SMS Sugar Man
{{Infobox film
| name = SMS Sugar Man
| image = SMS Sugar Man poster.webp
| caption =
| director = Aryan Kaganof
| producer = African Noise Foundation
| writer = Aryan Kaganof
| starring = Aryan Kaganof
Leigh Graves
Deja Bernhardt
| music = Michael Blake
| cinematography = Eran Tahor
| editing = Aryan Kaganof
| distributor =
| released = {{Film date|2008|3}}
| runtime = 81 minutes
| country = South Africa
| language = English
| budget =
}}
SMS Sugar Man is a South African narrative film shot entirely on Sony Ericsson W900i camera phones in 2008.{{cite web |last=Everleth |first=Mike |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130801130245/https://www.undergroundfilmjournal.com/movie-review-sms-sugar-man/ |title=Movie Review: SMS Sugar Man |publisher=Under Ground Film Journal |date=17 November 2008 |access-date=28 July 2024|language=en}} The experimental feature film was directed by Aryan Kaganof and used eight cell phones to make the film.{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230610140036/https://www.cnet.com/culture/have-a-cell-phone-make-a-movie/|title=Have a cell phone? Make a movie|publisher=Cnet|date=4 March 2006|language=en}}{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230610143410/https://filmkrant.nl/artikel/sms-sugar-man/|title=SMS SUGAR MAN|publisher=Filmkrant|date=14 April 2011|language=en}}
SMS Sugar Man is the first feature-length film in the world to be made entirely with mobile camera phones.{{cite journal |last=Howe |first=Barnaby |url=https://erajournal.co.uk/our-journal/from-snapchat-to-spielberg/ |title=From Snapchat to Spielberg |website=Era Journal |date=2 February 2021 |access-date=28 July 2024}}
Plot
The film reveals the story of a pimp and two high-class prostitutes with some traveling incidents around Johannesburg on a Christmas Eve.
Cast
- Aryan Kaganof as Sugar Man(Pimp)
- Leigh Graves as Grace(Prostitute)
- Deja Bernhardt as Selene(Prostitute)
- Samantha Rocca as Anna
- Attila Barna Attila Barna as Attilla
- Julius Moeletsi as Scorpion
- Patricia Boyer as Crack whore
- Zhouie Bernhardt as Jacky
- Jerry Mofokeng as wallet-1
- Norman Maake as Wallet son
- John Matshikiza as Wallet-2
- Ryan Fortune as Wallet-3
- Luthuli Dlamini as Wallet-4
- Bill Curry as Wallet-5
Development
Analysis
Lizelle Bisschoff and Ann Overbergh wrote in "Digital as the New Popular in African Cinema? Case Studies from the Continent", published in Research in African Literatures, that SMS Sugar Man is a "semi-pornographic and highly erotic and subversive film, with a political subtext". They said that even though popular and easily accessible equipment was used to make the film, it cannot be called "popular art", but rather "underground" and "experimental".{{cite journal |last1=Bisschoff |first1=Lizelle |last2=Overbergh |first2=Ann |title=Digital as the New Popular in African Cinema? Case Studies from the Continent |journal=Research in African Literatures |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=112-127 |date=Winter 2012 |doi=10.2979/reseafrilite.43.4.112}}
Reception
In a review of SMS Sugar Man in Under Ground Film Journal, Mike Everleth described the film as "a poetic, haunting film that uses a bold new technology to capture the most basic and primal of human interactions". He said that despite being shot entirely with camera phones, the film "never comes across as being gimmicky", and "never takes the cheap route in the telling of the story".
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{commons category|Mobile phone films}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20090710010355/http://smssugarman.com/ SMS Sugar Man homepage]
- {{IMDb title|1663670}}
- [https://film.datathistle.com/listing/171000-sms-sugarman/ SMS Sugarman]