Creative Week Cape Town

Mr. Devious: My Life

This documentary film is part of the Music City: A Documentary Festival on Cape Music (10 – 15 September 2011)

From the seemingly endless gang violence of Beacon Valley, Mitchell’s Plain, emerges a young vibrant charismatic talent in the form of Mario “Mr. Devious” van Rooy. Shunning the cyclical debt of fame offered in Johannesburg, Devious returns to the Cape Flats determined to use his brand of hip hop activism to inspire the youth at risk and offer a creative alternative to juvenile offenders in prisons across the Cape. But, just as his message of non-violence is starting to get through, he is killed when rescuing his father from teenage muggers. Devastated by the loss of a close friend, the filmmaker explores Devious’ life, and the future of his legacy that now lies with his young widow and mother of his three children, Natalie. Dir: John W. Fredericks/ South Africa /2005/ 48min

Creative Week Cape Town has partnered with The Encounters Documentary Festival, The Cape Film Commission and Cape MIC to bring you a documentary festival focussed on music. The concept of the festival is centred on the extensive catalogue of documentaries produced in the Cape about the region’s music. Included in the programme are some sell-out productions from previous film festivals. These include Afrikaaps, Fokofpolisiekar’s “Forgive them for they know not what they do”, Mr Devious: My Life and The Black. Each screening is preceded by student works from the Film and Media Department of the University of Cape Town.

Contact: The Labia, Ph: www.labia.co.za

Who: . Encounters Documentary Festival is Africa’s premier documentary festival now in its 13th year. Cape Film Commission is the official film industry development and support body. Cape MIC is the official music industry body.