TELL ME SWEET SOMETHING (Akin Omotoso, 87 minutes, 2015)

Moratiwa owns a bookstore and is a frustrated author trying to finish “The Great African Novel” when she goes to a club and meets Nat, a sought after model.  Nat is not much of a reader which seems like a deal breaker for the book loving Moratiwa but they still get together as people do in romantic comedies.  

Director Omotoso (who also directed the gritty Vaya, shown at the Pacific Film Archive, May 6) took his inspiration from the American classic movie Love Jones and he populates the stylishly fun movie with hip young Black, post-apartheid, middle class artists and professionals who can now legally live in dynamic Johannesburg while they were prohibited from even being there 30 years ago without a pass.  

This movie was a box office hit in South Africa.

‍*Born Free is a term for people who have grown up since the end of apartheid

‍Curated by Cornelius Moore.

This program is presented in conjunction with our current exhibition After the Thrill is Gone: Fashion, Politics and Culture in Contemporary South African Art