Set to make its World Premiere at the upcoming LA Film Festival, produced by Film Independent, which kicks off this week (June 14 – June 22), is the dark romantic comedy “Catching Feelings,” the directorial debut of South African writer/director Kagiso Lediga (“Bunny Chow Know Thyself”).
Tackling the complexities of relationships, “Catching Feelings” is set in middle class Johannesburg and tells a tale of how life, love and art intersect in uncontrollable ways. The film follows a jaded academic and his journalist wife, who have their lives turned upside down when a celebrated and hedonistic older writer unexpectedly moves into their Johannesburg home with them.
“Catching Feelings” stars the filmmaker himself, Kagiso Lediga, as well as Pearl Thusi (“Quantico”), Andrew Buckland (“Shot Down”), Akin Omotoso (“Blood Diamond”), Precious Makgaretsa (“Biltzpatrollie), Kate Liquorish (“Eye in the Sky”), Tessa Jubber (“Wallander”), and Tyson Cross (“The Avengers”).
Speaking to his motivations for making “Catching Feelings,” writer/director Lediga (a celebrated stand-up comedian as well) says: “I wanted to make a fun film about Johannesburg. It is a place full of contradictions-Africa’s business capital and culturally diverse with a very messy recent history. I find it fascinating that the thirty-something year old, black, middle class characters portrayed in this film never existed twenty years ago because it was essentially illegal to be black and middle class and I guess it would also be impossible to engage in angst ridden, existential navel gazing when you’re fleeing tear gas and rubber bullets from the Apartheid cops.”
Also, addressing the danger of a single story: “The African experience in recent cinema has tended to be rather heavy and tragic and from watching many films it can be easy to believe that the average daily grind in an African city involves dodging child soldiers in the morning and solving the odd famine after work. So we were grateful to tell a light story with reasonably unencumbered urban Africans who have consensual sex and pay mortgages.”
The film is produced by John Volmink and Tamsin Andersson; Luke Henkeman, Isaac Mogajane and Ronnie Apteker serve as executive producers.
“Catching Feelings” makes its World Premiere at the LAFF, screening on Sunday, June 18th at 6:10pm at ArcLight Culver City. For ticket information, click here.
Ahead of the movie’s commercial debut, Shadow and Act has been granted an exclusive first-look at the “Catching Feelings” poster art, which is embedded below:
