This is a country of gold, diamonds, and great natural wonders. An ancient land undergoing a dramatic political change. A place where wild animals and modern high-rise cities exist side-by-side, where great deserts contrast with lush farmlands. Visit Johannesburg a city built on gold, and Durban where spices of the East mingle with the influence of the Zulu people. View Cape Town from the summit of Table Mountain and fly over the dramatic Drakensburg Mountains. Take a photo safari at the Londolozi Game Reserve where elephants and lions roam freely in the African wilderness. Out of the conflicts of the past is emerging a new country, a land of amazing natural beauty; one of the world's best-kept secrets.
‘Future Sounds of Mzansi’ is a documentary, which aims to explore, express, and interrogate South Africa’s cultural landscape. A chief vehicle of this exploration is electronic music, a staple of South African popular culture. The film explores the past, present and future of the scene and its multiple sub-genres, presented through the eyes of internationally acclaimed artist Spoek Mathambo.
Shot in New York, Cape Town, St Helena and the Atlantic Ocean, Sathima's Windsong, is a lyrical portrait of South African jazz singer, Sathima Bea Benjamin. In her Chelsea Hotel apartment, home for over thirty years, she patches together her journeys, from apartheid's 'pattern of brokenness', to a chance meeting and recording with Duke Ellington in Paris, to making a life in New York. The narrative of her journeys are inter-woven with her music and the musings of folks who know her work. Like her haunting song, Windsong, the film is a meditation on displacement, exile and belonging.
South African fusion band Mango Groove performs 19 songs for a concert at Carnival City Casino's Big Top Arena in Gauteng, South Africa on 18 September 2010.
Three friends occupied in a 1 room house, fighting for survival of debt and dealing with the problematic nyaope,alcohol and gambling
Why are illegal abortions more accessible in Poland than legal ones in South Africa? This documentary feature explores and contrasts changes in Poland and South Africa regarding abortion laws and their impact on the lives of women. In the 90's, Poland banned abortion due to the increasing influence of the Catholic Church after the fall of communism; around the same time South Africa legalized it, reforming the health system after the fall of apartheid. The film reveals how the legal status of women is a direct result of the silencing or empowering of women's voices. In the Polish society and media, women's perspectives were made invisible; in South Africa, on the other hand, they were invited to give public hearings in the parliament about problems in the realm of reproduction.
This Traveltalk series short gives a glimpse into South African history, albeit from a white person's viewpoint. South Africa is a union of four separate states: the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, Natal, and the Cape Provence.
The African penguin is the only penguin that lives on the African continent. It was known as the jackass penguin because of its donkey-like call. This film covers the life cycle of this incredible bird, fom mating to laying of eggs to hunting and the moulting cycle. Sadly, it also shows the stark reality of a bird on the road to extinction.
Explores the deep bond between Nelson and Winnie and their marriage in the struggle against apartheid. An intimate portrait of their connection from the early years through to the dismantling of apartheid and Mandela's historic presidency.
I traveled to South Africa to find a white family living on a desolate farm. I wanted to film how they faced the new days of equality after the fall of Apartheid. But I soon lost my way both on the endless roads and in my way. Instead, the film became a story about two very different women who both experienced a tragic loss in the midst of a white community not too fond of the future.
A grandfather is fed up with his stubborn son, who doesn't want to accept a penny from him to develop his farm. So the old man decides to bring his 18 year-old granddaughter Martie to live with him in the city.
The halcyon days of skateboarding are alive in rural South Africa. Indigo Skate Camp is home to the village's very first generation of skaters, who are growing up with a different outlook on life from their elders.
The film is a portrayal of Zanele Muholi, a lesbian photographer working in the South African GLBT community. This thin, combative woman is already a world-wide famous artist. She defines herself as a "visual activist" in order to highlight her commitment to politics, to communicating ideas and to art. Her work includes: provocative nudes (like a female Mapplethorpe); young Zulu couples, dressed in traditional costumes, embracing each other; a homeless socially excluded lesbian couple; a dignified portrait of Victor Mukasa, the gay human rights leader from Uganda; wonderful shots of Zanele with her white partner. Beautiful and poetic pictures which are "militant" in nature since they condemn homophobia, poverty, and the public and private conflicts of a country divided between tradition and modernity.
A classic South African comedy in which a young Jamie Uys plays producer, writer, director and star, and his wife Hettie Uys the romantic interest. Somewhere in the bushveld, Hans Botha is doing the usual farm rounds when his friend and neighbour comes around with an urgent request: please collect the new teacher at the bus stop. The shy Hans is alarmed, saying he does not know how to talk to women. Prevailed on nevertheless, Hans sets off in his old jalopy, which for good measure has no brakes. He eventually arrives at the bus stop, where the teacher, Martie, is waiting patiently. She is pretty and young and the already flustered Hans proceeds to flatten her hatbox, allow the car to run off with her, and dump her in the river. By the time Hans says goodbye, Martie is angry and he is in love
Directed by Ingrid Martens, this documentary takes place completely within the lifts of Ponte tower in Johannesburg. Over five years, Ingrid films the tenants of the tower and the snippets of their lives that are captured within their rides between floors.
School kids go on a trip where a friendship between Kgomotso and the school bully brews into romance. Kgomotso learns there is more to the boy they thought was a bully than meets the eye.
Explores the history of the Afrikaners and Afrikaner nationalism, and the development of apartheid and its relevance to South Africa's political situation today.