In a township outside of Johannesburg lives Chanda (Khomotso Manyaka), a young, self-possesed girl who must shoulder the responsibility of looking after the children of her no-good, drug-addicted stepfather while her mother, Lillian (Lerato Mvelase), mourns the loss of her newborn baby, Sarah. To make matters worse, Lillian’s health is failing, which draws the suspicion and intrusive action of friends and neighbours. On top of all this Chanda tries to sustain her friendship with a poor, outcast young girl, Esther (Keaobaka Makanyane).

Dedicated to the shockingly high number of AIDS orphans in South Africa, director Oliver Schmitz’s film is unflinching in its telling of the story of one such affected family. Though it is long into the running time before anyone mentions AIDS (references to the illness include ‘bug’ or ‘demon’), it’s clear it is this which motivates Lillian’s sister and friends to such fear-induced measures as having her exiled. Chanda, meanwhile, is fed lies and asked to maintain the status quo of her home while her mother rests.

The side story, which sees Esther prostitute herself to survive, is similarly unflinching and intensifies the worry you feel for the steadfast Chanda, who takes her in against the wishes of her curtain-twitching, supposedly helpful neighbour.

Manyaka is fiercely convincing as a young girl defiantly pursuing what she believes to be right in a terrifying, impossible situation. As the story goes on you can see the tiredness in her eyes, yet she never ceases to fight the hypocrisy, traditions and superstitions of her community and ultimately for the right to care for her mother. Hers is an intelligent, soulful performance and the viewer goes on an exhausting journey with her.

Life, Above All then is a hard slog, but rewarding and thankfully – surprisingly – never sugar-coated. The only inauthentic note it sounds is in the last, almost magic-realist scene, which seems too unlikely given what has come just immediately before it. But perhaps it would have all been too much without that last suggestion of hope.

Life, Above All is available now on DVD. Buy a copy on Amazon UK

Sascha Kekez

Called ‘an acute and well-observed portrayal of coming-out, heart-warmingly hilarious… absolutely unmissable’ when we reviewed it at So So Gay, Sasha is definitely a film to keep an eye out for, as is its 29 year old lead, Sascha Kekez.

For a large part of his career, Kekez has focused on working in television, so we asked what it was like working on Sasha, and he said, “Being the first big film project, I was quite nervous – but looking back, I think I could not have had better circumstances in which to shoot my first movie!’ He went onto say: “it was an amazing and challenging experience for me. Fortunately we had a great and very motivated team – so it was a pleasure coming to work in the morning”.

Scene from the film

We joked with Mr Kekez about the fact that his character’s name was almost identical to his own, to which he replied, “when I first met Dennis and he told me that the character (and the movie) were called ‘Sasha’ I thought he was joking”, but when questioned about whether it had any impact on his portrayal of the character or his role in the film, he said “people ask quite often if it is autobiographical, which [it] is not”.

On playing a gay character, Sascha was very vocal, telling us that “It did not matter to me that Sasha was gay – I think of him as a complex character … I would absolutely play a gay character again!”.

We may just hold him to that. Finally we asked if he could play the piano anywhere near as well as his character, and he jokingly told us “I had to take lessons for the movie, which was tough – mostly because I am extremely lazy when it comes to practicing”.

SASHA is available now on DVD. You can buy it on Amazon UK

For legal reasons I will only comment on how lovely that beach looked. Lovely, lovely beach.

Those of you on mobile devices who are met my the cruel “The content owner has not made this video available on mobile” notice, never fear. The diving champion thought ahead and posted it on his Facebook page. He knows exactly what he’s doing.

Now, don’t we all just feel wonderfully out-of-shape and decrepit? *orders extra bacon on breakfast*

Check out our interview with Tom Daley at the Radio 1 Teen Awards.

Featured image: Tom Daley and Max Brick diving, by Charles McCain, Flickr

SSG: You’re hard to define.  Some have described you as an actor, singer, comedian, activist – but how would you describe what you do?

EA: I’ve been described as lots of things (laughing).  About two years ago at the May Ball in Cambridge at St Katherine’s College, this guy did a review of the event and wrote ‘the entertainment on offer disappointed, although I did enjoy an overly camp North American singer/songwriter in cowboy boats who sang about bumming for an hour’.  I just thought it was funny and thought hey, I sang about more than bumming!  Seriously though I’d consider myself first and foremost a singer/songwriter and from there a gay rocker and LGBT activist.  But I think my activism has taken a very personal form by writing very honest rock that has very uncensored narratives that deals specifically with men loving men.

So what elements of you do we get to see and experience in your show ‘Songs from an American Motel’ at the Leicester Square Theatre?

