ABAPUCIWE
- THE DISPOSSESSED
(1980, Colour)
The story of the South African Government's
Bantustan policy. How 6 million Africans
were moved from their homes in and around the cities and dumped in remote arid
lands nominally designated their "homeland".
BEHIND
THE LINES
( 1971, Colour)
This was the first filmed report of what liberation from the Portuguese meant
to the Africans of Mozambique. Both guerrillas and local leaders are interviewed.
BOESMAN
AND LENA
(1973, Colour)
A feature film, scripted by Athol Fugard, about the banal horrors of apartheid. |
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CHIKIN
BIZNIS
(2002, Colour) Director: Ntshaveni Wa Luruli
Chikin Biznis is a humorous tribute to the vibrant South African informal economic
sector, which provides millions of unemployed urban South Africans with an
alternative livelihood.
CHIMURENGA
- THE WAR IN ZIMBABWE
(Colour, 1977)
Shot at the height of Zimbabwe's war for liberation and independence, the film-makers
interviewed young men both in Zimbabwe and in a transit camp in Botswana.
CHOOSING
EXILE
(2000, Colour) Director: Mark Radomsky
Filmmaker Marc Radomsky is a third-generation South African. After his grandfather
emigrated from Lithuania, the family established their roots in Johannesburg
and prospered. However, growing lawlessness and crime in South Africa has seen
the white community hole up in gated communities where armed guards, attack
dogs and barbed wire are the norm. In order to escape the ever-increasing violence
Marc and his wife Vivienne made the painful decision to emigrate to Australia.
Their close-knit family, threatened with separation, tries to prevail upon
the couple to reconsider, and the camera captures the painful unravelling of
their interconnected lives.
Choosing Exile director Mark Radomsky
FREEDOM
RAILWAY
(1974, Colour)
The Tan-Zam railway links Dar-es-Salaam on the Indian Ocean to Kapiri Mposhi
in the heart of the Zambian copperbelt. Felix Greene spent two months filming
its construction - over 1900 kilometres through jungles, over mountains and
across swamps and rivers.
 
THE
FURIOSIS
(2001, Colour) Director: Liza Key
A fascinating and moving examination of Dimitri Tsafendas, the man who entered
South Africa’s parliament building one day in 1966 and stabbed the Prime
Minister, Hendrik Verwoerd, to death
THE
GUEST
(1977, Colour) Director: Ross Devenish
Another collaboration between director Ross Devenish and writer Athol Fugard.
The film is based on an episode in a biography of the Afrikaner intellectual
and poet Eugene Marais.
LET
MY PEOPLE GO
(1961, B/W)
A powerful and convincing argument against apartheid. It describes through
newsreels and enacted materials what the system meant to the majority of South
Africans.
MARIGOLDS
IN AUGUST
(1979, Colour)
Another collaboration between scriptwriter and actor Athol Fugard, and director
Ross Devenish. A feature film about the lives of rural blacks under apartheid.
 
PENNY
WHISTLE BOYS
(1961, B/W)
Three young lads support their impoverished families by playing music to passers-by
in the streets of Cape Town. The film follows them, capturing their spontaneous
gaiety and vitality.
YOU
HAVE STRUCK A ROCK!
(1981, Colour)
Using a collage of rare photographs and newsreel footage, as well as interviews,
this film explores the contribution of women to the overthrow of apartheid.
THE
FILMS OF STEPHEN PEET
Stephen Peet was a documentary film
maker for over 40 years. He started out in the forties as director-cameraman,
and spent seven years in what is now Zambia and Malawi, making information
films with local people for local consumption. We have many of these
in our library. They contain a wealth of fascinating footage of Southern
and Central Africa in the fifties and sixties. Please e-mail us for
more details.
OTHER
MATERIAL
We have a wide variety of footage from
South Africa, mainly, but not exclusively, covering the struggle
against apartheid. There is also material from Senegal and other
parts of Africa including:
- Footage of the
Imperial Airways Flying Boat taking off
from the Zambezi River above the Falls,
on its final flight.
- Records of Coronation
Day as celebrated in a small outpost
in the Eastern Province of Northern Rhodesia
with a police parade and the arrival
of the district administrator in full
colonial regalia.
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