Country:South Africa

Director:Kyle O’Donoghue

Summary:

The Young Brass Sounds was founded in 2005 to cheer on the Ajax Cape Town team. The band keeps the kids off the street and away from gang related violence.

Country:South Africa

Director:Teboho Mahlatsi

Summary:

This gorgeously shot film recounts the tale of Kgotso, a reclusive rancher, lone wolf stick fighter, and virtuous nomad who wanders the Maluti Mountains of Lesotho.

Link to IMDB.com

Country:South Africa

Director:Oliver Schmitz and Mapantsula

Program:The Lineage of Parallel Cinema

Summary:

Mapantsula tells the story of Panic, a petty gangster who inevitably becomes caught up in the growing anti-apartheid struggle and has to choose between individual gain and a united stand against the system. It was planned as a mere crime movie under the overbearing eyes of the white censors but was filmed for the movie that we now know it to be.

Country:South Africa

Director:Yolande Zaubermann

Program:The Lineage of Parallel Cinema

Summary:

A documentary detailing the nature of racial classification and segregation in South Africa. Filmed clandestinely, this film denounces the social divides and emotional scars left by Apartheid. Robert, who has always seen himself as white, sees his life turned upside down in 1948, when he is ‘classified’ as mixed. He is subsequently disowned by his wife and children, who ‘remain white’. He then begins a new life with a black woman, Doris, and together they tell their tragic story with a strong bond and remarkable good humour.

Country:South Africa

Director:Peter Davis

Program:The Lineage of Parallel Cinema

Summary:

From the moment that white colonizers stepped onto the shore of Southern Africa, there was black resistance. This resistance continued unabated until apartheid was defeated. But the story of this resistance was suppressed and distorted because whites controlled the history books. This documentary was an attempt to give back to the black people of South Africa their lost history, a history of heroic struggle.

Country:South Africa

Director:Nana Mahamo and the Morena Collective

Summary:

This second Morena project was again shot clandestinely in South Africa and smuggled out of the country—had an even greater impact on global opinion at a critical moment in the struggle against apartheid, revealing to the world the shocking inequalities between whites and blacks in South Africa. This documentary exposé is now a rare, primary visual resource, a portrait of a time and place that was largely unrecorded by photographs or film. It combines scenes of everyday life in South Africa with statements from political leaders that characterize the government's blatantly racist policies.

Country:South Africa

Director:Nana Mahamo and the Morena Collective

Program:The Lineage of Parallel Cinema

Summary:

The Morena Collective in London included Antonia Caccia, Chris Curling, Simon Louvish, Vus Make, Rekhetla Tsehlana along with Nana Mahamo. This was the first film to reveal the full horrors of apartheid to the world. Produced by a small group of black South African exiles and film students based in London, it caused an uproar when it was originally released. More than 30 years later the images and facts still shock.

Country:South Africa, Denmark

Director:Henning Carlson

Program:The Lineage of Parallel Cinema

Summary:

Danish director Henning Carlson also was moved by anger and indignation to map out the tricky and nerve wracking tactics necessary for clandestine production and provide a unfettered view of a circumstance which was painfully outrageous. He developed a general scenario and employed a certain degree of improvisation with the actors. The plot concerns Englishman Toby Hood who comes to Johannesburg in order to run a publishing company. He is open minded, and befriends people from different social ranks. The harsh realities of society force him to make a choice with regard to friendships.

Country:South Africa

Director:Anonymous

Program:The Lineage of Parallel Cinema

Summary:

From August 1, 1958 to March 29, 1961, the treason trial of Nelson Mandella, Walter Sisulu and 26 others was held at the Old Synagogue in Praetoria. On March 29, 1961, all the accused were acquitted and there were “wild scenes of euphoria outside the synagogue". Mandela first decided to go underground on March 29, 1961 immediately following the result. This was a wise decision, as it did not give the government another opportunity to arrest him.

Country:South Africa, United States of America

Director:Lionel Rogosin

Program:The Lineage of Parallel Cinema

Summary:

Lionel Rogosin covertly managed an accurate portrayal of township life under apartheid. Written by Lewis Nkosi and Bloke Modisane and starring many of the brightest black urban stars of the fifties, this film broke new ground in the way it showed African urban identity and the hardships of township life in the magical place known as Sophiatown. Rogosin had entered South Africa and shot this film under false pretences while hounded by strict apartheid laws. Sophiatown was destroyed by the government in 1957.