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.
Tells the stories of four students who are turning their lives around at the Ithuteng Trust School.
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.
The struggle to eradicate apartheid in South Africa has been chronicled over time, but no one has addressed the vital role music plays in this challenge. This documentary by Lee Hirsch recounts a fascinating and little-known part of South Africa's political history through archival footage, interviews and, of course, several mesmerizing musical performances.
Journey to the banks of the Sand River, where seven magnificent creatures reign supreme. In this captivating 24-hour odyssey, witness their pursuit, survival, and delicate balance of power-Marvel at their strength, vulnerability, and relentless determination. Encounter the neighbours from hell, territorial battles, and the intricate dance of interactions. Within this unfolding drama, the biggest, most potent, fastest, and smartest thrive while others meet their fate. Brace yourself for an unforgettable adventure-a testament to resilience, survival, and the raw beauty of seven of Africa's magnificent creatures.
The first film to ever show what life was in South-Africa under the Apartheid state. The film was released as an anonymous production under the aegis of the Pan Africanist Congress in 1970.
The Man Who Fell From The Sky is a Channel 4 documentary. It tells the fascinating story of two men who stowed away on a flight from South Africa to the UK in 2012. But what was their story, and what happened to the two men? The documentary is billed as a ‘stranger than fiction’ story, that features two men who made the ‘most extreme journey’ ever taken by humans. South Africans Themba Cabeka and Carlito Vale made the trip clinging onto the undercarriage of the plane. Together, they made the 11-hour, 5,639-miles trip braving -60C temperatures. The incredible journey made news around the world.
What would your family reminiscences about dad sound like if he had been an early supporter of Hitler’s, a leader of the notorious SA and the Third Reich’s minister in charge of Slovakia, including its Final Solution? Executed as a war criminal in 1947, Hanns Ludin left behind a grieving widow and six young children, the youngest of whom became a filmmaker. It's a fascinating, maddening, sometimes even humorous look at what the director calls "a typical German story." (Film Forum)
Sexy supermodels Tyra Banks, Valeria Mazza, Kathy Ireland, Stacey Williams, Ingrid Seynhaeve, Rebecca Romijn, Angie Everhart, Manon von Gerkan and newcomer Georgianna Robertson hit South Africa for the 1996 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
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.
This Traveltalk series short discusses how Johannesburg began as a farming community, but with the discovery of gold in the area, the city embraced mining as its primary industry. Native workers came to the area to train to be miners, and even after their work in the mines ended, many decided to remain in Johannesburg. The natives' music and dance are highlights.
In Freedom Park, a squatter settlement near the platinum mines in SA, a network of former sex workers create Tapologo. They learn to be Home Based Carers for their community, transforming degradation into solidarity and squalor into hope. Catholic Bishop Kevin Dowling participates in Tapologo and raises doubts on the official doctrine of the Catholic Church regarding AIDS and sexuality in the African context.
Nova and National Geographic present exclusive access to an astounding discovery of ancient fossil human ancestors.
At the height of the cold war a struggle broke out between Governments from all over the world as to which position to take about the system of apartheid in South Africa. Leading the fight was Olof Palmes' Swedish Government, which covertly funneled over US$ 1 billion to the resistance movement. This money was given without the knowledge of either the Parliament or the Swedish populace. At the center of the net in South Africa was a Swedish diplomat called Birgitta Karlström Dorph. Meanwhile at the UN the Swedes with their Scandinavian counterparts attempted to win the argument for economic sanctions. This led to bitter arguments which saw Palme leading the fight against the Reagan and Thatcher administrations.
While her husband served a life sentence, paradoxically kept safe and morally uncontaminated, Winnie Mandela rode the raw violence of apartheid, fighting on the front line and underground. This is the untold story of the mysterious forces that combined to take her down, labeling him a saint, her, a sinner.
In a remote stretch of Patagonia, Argentina, there is a family - the Dickasons - who speak a language from a country 7,000km to the east. They are part of a 114-year-old Afrikaans Boer community - South Africans of Dutch descent who sailed across the ocean to South America after the destruction of a war with the British. Today, less than 50 still speak the language and they struggle to keep their culture alive. Patriarch "Ty" Dickason, 82, is a cowboy who has never flown in a plane - and yet he yearns to one day visit the country of his blood before he and his compatriots pass away. This multiple SAFTA award-winning documentary is a portrait of the last days of the community - a parallel world where Afrikaans was never linked to Apartheid - and one family's journey to reconnect with South Africa.
Gripped by a fear of drought, 'SCENES FROM A DRY CITY' uses the lens of water to reveal cracks in Cape Town's complex social fabric.
A provocative look from within at Afrikaner extremists who, in 1991, clung to the belief that they were the chosen ‘super race’ of Africa. With the demise of white rule, many of these Boers lived in fear. Some had banded into paramilitary groups, such as Eugene Terre’Blanche’s Afrikaner Resistance Movement, which claimed wide support within the South African army and police. They were preparing for an armed showdown with the new government.
The film documents the key political issues in recent years in South Africa that have marked the demise of the African National Congress (ANC). These include the Marikana massacre in August 2012, whereby 34 striking miners were gunned down by the ANC government's police force. Rehad Desai documented this historic event in his 2013 film MINERS SHOT DOWN. He refers to the incident once again in his latest film and shows how the ANC is undermining its close connections to the trade unions it set up as a freedom movement under Nelson Mandela, and how students have also turned on the party to protest against tuition fees under the motto #FeesMustFall. The film's compelling footage unmasks the cynical despotism of corrupt president Jacob Zuma, who is chiefly responsible for the ANC's demise and its catastrophic losses at the most recent elections. It also introduces opposition movements that are challenging his now-untenable position.