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IOL News
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
The Love Letter Exhibition - commemorating 10 years of Movie Snaps
A look inside an installation of the Love Letter exhibition at Michaelis Galleries, UCT. Image: Supplied As South Africa marks 31 years of democracy, the Love Letter exhibition at the UCT Michaelis Galleries speaks in the language of absence and memory, with some of its standout pieces including an over two-metre large apartheid eviction letter and 80kg of keys once kept by families forcibly removed from their homes. Running until May 16, it appears alongside the evocative Movie Snaps photographic exhibition. The Love Letter commemorates the 10-year anniversary of Movie Snaps, the exhibition and documentary film on street photography and forced removals in Cape Town by University of Pretoria Professor Siona O'Connell in 2015. Once a beloved pastime, having your black-and-white portrait taken by Movie Snaps photographers captured everyday elegance on Cape Town's streets from the 1940s to the '70s. The Love Letter invites visitors to revisit those memories through images, installations, and the stories behind them. The project is produced collaboratively by O'Connell and Michaelis Galleries, UCT, curator Jade Nair, with the support of the University of Pretoria, District Six Museum and the Centre for Curating the Archive. 'The Love Letter' exhibition runs until May 16. Image: Supplied Along with the two-metre display, the exhibition features a further selection of eviction letters in display provided by the District Six Museum and the Commission on Restitution Land Rights, as well as period-accurate recreations of outfits worn by people in the Movie Snaps photographs sourced from vintage stores, alongside movie snaps photographs. 'When I joined this project as a project manager ten years ago I'd never heard of Movie Snaps, I didn't know what a Movie Snaps was. Until I saw a few and realised that the photos of my maternal family I had grown up looking at were Movie Snaps. So deeply ingrained are Movie Snaps in family archives across Cape Town that for many, the only photographic record of our forebearers are Movie Snaps. They are glamorous objects - beautiful black and white photographs of stylish people. But they belie a collective trauma, the displacement of forced removals,' said Nair. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ The exhibition was launched on Freedom Day with guests young and old from across Cape Town in attendance, including Commissioner for Restitution Dr Wayne Alexander and UWC vice chancellor Professor Robert Balfour. Speaking at the opening, UCT, Emerita Professor Linda Ronnie added that South Africa was by no means unique in its history of dispossession, 'this is the story of every person whose land was and is being forcibly taken from them'. 'One of the most brilliant pieces of writing to capture this notion of historical dispossession is from Lebogang Seale and he writes: '[my home] is only a distant nostalgia now, for the land is no longer ours. Today it belongs to the descendants of colonial settlers; strangers who came from far-off places, and claimed it as their own. As in other parts of the country, the claiming of this land was an arbitrary and capricious land grab with no regard for owner's rights and sovereignty. The occupation altered our lives on a scale that is unimaginable.' Like Lebogang Seale and others, Siona O' Connell looks at 'the long reaches of the past'. She reminds us that everyday life continued then and still continues now and that we owe it to ourselves to acknowledge, remember, and talk about those moments (for ourselves and for future generations), even though they hold the potential to conjure up what Dikgang Moseneke, former Deputy Chief Justice, describes as 'feelings of fresh dispossession' – a haunting, melancholic yet necessary reflection. What can we learn from these past/present experiences? To continue the conversations and to raise issues wherever and in whichever way we can,' said Ronnie. The Love Letter is open to the public, free of charge until May 16 at Upper Gallery, Michaelis Galleries, UCT Hiddingh Campus, 31 Orange Street Gardens, Cape Town. The gallery is open weekdays from 10am to 3pm. Cape Times
The Hindu
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
book review loal kashmir mehak jamal
In documentary filmmaker Mehak Jamal's debut book, Lōal Kashmir, there's a moment when Beena, a bride-to-be, sighs as her fiancé, Sakib, recalls the hardships his parents faced while marrying in the 1980s. He remembers the silent pounding of meat under constant surveillance in a wedding that felt like an act of defiance. Beena then utters a line that exposes the book's cardinal irony: 'Woh waqt koi aur tha.' That was another time. Except, of course, it wasn't. The temporal space that Lōal Kashmir occupies often folds in on itself and makes way for repetition. 'Lōal' is the Kashmiri word for love and longing. The idea of this book was born after the abrogation of Article 370 when Kashmir came under a complete communication lockdown. Jamal set out to collect stories of love, longing and loss, and received an overwhelming response. People shared their stories; and as she writes in the Introduction, 'They wanted the world to remember how bravely they had fought, but equally how fiercely they had loved.' The book, structured in three sections, Otru (day before yesterday), Rath (yesterday), and Az (today), wants to suggest a time sweep, but the truth is that the stories are caught in an eternal present. The lovers here are driven and desperate. Even love, which might hope to carve out a private refuge, is shaped by conflict. A letter break In the first story, 'Love Letter' a 17-year-old boy Javed, caught in a crackdown, remembers too late that he has a love letter in his pocket. The reader who is