5 October 2023
Glenwood High is celebrating the achievement of old boy John Barker, who received a South African Film and Television Award (Safta) at the recent 17th edition of the event.
Barker was recognised in the category for best script writing for “The Umbrella Men”, which came out last year. A crime comedy, which is set in Cape Town, the film also received the award for Best Film at London’s Film Africa Fest in late 2022, which featured 47 titles from 16 countries.
The son of the renowned late Bafana Bafana coach, Clive Barker, John first made his mark in 2006 with the release of “Bunny Chow”, which was shown at a number of film festivals around the world.
In 2010, during the Fifa World Cup in South Africa, he released “Soccer south of the Umbilo”, which told the story of his father, and looked at the great players that came out of the south of Durban, including, among others, “Professor” Ngubane, Sean Dundee, Gordon Igesund, Dillon Shepherd, and his cousin, Steve Barker, who manages Stellenbosch FC in the Premier Soccer League.
Barker has also produced music documentaries on Channel O and was the director of “31 Million Reasons”, “Spud 3: Learning to Fly”, and “Wonder Boy for President”, among others.
His productions have included a number of mockumentaries in which he says he works to blur the lines between fact and fiction. For instance, in the aforementioned “Wonder Boy for President”.
“The Umbrella Men”, which was co-written, directed and produced with Joel Phiri, is set for a sequel, “The Umbrella II”, which is in pre-production.
Some of his other projects, which are forthcoming, include films about his father Clive Barker, slain strip club kingpin Lolly Jackson, and comedian John Vlismas.
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