SA produced The Bang Bang Club gets gala showing at Toronto

The 35th Annual Toronto International Film Festival announced the gala event and special presentation films for the 2010 festival yesterday. These included the SA/Canadian helmed The Bang Bang Club. The film, shot in South Africa last year, features home-grown talent like Frank Rautenbach (Ken Oosterbroek) and Neels van Jaarsveld (Joao Silva) as well as international stars Ryan Phillippe, Malin Akerman and Taylor Kitsch. The Bang Bang Club is one of only 15 gala presentations at this year’s festival. The Bang Bang Club was the name given to four young photographers - Greg Marinovich, Kevin Carter, Ken Oosterbroek and Joao Silva - whose photographs captured the final bloody days of white rule in South Africa and the demise of apartheid. The film tells the remarkable and sometimes harrowing story of these young men and the extraordinary extremes they went to in order to capture their pictures.It's based on Greg and Joao's co-authored book by the same name. The Bang Bang Club was directed by Steven Silver. “It’s a great honor to be selected for such a premium platform from a long list of such high caliber films,” commented producer Lance Samuels of Out of Africa, who was in Toronto when the announcement was made. “Being selected alongside films with talent like Robert Redford, Ben Affleck and Darren Aronofsky behind them is very encouraging. The Bang Bang Club is all over the news here in Canada at the moment and both Steven and I are very excited to see how Canadian audiences will receive the film in September.”

Tags:  Bang Bang Club  Out of Africa  Lance Samuels  Neels van Jaarsveld  Frank Rautenbach