Well it’s about leaving my home town which I’d describe as a very small cowboy town where the biggest attraction there is the rodeo.  From there I’ve travelled all over Europe and Latin America so the show is about the most vivid stories I remember from that journey.  The songs trace a coming of age story.  The show is comprised of the twelve tracks on the album of the same name.  So the first few are about coming out, and then it moves on to some about the very sordid environment that’s representative of my early twenties.  I’m now twenty five and I think both for me and others the music is about finding stability and that partner and companion to share the rest of this journey with.  So the show traces that arc from coming of age to looking for something more concrete and everything in between.

Do we learn how did you ended up living here in Soho?

Again, in the show the songs tell you about that.  Basically I moved here straight out of university with my boyfriend three and a half years ago.  And well this is now home and I don’t have any plans to go back to the States.  I was reading somewhere that 52% of Londoners are foreign born so it’s a city of transients and I think that’s something I identify with in some way.  It’s the one place you can feel like a transient and still feel like you have a home.

So where did the idea come from to showcase your music from the album in a show?

One of the biggest challenges I’ve always faced is how do I present a very narrative music material that connects with the audience beyond the experience of just going to a gig.  At a gig we don’t tend to engage with the stories that are being told in the songs.  But I also have a background in theatre and I wanted to bring the music to life in a way that means something to the audience so they can inhabit the environments I’ve been meaning it’s a much bigger experience for them.  I think that’s what music should be where it creates this experience for the audience and give them a world they can step into so they can understand what you’re trying to say.

So what about your audience – is this show just for gay men?

Obviously I love gay men (laughing) and I am singing to guys, but I’ve performed to lots of audiences and in front of different people and everyone can find something from them they can relate to in the music.

So how does London measure up as a city to live in if you’re gay?

It’s the best that I’ve encountered.  They gays in London have their fingers in a lot of pies!  I’ve only lived in my home town and Washington DC for a few months in the States, so can’t talk too much about there.  But I’ve also lives in Buenos Aires and Madrid so I know how to compare a few places.

In terms of your activism, what battles do gay people still need to win?

There’s still tonnes of issues.  I have a lot of gay friends who are early twenties and younger who are just coming out and the things they say to me are still shocking like ‘I don’t identify with the community’, or ‘I don’t want to label myself’ and all this sort of stuff.  And I think those kind of statements are really troubling because you only ever hear gay people make them.  So what is it about our experience’s that’s making us say those things?  Clearly it’s a problem because people are distancing themselves from being gay, so there’s still shame to overcome.  There has been  times in my life where I’ve not said I’m gay because I’ve found it easier too so that is troubling to me.

So that’s the issue, but what needs to be done to address it then?

We always seem to have this mirror in front of us.  We can never seem to be able to relax.  We constantly think oh my god what is this person or that person thinking about me.  We think whoever we’re speaking to is judging us and that creates some negative behaviours so I think if we can just talk about our life as though it’s no big deal and make fun of yourself that can have an impact.  I believe to be an activist I need to show by example.

Does your music help with that?

I think so and that’s what much of the response from the gay community has been. I recorded half of this album in Columbia so I spent two months with loads of straight, very macho men, and every second of every day was just them talking about woman and their titties.  And I was like – gay men are still men and they talk like that about other men sometimes.  But all of a sudden as soon as straight people are around we stop.  So my view was different and I thought that if you guys are going to talk like that, well I am too.  And you know what – they loved it.

So what’s next for you after this album?

At the moment I’m really excited about this show and what we can do with it.  I hope to be able to tour with it, expand it and make the ensemble bigger maybe.  So just focusing for the moment on this show is enough.  With what’s happening today the reality is that you need to get that grass roots buzz going so my aim is to have those conversations with people involved and interested in music.  Obviously it’s great if a huge record company comes along and gives you a contract, but that’s not the reality of the industry.  For me it’s really exciting to be writing and producing this music and then managing all these social media avenues and actually engaging with people interested in the music.

Well good luck with the show, I can’t wait to see it at the Leicester Square theatre.  Why did you choose this space in the heart of London?

I picked it specifically.  I knew The Lounge which seats 65 people.  I want people to be in the motel room with us.  There’s literally a bed in the middle of the room and the audience is there with us, so it’s brilliant.  Many of the songs are sung on the bed and then I have my piano and the band, and it’s all just like what we do in motel rooms.  And if the Leicester Square Theatre is good enough for Joan Rivers it’s good enough for me!

Musically the track manages to be fun and makes the most of a positive disco beat evocative of that era of music. However, the song fails to lead up to anything or go anywhere which gives the whole composition a feeling that it is filler for an album rather than a potential chart topper in its own right. The song also failed to be memorable and had no sense of personal identity which means it pales in comparison to previous songs which managed to carry a message to its listeners.

