John Trengove (director)


John Trengove is a South African film director, known for The Wound, a controversial film which tracks a closeted relationship between two men in the context of the Xhosa initiation ritual. The film premiered at the Sundance film festival, and won best feature at Frameline, Sarasota, Valencia and Taipei Film Festivals. His short film, The Goat, premiered at the Berlinale Film festival in 2014 and went on to screen at over 40 film festivals worldwide. In 2010 he directed the miniseries Hopeville, which was nominated for an international Emmy and received the prestigious Rose d'Or for drama. Trengove occasionally directs theatre, including the cult hit, The Epicene Butcher.

Biography

John Trengove was born in Johannesburg in 1978. Trengove is the son of famous South African advocate, Wim Trengove. He attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Filmography

Feature films

YearTitleWriterProducerStudio
2017The WoundMalusi Bengu and Thando MgqolozanaCait Pansegrouw and Elias Ribeiro

Controversies

TLVFest

Trengove was scheduled to speak at TLVFest in Tel Aviv in 2017. His film The Wound opened the festival program. Several days prior to opening he pulled out of the festival, cancelling his speech, citing his identification with the cultural boycott of Israel. Despite Trengove's cancellation and request that the film not be shown, TLVFest proceeded with the film screening as planned. It was also reported, that Trengove cancelled his attendance while already being in Israel as a guest of TLVFest with his expenses already paid by organizers.