110 Years of South African Cinema (Part 2)

The following article is the concluding half (part 1 published in Kinema Spring 2006) of a three-section historical overview of South African cinema from early beginnings as newsreels during the Anglo-Boer War to the recent international acclaim for features such as Tsotsi. Some of the veterans of South African cinema are also acknowledged. The last section of this article is dedicated to South African documentary filmmaking. (2) PROFILES OF VETERAN DIRECTORS ALTHOUGH 1994 saw the birth of democracy in South Africa our film industry is much older; in fact, our great documentary film tradition dates back to 1896 and the Anglo-Boer War.(1) While celebrating the past ten years of democracy, we shouldn't forget those filmmakers who created films against all the odds. Jans Rautenbach (Jannie Totsiens), Ross Devenish (Marigolds in August) and the younger generation of the 1980s challenged moral and political censorship, a severe lack of..