HOME SWEET HOME

An experimental movie shot in the USA and Africa reconstructing childhood memories using inanimate objects in their original locations with off-screen actors playing the protagonists. A journey from New York to Boston for a Thanksgiving also provides a documentary-styled debate between a couple (the film makers) on the postive and negative aspects of family life.

FESTIVALS:

CANNES INT. FILM FESTIVAL (Académie du documentaire)
CINÉMA AFRICAIN, MILANO - AWARDED 'PREMIO C.E.I.'
FILM WEEK CAPE TOWN
INT. FESTIVAL OF GOTTEBORG
VUE D'AFRIQUE, MONTRÉAL
CINÉMA DU RÉEL, PARIS
CARTHAGE INT. FESTIVAL
FESTIVAL INT. DU FILM FRANCOPHONE, NAMUR.

SELECTED FESTIVAL REVIEWS :

• 'African Nouvelle vague' : "Home Sweet Home - a film that sums up the characteristics of a new tendency in African cinema : a stateless film, a docu-fiction, a breaking of all barriers both geographical and cultural.” Segno Cinema, Italy
• "The filmmaker MICHAEL RAEBURN from Zimbabwe has a long successful career which includes documentaries as well as features. His latest movie made together with his partner Heidi Draper was shot on DV and transferred to 35mm. It's a personal investigation into memories of childhood - a strange and remarkable journey into the past filmed in a free style which has a touch of Jean-Luc Godard's later films - something that you very rarely see in the international film world today. It's salutary that they're not focusing upon private self-analysis, but instead create a film that investigates the effects of the past upon the present. A bold and revealing portrait of what it means to grow up." 'Draken', Sweden
• "The burden of family and the clash of cultures and generations is the core of the splendid Home Sweet Home shot between Zimbabwe, Paris and USA and indefinable in its origins and format (video and film), home movie and cinematographic essay, conversations on the highway and reconstruction of childhood memories, dreaming and moments of pure poetry. An idea of family, identity and belonging that goes beyond blood. The charm of travelling both physically and mentally." Il Manifesto, Italy
• "A reflection on the meaning of family which becomes deeper and deeper and more and more nightmarish.... An experimental language consisting of places and absence where objects, voices and elements of nature are recorded to recall and recreate memories." Africa Magazine
• "A very poetic and person film told with a formal expression reminiscent of Godard's experimental films. A film not soon forgotten." Film Sor, Norway
• "In the way that they film the countryside, the objects and the atmosphere of their childhoods, the film makers succeed in making us feel passionately about their past." Studio Magazine, France
• "The echoes of these two intimate stories, these two sensibilities, stay with you afterwards - perhaps because they recreate joys and sufferings that are universal." Le Monde, France
• "Through a style of intercutting improvised documentary scenes with personalised images, the film rises to a universally accessible level. One thereby becomes involved in a kind of psychoanalysis which also teaches us about our own family origins." Zurban Magazine, France
• "All the anticipation as well as the dread of family interaction are skillfully blended on screen. Poetic memories of childhood consitute a moving portrait of two very different yet oddly similar upbringings." Paris Voice
• "A film of great quality. Don't miss going to see it." Tribune, Israel
• "A very special fim that resembles nothing other than itself. The autobiographical content is presented in a new cinematic language to suit the discursive form." Le Renouveau, Tunisia