M-NET PREMIERES FOR JULY

As we head for cooler weather over the July period, you can always curl up in front of the television andwatch a good movie in M-Net.

Dangerous Minds is a factual drama which stars Michelle Pfeiffer and George Dzundza in which a com-passionate ex-marine leaves her military career to enter a more dangerous battle as an inner-city Englishteacher.

The Clothes of the Wardrobe is a dramatic comedy featuring Jeanne Moreau, Joan Plowright and JulieWalters where a young girl prepares to marry a man much older than herself but three older women tryto come up with a way to stop the wedding.

Another comedy is a modern remake of the 1963 Jerry Lewis movie, The Nutty Professor, starring EddieMurphy, Jada Pinkett and James Coburn.

LUNCH-HOUR FILMS

The Durban Municipal Library offers free lunch-hour films every Tuesday in the Museum Theatre onthe first floor of the City Hall (entrance in Smith Street):

Jul 7 (13h00): Red Express: The Trans-Siberian Railroad provides a fascinating look inside a nationjust beginning to open up to the outside world.

Jul 14 (12h15): Titanic: Anatomy of a Disaster. Using the latest scientific tools to piece together herfinal hours, this excellent documentary focuses on the iceberg damage that sunk the Titanic.

Jul 21 (12h30): Babe is a charming movie for the whole family with a barn-yard full of unforgettablecharacters.

Jul 28 (13h00): Experience North India - which takes armchair travellers from Varanasi to theHimalayas.

FILM FESTIVAL

The 19th Durban International Film Fes-tival, presented by the Centre for Creative Arts, runs at theElizabeth Sneddon Theatre from July 15 to August 5. Last year attendance exceeded 15 000 and some33 films were screened. This year about 30 to 40 top quality inter-national art movies are planned andthe Centre is negotiating for one of the directors to be a guest at the festival.

"We have been negotiating with so many film companies across the globe and are confident we will havea remarkable selection of titles this year," says festival director, Gulam Mather.

Other plans are to revive the outreach programme, initiated a few years back, which will see screeningsof selected movies in Clermont and Chatsworth, and the creation of a small film fund to be directed backinto the local industry to help film-makers make shorts to be screened at other festivals.

Tickets booked at Computicket or from the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre.

OPEN TIME

M-Net has introduced new open time programmes from 17h00 to 18h00.

A main highlight will be Over the Top featuring veteran television actress Annie Potts (DesigningWomen) and popular film actor Tim Curry.

Other programmes include comedy series such as Clueless; Hitz; the off-beat You're The One, and thehit series Fired Up which makes its debut on July 7 to run for 21 weeks.

More comedies planned for open time are Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, an action adventure series andAlright Already which stars its creator and producer Carol Leifer.

This month sees the return of the popular youth programme live@five back on the box by populardemand in an hour long format starting on July 3 at 17h00. It will be presented by John Vlismas.

WHERE I LIVE

Opening on July 5 in the Mezzanine Gallery of the NSA Gallery will be the 1998 Annual Durban PhotoExpo Exhi-bition. This year's theme is This is where I live.

Professional photographers Sally Chance, Sean Laurenz, Leslie Lin and Mark Green were commissionedto explore the Expo theme and their diverse styles promise to make the exhi-bition visually exciting andchallenging.

Winning photographs in the open and street photographer categories were recently selected and these,as well as many other entries, will be display.

Competitors were required to take their photographs within a kilometre range of the place they callhome, be it tempo-rary or permanent. The aim of the Expo is to create a more holistic picture of thediverse cultural heritage of Durban.

The exhibition runs until July 23.

BAFTA AWARDS

On July 13 at 22h00 M-Net will screen the 1998 BAFTA Television Awards, the British equivalent ofthe Emmys. The awards recognise and reward excellence in British television.

The award ceremony will be held at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London's Leicester Square andhosted by British television personality Bob Monkhouse.