Trevor Steele Taylor
Born in Cape Town in 1952, Trevor remained there far too long,
completing a degree in Philosophy at the University of Cape
Town. After various rambling positions including being part of a group
of young punks who programmed an alternative cinema called The Labia,
he spent a year in the off-beat cinemas of London, Amsterdam and
Paris.
Trevor returned to South Africa to programme the Cape Town
International Film Festival - a position of immense freedom which gave
him the opportunity to introduce Japanese cinema to Cape Town and to
champion filmmakers such as Walerian Borowczyk, Alain Robbe-Grillet,
Shuji Terayama and Peter Whitehead. Many other festivals entered into
the equation, most notably the confrontational Weekly Mail & Guardian
Film festival.
Widely traveled, presenting South African film
programmes in France, Holland, Scandinavia, the USA, Brazil and
Switzerland, he peered further and further into the depths of lesser
known South African film practitioners, searching not for the obvious
but for the maverick non-conformism that lurks on the fringes of every
mainstream. He has for the last nine years been the Programme Director
for Film of the annual National Arts Festival which takes place in
Grahamstown. He has been a film critic, has lectured, has written film
scripts, has directed and has acted. He fervently loves gospel music
and country music, favours high heel boots and owes a debt of
gratitude to Aleister Crowley for opening his eyes to the true
will.
Trevor will be introducing the AiM After Hour series of
late-night screenings from Thu 30 Oct to Sat 1 Nov, and will host a
discussion with director Richard Stanley after the screening of Dust
Devil on Sat 1 Nov.