NECKTIE YOUTH

Credits

Name: NECKTIE YOUTH

Country: Südafrika

Year of publication: 2015

Format: digital

Color: color

Language : OF m. engl. UT

Duration: 86 Minuten

Direction: Shongwe-La Mer, Sibs

Abstract

Sex, drugs and pool parties - that’s all life is for these disillusioned middle-class kids from Sandton, an affluent district of Johannesburg. 19-year-old Emily didn’t understand the group`s codes and couldn`t take the pace of the ever-changing, fleeting liaisons. At least that`s what her "boyfriend" September tells a TV reporter who wants to know why Emily hanged herself in her parent’s garden and streamed her suicide live online...
The writer, video artist, musician and filmmaker Sibs Shongwe-La Mer portrays a lost generation of middle-class teenagers in striking black-and-white images and also tells us about his own experiences: "I had a girlfriend who hanged herself like Emily did in this film... I thought, "Fuck, can’t we just talk to each other normally? Can’t we please sit down and forget all this bullshit?""
His cinema debut won prizes for the 24-year-old director at international festivals including Durban, Tunis, New York, Quebec, London and Amsterdam.