The Thinking Garden

2 or 3 Things I Know About Him

2005 · ★ 6.6

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)

Africa Shafted: Under One Roof

2011

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.

Life in Progress

2015

No synopsis available.

Valley of a Thousand Hills

2016

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.

Sathima's Windsong

2010

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.

Plaasmoorde: The Killing Fields

2018

Included in this groundbreaking work are interviews with active farm attackers and serving police officers who confirm corrupt police are complicit in the mass‐slaughter of South Africa’s whites. Their truths are horrifying—a man and woman branded with hot irons and left to die. A husband killed in front of his wife and children. An elderly woman raped, another with half her face blown off from a shotgun. And they all share a common thread: revenge. This is a disturbing documentary—it wrought both an emotional and physical toll on all involved. What’s more, Katie was detained at the airport in South Africa on the orders of the African National Congress (ANC) for her work on this project because Plaasmoorde is the story—the truth—they don’t want you to see. We owe it to the victims—to our fellow man—to listen and to open our eyes to the truth.

Federico Buffa racconta: i Diavoli di Zonderwater

2021 · ★ 10

No synopsis available.

South Africa: The White Laager

1977 · ★ 9

Explores the history of the Afrikaners and Afrikaner nationalism, and the development of apartheid and its relevance to South Africa's political situation today.

Kentridge and Dumas in Conversation

William Kentridge and Marlene Dumas – two of the most celebrated names in international contemporary art – come face to face in a series of frank, witty and intense discussions about their work and practice. The film follows them from the gentle ambience of a dinner conversation, to their studios – where we are given insight into the way that each artist works – to some of their finished works and installations. What emerges is how very differently these two highly successful South African artists approach image making. Dumas’ method is deeply intuitive – she often works on the floor as though embracing her paintings, pouring and dabbing paint to produce her remarkable portraits. Kentridge is intensely systematic, alternating gestural mark making with the repetitive action of drawing-filming-erasing for his animated films.

Children of the Revolution

1990

With Nelson Mandela freed from prison, South Africa is changing fast - but big challenges lie ahead. In the township of Soweto children have taken charge of their schools, trading formal (albeit poorly-funded) education for incitement of rebellion against the injustices between the black and the white populations.

Abortion Democracy: Poland/South Africa

2008 · ★ 6.8

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.

Future Sounds of Mzansi

2014

‘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.