Representations of Apartheid and Resistance in Documentary Film

Chapter from the book ‘Post-1990 Documentary: Reconfiguring Independence’ edited by Camille Deprez and Judith Pernin - UNPUBLISHED This chapter aims to explore how South African documentary practice has evolved since the 1990s, leading to the emergence of film practices based on a single individual. Beyond the inherent benefits and drawbacks of working alone, it mainly questions its consequences on the filmmakers' practices and film aesthetics. Films referred to in this chapter include The Mothers’ House (Verster, 2006), Surfing Soweto (Blecher, 2010), Dawn of a New Day (Grunenwald, 2011), Imam and I (Shamis, 2011), Saying Goodbye (Mostert, 2012) and Incarcerated Knowledge (Valley, 2013). Although these are not the only films pertaining to this filmmaking model, they reflect how more individualised and personal film documentary practices are intrinsically linked to the character of independent documentary filmmaking in South Africa today, as they contribute new critical views on the contested issue of post-apartheid national identity. In order to understand the significance of the current, post-1990, practice of lone documentary filmmaking, this chapter will first trace some of SA's political and broadcast history.

Outros Tempos – Pesquisa em Foco - História, 2018

: This article reflects on the relevance of using films in South Africa's post-apartheid national reconstruction process. The films have the potential to reconnect present-day South Africa with their early forgotten heroes who have fought for liberation, against segregation and apartheid.Keywords: Movies. South Africa. Heroes. Fights for Liberation.USANDO FILMES PARA RECONECTAR A ÁFRICA DO SUL AOS PRIMEIROS HERÓIS DAS LUTAS CONTRA O APARTHEIDResumo: Neste trabalho, reflete-se sobre a relevância de seu usar filmes no processo reconstrução nacional da África do Sul pós-Apartheid. Os filmes têm o potencial de reconectar a África do Sul atual aos seus primeiros heróis, atualmente esquecidos, que lutaram pela liberação, contra a segregação e o apartheid.Palavras-chave: Filmes. África do Sul. Heróis. Lutas por Libertação. USANDO PELÍCULAS PARA RECONECTAR A ÁFRICA DEL SUR A LOS PRIMEROS HEROES DE LAS LUCHAS CONTRA EL APARTHEIDResumen: En este trabajo, se refleja en la relevancia de su...

African Minds eBooks, 2022

How does one write the history of cinema in a fractured South Africa? In approaching this task, in cooperation with Anna-Marie, I (Keyan) will discuss my own encounter with South African film scholars and film practitioners, in the broader multidisciplinary context that draws on historical materialism. Our chapter examines various understandings of modernity and the role that cinema was seen to be playing in relation to different constituencies that contested each other during the twentieth century. Our lens is the post-1990 political transition that prefaced new challenges on how to examine South African cinema historically. South African cinema history has been contested since the first newsreels documented the second South African War between 1899-1902. The opposing ideological currents could be felt as the country transited from disparate Boer 1 republics and British colonies after the War, through the formation of Union in 1910, apartheid in 1948 and the post-apartheid era after 1990. Our focus is on periodised approaches to South African cinema studies within these respective periods. Until the publication of The Cinema of Apartheid (Tomaselli 1988), Thelma Gutsche's (1972) The History and Social Significance of Motion Pictures in South 1 Boer meaning 'farmer', a culturally specific term for descendants of the Voortrekkers who migrated to the north during the Great Trek. See Pretorius (2002).

2009

Communicare: Journal for Communication Studies in Africa

This paper sets out to consider the production of political documentary films in post-apartheidSouth Africa at a time when massification of the media and state capture of the South AfricanBroadcasting Corporation, the country’s public broadcaster, silenced oppositional voices. RehadDesai’s award-winning film, Miners Shot Down (2014) serves as the main case study for theresearch. The film deals with the days leading up to the final and tragic outcome of strike action by minersat a time when the print media predicated the state and the mine owners’ points of view. Thefilmmaker, a self-acclaimed political activist, set out to recount the events by recreating a voice forthe mine workers by offering his personal reaction to the deaths of the 34 black men by interviewsand archival material. Miners Shot Down was received well locally and internationally, but as an overt political narrativepresented in a subjective reconstruction, some of the omissions may impact on a fuller understandingof...

2015

A positive development emerged in the early 1990s in the South African film industry when the government started to see cinema as one of the institutions to forge social cohesion in the processes of democratization and development (Botha, 2005). However, the country’s industry is still struggling with many problems such as establishing and developing the local audience for its products, domination of international films in both cinemas and television, insufficient film-funding development and paying too much attention on Hollywood standards. This dissertation critically studies the state of post-apartheid South African cinema. The main feature this study addresses is that no critical framework exists for analyzing post-apartheid film in terms of how they address or represent socio-political factors, especially factors relating to black sensibility. It is important to understand the role that filmmakers have played to incorporate issues of black sensibility in South African cinema since the end of apartheid. As a result, the author developed the first framework of its kind, referred to as a ‘cinema of Black Consciousness’.

African Studies Review, 1990