The video is effectively a composition of home movies which were married up with the lyrics of the song. The stunning flaw however is that they have not been put together very well, making the combination feel just as lazy and derivative as the song itself. The video has been treated to give it an ‘authentic’ 70s look which does help to hammer in the disco elements of the track, but the narrative has no real cohesion so the message, if any existed, is lost completely.

There are some minor saving graces and that goes down to the way that the track is presented. The disco elements, combined with the treatment of the video managed to communicate the feel of the 70’s really well. Sparro himself was also rather daring in his choice to put up his own home videos which was a much needed personal touch. However, while trying to capture the musical styles of the time Sparro seemed to have missed the real spirit of the decade, making this feel more like a half hearted imitation rather than an homage or tribute.

The Shallow End is worth a listen especially if you have an interest in that musical era, and will probably be popular with Sparro’s own fan base. But its imperfect execution will likely have new listeners loosing interest long before the end of the song.

Rick Santorum by Gage Skidmore

Rick Santorum, an outspokenly anti-gay candidate, has won the vote in Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota to become the next Republican candidate ahead of the Presidential election due to happen this year. The Guardian has a blow-by-blow account of Tuesday’s vote.

Proposition 8 was branded as unconstitutional in a federal court ruling on Tuesday. The decision was made with a two-to-one vote.

A petition calling for the end of transphobic terms being used in the media was covered on BBC Breakfast news. The petition, created by primary school child Livvy, was created after her transgender story was splashed all over the Sun newspaper without the permission of her or her parents. This comes as part of Trans Media Watch’s participation in the Leveson Inquiry, which occurred later that day. Paris Lees represented TMW on the BBC and tweeted updates from the meeting, where Helen Belcher represented the organisation in speaking against the media’s portrayal of the lives of trans and intersex people. The BBC reported on the inquiry.

First thing when you wake up – music: turn it on and turn it up. There are a number of excellent tracks released recently which will perk you up as you get out of bed; and they have absolutely nothing to do with wanting or needing a partner. Favourites include Marry the Night by Mother Monster herself, Turn Me On by David Guetta featuring Nicki Minaj and Good Feeling by Flo Rida. Other songs that will help distract your mind/cheer you up include David Bowie’s Rock N Roll Suicide (you won’t notice the cheerfulness of the song until you get to the end of the first verse, but stick with it), Pink’s Fuckin’ Perfect and You’re Not Alone by Olive. If you are of a rock disposition, STAY AWAY FROM JACK WHITE’S LATEST TRACK as it will make you feel worse. If you have heard it then you will know the capital letters are necessary.

At work – evasion is the key; do whatever you can to avoid being around loved-up individuals. Key movements include offering to help out in stock rooms, agreeing to do coffee runs (again, plug in the music and switch it up) and lending a hand with the photocopying. For lunch, bring a sandwich and hide in the office or staff room, unless there is an adorable couple in there, in which case seek solace in the bathroom.

After work – there are a number of options, but the importance is keeping busy. Avoid going to a restaurant, as they will undoubtedly have a couple in there on a V-Day Date, and that will just be depressing. You know that fast food place you pass on the way to work, but never try out because you never have time: give it a whirl.

For entertainment – there are a number of films that have little or nothing to do with love which will serve to occupy your mind for a sufficient amount of time, for example The Iron Lady, Woman In Black, Man on a Ledge -  all well disassociated from the world of romance. If the cinema isn’t your jar, try the theatre, as Matilda is going strong, Billy Elliot is receiving excellent reviews, and Russell Tovey can be seen in his pants in Sex With a Stranger.

The best advice we can give you, however, is to make a deal to not make a deal. Instead of shunning your happily coupled friends, remind your single friends that there is no reason not to have a good time just because the card companies decided to glorify a particularly blood-thirsty saint. Invite your friends over for dinner and serve something really simple like spaghetti carbonara. Have at least two bottles of wine per person and a stack of games that you can play together. Our personal favourites are Just Dance 3 on the Nintendo Wii and Mario Kart, but whatever floats your boat, and gets everyone involved, it’s all good.

Because at the end of the day, who else is going to be feeling just as down as you? Answer – someone else who is single. So cheer each other up. Even if the only way you can do it is by sending an over-glittered card to say ‘Thanks for being my friend’.

Not the deepest or most cerebral of plots, but that’s rather the point. This isn’t a thriller. There are no huge plot twists. It will not keep you guessing all the way to the end. This is The Muppets, doing what they do best: Full-on slapstick silliness, one-liners and set-pieces that are funny, witty and still manage to pull on the heartstrings occasionally. All the old favourites return, alongside an impressive number of celebrity cameos, in best Muppet Show tradition.

