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PRESS RELEASE 1 19
June 2000 THE RETURN OF GRANNY LEE Underdog Entertainment (the team that brought you the award winning documentary "Death") is pleased to announce the upcoming broadcast of its outrageous new documentary film Metamorphosis: The Remarkable Journey of Granny Lee. In 1989 an eighty-one-year-old white woman died in a car accident on a highway to Durban, South Africa. A not altogether uncommon occurrence - except for the fact that the victim was in reality neither white, a woman, nor eighty-one. Metamorphosis is a 52-minute documentary exploring the life of one of South Africa's most outrageous characters directed by award-winning director Luiz DeBarros and produced by Marc Schwinges via Underdog Entertainment. Metamorphosis will be broadcast on the 30th of July 2000 on SABC 3 at 9.00pm. When Leonard Christian Du Plooy was born on the 18th of March 1919 to a mixed race ("coloured"), working class family he embodied all the contradictions of a country ruled by racism and hypocrisy. The first part of his life was spent in his hometown of Kimberley and also Durban, as a teacher. Then he changed his mind. In his fifties, he moved to Johannesburg and proceeded to become the city's most famous club-goer and drag queen. Due to a skin condition he was now able to pass himself off as white, which held many advantages in Apartheid South Africa. By outfitting himself with outrageous costumes, feather boas, heavy makeup and a retinue of young admirers, the pensioner became "Granny Lee", Queen of the Discos. Even In death Lee continued to flaunt the rules, mistakenly being the first non-white buried in a "whites only" Johannesburg cemetery. Metamorphosis is very much about the notion of "created identity" - how Leonard Du Plooy created a new persona and changed his gender and race, making the legend of Granny Lee a living, breathing reality. South Africa, a country historically obsessed by definition of Identity, is a unique landscape in which to find a story such as Lee's. Underdog's award winning work is renowned for its dynamic and creative production values and Metamorphosis will be no different. It will combine a mix of media and styles including archive home video footage, photographs, interviews, recreations and the actual audiotape of her final outrageous farewell message played at her wake to the shock of the mourners. Granny Lee herself narrates her life story - based on an audio interview recorded shortly before her death. It is thus through Granny Lee's own unique perspective and wicked humour that we embark on our fascinating journey. Underdog has furthermore produced an entertaining and interactive Granny Lee website where visitors can learn more about Lee and the documentary Metamorphosis: The Remarkable Journey of Granny Lee. Media professionals can also access print quality images and press releases directly off the site in the "press" division under "the documentary" section of the site. The website can be accessed at http://www.grannylee.co.za Underdog Entertainment is an acclaimed, progressive, South African film, television and new media entertainment content Development and Production Company. Founded in 1993, on the cusp of the convergence of film, television, music, video-on-demand, advertising and the Internet, Underdog uses creativity to deliver powerful, surprising and effective messages to film, television and Internet audiences around the world. Highlights have included the production of the acclaimed two-hour television documentary Death (now distributed internationally). Death won three awards at the prestigious 1998 Avante Awards, including Gold in the documentary category. It was also the highest rated local documentary on SABC 3 in history. Underdog Entertainment anticipates submitting Metamorphosis to the global festival circuit to promote the project internationally. For further publicity material or more information on this project please contact: Producer Marc Schwinges at Underdog Entertainment Tel: +27 (011) 380-3232 Fax: +27 (011) 380-3233 E-Mail: grannylee@underdog.co.za WWW: http://www.grannylee.co.za -ends- < back to press release list >
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© Underdog Entertainment 2000