Ever since the horrendous attack on migrant workers in South Africa in 2008, a group of South African filmmakers joined hands to form the Filmmakers Against Racism organisation to make films that addressed pressing issues faced by African countries. As a result of this formation, nine powerful movies were made, including The Burning Man, Angels on our Shoulders and Baraka - three movies which dealt with the aftermath of the attack, giving voice to the victims who suffered the most.
This year Sydney’s film festival is focusing on South Africa and centering their festival around directors who make movies that aptly portray the traumas of Africa’s horrific past and address the attacks that have marked their history. Filmmakers alongside directors such as Khalo Matabane, Rehad Desai, Oliver Hermanus, Oliver Schmitz, Charlie Vundla, Darrell Roodt and Ian Gabriel are all making movies that focus on post-apartheid South African cinema. A lot of these movies address the widening gap between the rich and the poor, such as Sibs Shongwe-La Mer’s powerful debut, Necktie Youth, a film that gives us a glimpse of the lives of disafffected youth in modern Johannesburg. Ryley Grunenwald’s documentary The Shore Break, on the other hand, portrays the struggles of a community split between building a titanium mine or preserving the beauty of the Wild Coast. Khalo Matabane’s drama-documentary Conversations on a Sunday Afternoon is a bold yet emotional account of South African migrants, while Rehad Desai’s 2014 documentary Miners Shot Down sheds light on the Marikana massacre where protesters were killed in an encounter with police.
This form of protest cinema is anything but representative of mainstream South African cinema. Although these films may not be on their way to commercial success, they certainly pose important questions about South Africa as it is today. These films bring to light the burning issues that mar the nation and hamper its progress by directly aiming their work at the current democratically elected government. The Sydney film festival 205 will run at cinemas across Sydney until June 14.
