In Darkest Hollywood: Cinema and Apartheid

In this documentary Africans talk about the influence of Hollywood in the fifties. American B-movies became their means to escape from the reality in which poverty and the burden of apartheid sometimes made life unbearable. Owing to its enormous persuasive powers, film became an increasingly important weapon in the struggle for and against apartheid, from this period on. Until then, Africans had merely been passive onlookers. But now they too started to participate actively in making films. This development paradoxically coincided with the emergence of white supremacy in South Africa. However, black South Africans had now found a medium to tell the world about the horrors of apartheid: film. They aspired at making films that gave an impression of African life. This desire was brutally ended with the 'Sharpeville Massacre' in 1960. This violent event would usher in a period of political and artistic oppression. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)