Life, Abo
ve All is a drama about a young girl, played by first-time actress, Khomotso Manyaka, who fights the fear and shame that have poisoned her community. Following the death of her newborn sister, 12 year old Chanda and her family become the subject of rumors that spread like wildfire through her small village near Johannesburg. With her family destroyed and her mother gone, Chanda senses that the gossip stems from prejudice and superstition. She leaves home and school in search of her mother and the truth.
The film is directed by South African filmmaker, Oliver Schmitz (Mapantsula, Paris, Je t-aime) and based on international award winning novel, Chanda’s Secrets by Allan Stratton. Mr. Schmitz was gracious enough to grant us an interview.
Today, we’d like to introduce you to St. Lucian journalist and author, Tony Williams. He has just released his first novel, Forbidden. The story is set in the Caribbean on the fictional French-Creole island of Saint Helen. It unfolds in the aftermath of the slave revolt in Haiti. As word of the uprising sweeps across the West Indies, France is caught off guard by another violent rebellion in its colony, Saint Helen. The upheaval pits the slaves against the planters and plunges the colony into a racial war that keeps blacks and whites divided long after Emancipation.
Eddie Mark is originally from Buffalo, New York where he began writing fiction and poetry at the age of twelve. He is currently finishing a novel and also a collection of short stories. His favorite authors are Toni Morrison, Vladimir Nabokov, and Edward P. Jones. His favorite books are Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor, and Middle Passage by Charles Johnson. Eddie has taken courses in creative writing at The Johns Hopkins University. He currently lives in Canada where he is pursuing a doctorate in Educational Administration at the University of Toronto.