Light & Dark (60 mins) HDTV

Norman Catherine is one of South Africa’s leading contemporary artists. This film is an exploration of Catherine’s self-confessed x-rated visions that meander and skulk in the convoluted labyrinths of a myriad of minds, usually all his own. Nothing is muted or subtle in Catherine’s work. We take the viewer on a bizarre and extremely intimate journey into the mind and life of Catherine through the use of his pictures and interviews. Interviews include Jody Scheckter, Greg Marinovich, Professor Karel Nel, Linda Given and Johnny Clegg. The fact that South Africa has changed has done little to soften his “dark side” but a mutation has occurred. The raw expressions of fear and fury have been replaced by an awareness of inner city psychosis caused by escalating violence, the underworld of gangsterism, crime, and the spread of corporate corruption. On the lighter side we touch on Catherine’s collaboration with artist Walter Battiss and the incredibly imaginative “Fook Island” project during an experimental time in his early years. In all cases, Catherine is marked by the wicked, truthful sense of humour that allows one to shudder while laughing.

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The Outsider (60 mins) HDTV

Since his arrival on the South African art scene in the 1980’s, Beezy Bailey has consistently challenged, provoked and at times evoked the ire of the mainstream art world. In this film, for the first time, we peel back the layers around one of South Africa’s most colourful artists as he looks back at a career spanning 30 years. Famed for his painting, his sculptures and his performances, as well as his high level collaborations with artists like David Bowie, Arno Carstens and Brian Eno – wherever Bailey goes, he certainly leaves his mark. This film is a constant dialogue, a conversation with colleagues, collaborators, critics, and of course the artist himself. Outspoken and political, Bailey has been called a jester, a joker, a provocateur and an Outsider. He would argue that it is from the outside that one keeps a fresh perspective, and that only from this position can one be a real force for change.

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Normna Catherine: Curriculum Vitae (12 mins) HDTV

A complicated short for a complicated man. Norman Catherine’s Curriculum Vitae portrays his early youthful experience from birth through to his teenage years, using his vivid imagination and strange macabre comedic animation. A mix of ghoulish animation, live action and stock footage is used to bring to life the canvas of Catherine’s early life CV. The events that formed his formative years - such as swallowing mothballs thinking they were sweets - are portrayed against the corresponding backdrop of World events and Apartheid South Africa.

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2012
Deepend Films