It’s obvious from the outset that nothing about this movie is to be taken seriously: sweet moments and poignant songs are wonderfully balanced against artfully knowing nods, razor-sharp one-liners and almost gleefully insane moments.

If we must pick holes, we could say that, in an effort to ensure each Muppet gets their moment in the spotlight, there’s not a lot of chance for any one Muppet to shine (Miss Piggy, for example, deserved a lot more time centre stage, as we’re sure she’d agree). Walter’s dilemma, choosing between humanity and Muppethood, is drawn out unnecessarily as (considering his size and evident fuzziness) we all know exactly where he’ll end up. There are some plot holes, if one cares to look for them.

Here’s the thing, though: It doesn’t matter. It’s The Muppets. It’s a silly, funny utterly delightful piece of light-hearted cinema that manages to dust off the best bits of  the Henson legacy and give them a thoroughly modern edge that you’re never quite expecting.

We won’t give anything away, but this will quite likely be one of the best films you’ll see all year.

If Puccini’s original had copulated with a soap opera based in East-London, this would be their love child – and it is amazing.

Previously inaccessible to anyone who hadn’t studied the original Italian, Robert Chevara and Kfir Yefet give us a modernisation of La Fanciulla del West, translated as West End Girl. It tells the story of Minnie, who runs an internet café in Soho frequented by immigrants and lurkers of the Albanian underworld, one of whom she falls in love with: ‘Vik’ Johnson, a man she is forced to play poker to save from Jack Rock, his rival. The three leads are double cast and were backed by Edmund Hastings, Simon Meadows and Matthew Stiff, who played Nik, Sonora and Yuri.

A tiny cast in a theatre that is half stage, half pub, with only a pianist and a very expressive violinist for an orchestra should not be able to produce Opera this moving. It is simply amazing, and the only thing that could count as a flaw is the physicality of the stage, but as the Assistant Director, Holly Aston, pointed out, it allows the intense nature of the material to be broken down and be made more accessible to those who have never seen an opera before. And damn was she right.

Laura Parfitt (Minnie)

The actress playing Minnie (Laura Parfitt, doubled by Demelza Stafford), managed to stay ahead of the game, even though technical hitches prevented the smooth operation that had been rehearsed. She gave a jaw-dropping performance with her soprano vocals which could probably be heard three doors down. She would certainly be much more at home in a theatre much larger than the Kings Head. The  two male leads stole the show, as Vik (Ben Thapa, doubled by Adam Crockatt) showed visible tenderness in his attempts to woo Minnie, and Jack (Tom Stoddart, doubled by Tom Bullard) drew you in, his psychological anguish causing minor disambiguation between act and speech during the second act.

Conjuring images of Phantom of the Opera with props and inflections, and Jerry Springer the Opera in terms of language and up-to-date references, a truer modern Opera could not be found. Whether an operatic-veteran or a novice, this show represents something for everyone: a new take on a complex piece well-worked, as well as a gorgeous introduction to the world of opera for those less experienced.

La Fanciulla del West plays at the King’s Head Theatre, London, N1 1QN until 3 March 2012. Tickets are £10-25. To book call 0207 478 0160 or visit www.kingsheadtheatre.com

If an early Scissor Sisters where ever to meet Sam Sparro round the back of a steampunk convention, we’d expect to see electro outfit Thundacub emerging as the warped lovechild of these two pop tarts, golden ’cassettelace’ in tow.

Thundawho? We hear you cry. Although little is known about this mysterious furry fellow, we do know that he’s been busy gallivanting around Europe, has stood in for Erasure, supported Alexandra Burke and more recently got his kit off for the Naked Issue of GT Magazine, oo err.

Taking inspiration from the glitter scene of New York and ‘UK geek culture’, he’s penned infectious electro track ‘Money’. It’s almost as if he’s stuck on Jessie J’s Price Tag, thought ‘bollocks to that’, threw in some synth and had himself a blast on Audacity.

Granted, it’s an affable little number but it’s desperate for substance if he’s hoping for any real chart success. Wailing on about money, power and diamond rings, we were expecting something a little more glorious from the music video too. Thing is, Thundacub hasn’t sold too much merchandise of late so he’s had to draft in a few friends, dig out the dressy up box and film the whole ruddy thing on the family camcorder, we imagine. Panic not, there’s an oversized teddybear head, geisha girls on dog leads and a fight sequence worthy of The Razzies. Every cloud.

Despite the low budget and calamitous chorus it’s bursting with electro nostalgia and peppered with La La La’s, which we haven’t heard since Kylies Can’t Get You Out Of My Head. It’s catchy, but then again so is chlamydia.

‘Money’ is available to download on iTunes March 30th