south africa

Life Above All is a film about South Africa but with a strong Canadian connection: based on a young-adult novel, Chanda’s Secrets, by Toronto writer Allan Stratton, with a screenplay by Vancouver novelist and playwright Dennis Foon, and produced by another Vancouverite — Dan Schlanger.

Shortlisted for this year’s Academy Awards® as South Africa’s official entry in the Best Foreign-Language Film category, Life Above All tells the story of an African family torn apart by the AIDS pandemic.

Stratton credits the idea of writing Chanda’s Secrets to a conversation he had with his publisher Rick Wilks and with Barbara Emmanuel, a senior policy adviser at Toronto Public Health. The book itself grew out of his experiences in Botswana, as well as the times he had spent as a caregiver for friends in the final stages of AIDS.

The book has received multiple awards and much praise. Stephen Lewis, former U.N. envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa said: “Chanda’s Secrets is a novel with the lilt of Africa in its language and the urgency of adolescent struggle in every paragraph. When AIDS isn’t just a faraway acronym, but a sinister, invisible poison that threatens to steal your family, creep into your nightmares, break your heart and darken your future, how do you learn to grow up with love and courage? This powerful story hits home with its harsh truths, its pain and its hard-won hopefulness.”

Life Above All screens Tuesday, March 2, 2011, 8 PM, at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Cinema 3.

To purchase tickets, visit the TIFF Online Box Office or phone 416-599-TIFF (8433) or 1-888-599-8433. Tickets can also be purchased, in person, at TIFF Bell Lightbox Box Office, Reitman Square, 350 King Street West, Toronto.

Director Oliver Schmitz fields audience questions along with author Allan Stratton (Chanda’s Secrets) and screenwriter Dennis Foon at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, where Life Above All had its North American premiere.

Oliver Schmitz was born in Cape Town, South Africa. It was there that he shot his first feature film, the gangster drama Mapantsula. He has directed numerous documentaries in South Africa and in Germany, where he now resides. Schmitz was one of the directors involved in the film, Paris je t’aime (2006). His contribution to that feature was the elegiac short, “Place des fêtes”.

Life Above All screens Tuesday, March 2, 2011, 8 PM, at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Cinema 3.

To purchase tickets, visit the TIFF Online Box Office or phone 416-599-TIFF (8433) or 1-888-599-8433. Tickets can also be purchased, in person, at TIFF Bell Lightbox Box Office, Reitman Square, 350 King Street West, Toronto.