were offered by members of the 40 odd gathering and an all-night vigil ensued. Vetkat was buried near a tree about 600 metres from the Lodge at sunrise the following morning. The tree looks like the one which dominated the Blinkwater dune skyline. This was an emotional `homecoming' as Vetkat is now part of the Lodge, its sand, its pan, its sky, its landscape, where he was to have been the artist in residence for the new Lodge. The ceremony was a very moving one, and I offered the condolences of all CCMS folks who had met, interviewed, talked to, and interacted with Vetkat, on our varous trips since April 2000. I gave Belinda a printout of the eulogies which I had received prior to our departure. I will send on to Belinda those that arrived in our absence. These will be printed for distribution at the memorial service planned for Saturday (see below). Thanks to all those who sent Ruth condolences on the loss of her father in late March. It's wonderful to work with such a caring community. Keyan Tomaselli |