trained by headlines clearly expects the worst. But no, the soldiers instead make him read the letter aloud. The narrator then reveals that this was made possible as the soldiers 'wanted a break from the crackdown as much as Javed did'. Not to forget, the army in Kashmir is a force of power, and Javed, the boy with the letter, is tyrannised. To collapse their exhaustion into a single experience completely flattens the inherent violence and humiliation associated with these crackdowns. The stories are potent with cross-border love, cancelled weddings, exiled lovers, migration as an ongoing negotiation with loss. But the telling of these stories is where the book falters. Kashmiri words are inserted not because they are not translatable, but as linguistic decoration which can perhaps work to perform the weight of lived experience. The internet shutdown is recited, almost rhythmically in every story of Az (third section) as if to remind the reader of its importance. There is a documentary impulse at play here, which needs to explain Kashmir to a reader who might otherwise not 'get it.' A four-and-a-half page too long Kashmiri history is a part of this impulse. But the best stories understand this instinctively. For instance, in Sagar's story ('Matador'), arguably the collection's sharpest, a Kashmiri Pandit caught in a minor altercation realises that in Kashmir, everyone is playing a survival game. The majority-minority binary, while so easy to invoke, is blurred in practice. 'Out here,' the story notes, 'they were all Kashmiris first.' Yet Sagar had been so focused on his difference that he had missed the larger truth that survival often demands betrayal. The realisation is devastating for him, and the story does not attempt to soften its blow. Improbable bonds Elsewhere, though, Jamal's technique is unconvincing. A story about a Kashmiri woman falling in love with a Palestinian man feels oddly voyeuristic. Love in Lōal Kashmir is very event-specific, we never quite know why lovers are tethered so fiercely despite the weight of distance, miscommunication, and the sheer improbability of their bond. Where does the resilience come from? At what cost? These questions are not probed. Jamal also does something very curious, she adds little notes at the end, updating the reader on where these characters are now, as if to satisfy an audience's curiosity. But who is this audience? And what is the book's obligation to them? This is the paradox of Lōal Kashmir. The book understands that love in Kashmir is never separate from violence. And yet, again and again, the stories tell us that lovers triumph. Love, against all odds. Love, carrying on. But is this truly love in a conflict zone? Love in a place where time itself has been rendered meaningless? The book wants to have it both ways, and in doing so, sometimes doesn't realise that conflict is not backdrop, not setting. It in fact shapes love at the root. To tell the story of love in a place where love and violence are inseparable is to risk either sentimentalising suffering or diminishing love. Jamal's stories live in this paradox, sometimes they succeed in capturing it, sometimes they evade it. But then, perhaps evasion is also a kind of truth. After all, 'in Kashmir, there is always someone in the background playing his own game'. The reviewer is an independent journalist in New Delhi. Lōal Kashmir: Love and Longing in a Torn Land Mehak Jamal Harper Collins ₹599
The Star
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Tearful farewell to late star Miho Nakayama involving celeb friends and fans
A memorial service for the late Japanese singer-actress Miho Nakayama, who died in December 2024 aged 54, was held in Tokyo on April 22. Photo: Live Door News/X Japanese singer-actress Miho Nakayama may have died in December 2024, but her fans and friends remember her fondly. At a memorial service held for the late star in Tokyo on April 22, 800 friends and acquaintances from the entertainment industry, as well as 10,000 fans, showed up to say their last goodbyes. Nakayama, who starred in the seminal Japanese romance film Love Letter (1995), died on Dec 6 due to an accident during a bath. She was 54. According to reports from Japanese news outlets, the memorial hall was decorated with a large picture of Nakayama framed by an arch of flowers. Photos of her over the years, as well as some stage costumes she wore while performing, were also presented at the venue. Stars at the service included Nakayama's lifelong friend, singer-actress Kyoko Koizumi, filmmaker director Shunji Iwai and actor-singer Katori Shingo (a member of the now-disbanded J-pop boy band Smap), as well as Nakayama's younger sister, actress Shinobu Nakayama. Koizumi, 59, teared up while giving a speech, recounting how she first met the shy Nakayama backstage in the waiting room of a TV station, when Nakayama was 16. 'You were like a frightened little kitten then,' Koizumi recalled. The stars, who both got their start as teenage pop idols in the 1980s, quickly became fast friends. Koizumi added: 'As we faced new challenges and developments in life, we had fewer opportunities to meet. I wondered what you were up to as I lived my busy life and thought to myself, 'No matter what, we'll definitely meet again. And there'll be so much to catch up on once we meet.' I did not expect to be standing here today... bidding farewell.' Iwai, 62, also paid tribute to Nakayama. He directed her in his debut feature film Love Letter , in which she played dual roles – a woman who writes a letter to her dead fiance and his high school crush. He said Nakayama was the perfect embodiment of both characters and remembered how they once spent a night singing karaoke together. He ended his speech on a poignant note, referencing the plot of Love Letter: 'Times have changed, so (instead of a letter), I'll send you a message on (chat app) Line. Please take your time to read it in heaven... but if a 'seen' notification comes in, that will be a little creepy... Actually, no. I'll be happy, and perhaps I'll cry.' A remastered 4K version of Love Letter was recently released in Japanese cinemas to mark the film's 30th anniversary. View this post on Instagram A post shared by 中山美穂fan (@mihonakayamafan)
The Star
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Tearful farewell to late Japanese star Miho Nakayama involving celeb friends and 10,000 fans
A memorial service for the late Japanese singer-actress Miho Nakayama, who died in December 2024 aged 54, was held in Tokyo on April 22, 2025. - Photo: LIVEDOORNEWS/X TOKYO: Japanese singer-actress Miho Nakayama may have died in December 2024, but her fans and friends remember her fondly. At a memorial service held for the late star in Tokyo on Tuesday (April 22), 800 friends and acquaintances from the entertainment industry, as well as 10,000 fans, showed up to say their last goodbyes. Nakayama, who starred in the seminal Japanese romance film Love Letter (1995), died on Dec 6 due to an accident during a bath. She was 54. According to reports from Japanese news outlets, the memorial hall was decorated with a large picture of Nakayama framed by an arch of flowers. Photos of her over the years, as well as some stage costumes she wore while performing, were also presented at the venue. Stars at the service included Nakayama's lifelong friend, singer-actress Kyoko Koizumi, film-maker director Shunji Iwai and actor-singer Katori Shingo (a member of the now-disbanded J-pop boy band Smap), as well as Nakayama's younger sister, actress Shinobu Nakayama. Koizumi, 59, teared up while giving a speech, recounting how she first met the shy Nakayama backstage in the waiting room of a TV station, when Nakayama was 16. 'You were like a frightened little kitten then,' Koizumi recalled. The stars, who both got their start as teenage pop idols in the 1980s, quickly became fast friends. Koizumi added: 'As we faced new challenges and developments in life, we had fewer opportunities to meet. I wondered what you were up to as I lived my busy life and thought to myself, 'No matter what, we'll definitely meet again. And there'll be so much to catch up on once we meet.' I did not expect to be standing here today... bidding farewell.' Iwai, 62, also paid tribute to Nakayama. He directed her in his debut feature film Love Letter, in which she played dual roles – a woman who writes a letter to her dead fiance and his high school crush. He said Nakayama was the perfect embodiment of both characters and remembered how they once spent a night singing karaoke together. He ended his speech on a poignant note, referencing the plot of Love Letter: 'Times have changed, so (instead of a letter), I'll send you a message on (chat app) Line. Please take your time to read it in heaven... but if a 'seen' notification comes in, that will be a little creepy... Actually, no. I'll be happy, and perhaps I'll cry.' A remastered 4K version of Love Letter was recently released in Japanese cinemas to mark the film's 30th anniversary. - The Straits Times/ANN
Straits Times
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Tearful farewell to late Japanese star Miho Nakayama involving celeb friends and 10,000 fans
A memorial service for the late Japanese singer-actress Miho Nakayama, who died in December 2024 aged 54, was held in Tokyo on April 22. PHOTO: LIVEDOORNEWS/X Japanese singer-actress Miho Nakayama may have died in December 2024, but her fans and friends remember her fondly. At a memorial service held for the late star in Tokyo on April 22, 800 friends and acquaintances from the entertainment industry, as well as 10,000 fans, showed up to say their last goodbyes. Nakayama, who starred in the seminal Japanese romance film Love Letter (1995), died on Dec 6 due to an accident during a bath . She was 54. According to reports from Japanese news outlets, the memorial hall was decorated with a large picture of Nakayama framed by an arch of flowers. Photos of her over the years, as well as some stage costumes she wore while performing, were also presented at the venue. Stars at the service included Nakayama's lifelong friend, singer-actress Kyoko Koizumi, film-maker director Shunji Iwai and actor-singer Katori Shingo (a member of the now-disbanded J-pop boy band Smap), as well as Nakayama's younger sister, actress Shinobu Nakayama. Koizumi, 59, teared up while giving a speech, recounting how she first met the shy Nakayama backstage in the waiting room of a TV station, when Nakayama was 16. 'You were like a frightened little kitten then,' Koizumi recalled. The stars, who both got their start as teenage pop idols in the 1980s, quickly became fast friends. Koizumi added: 'As we faced new challenges and developments in life, we had fewer opportunities to meet. I wondered what you were up to as I lived my busy life and thought to myself, 'No matter what, we'll definitely meet again. And there'll be so much to catch up on once we meet.' I did not expect to be standing here today... bidding farewell.' Iwai, 62, also paid tribute to Nakayama . He directed her in his debut feature film Love Letter, in which she played dual roles – a woman who writes a letter to her dead fiance and his high school crush. He said Nakayama was the perfect embodiment of both characters and remembered how they once spent a night singing karaoke together. He ended his speech on a poignant note, referencing the plot of Love Letter: 'Times have changed, so (instead of a letter), I'll send you a message on (chat app) Line. Please take your time to read it in heaven... but if a 'seen' notification comes in, that will be a little creepy... Actually, no. I'll be happy, and perhaps I'll cry.' A remastered 4K version of Love Letter was recently released in Japanese cinemas to mark the film's 30th anniversary. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
