Dolly Rathebe

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.

Le vieux pasteur Stephen Kumalo se rend à Johannesburg pour y retrouver son fils disparu. Arrivé là-bas il rencontre la misère et apprend que son fils est devenu un criminel recherché pour meurtre, et que sa sœur a été contrainte de se prostituer.

Post-apartheid South Africa is the setting for this drama about a mismatched twosome who end up together on a life-altering journey to Cape Town. Polar opposites Kobus (Ian Roberts), a white ex-soldier who struggles with demons from his past, and Wonderboy (Kagiso Mtetwa), a young black street kid who clings to memories of his family, come together to take on the society that has cast them aside and eventually build a friendship for the ages.

In a black township in South Africa, a stolen treasure chest passes from hand to hand until it is finally returned to its original owner.

A petty gangster inevitably becomes involved in the growing anti-apartheid struggle and is forced to choose between individual gain and a united stand against the system.

Jim decides to leave his tribal area to seek his fortune in Johannesburg. As soon as he arrives, three gangsters mug him. When he regains consciousness, a friendly night watchman takes care of him. With the watchman's help, Jim gets a job in a nightclub as a waiter.

The story is inspired by the assassination of Chris Hani, leader of the South African Communist Party.

Little Bird's first South African production, SOPHIATOWN has won the award for Best Documentary at the Cape Town World Cinema Festival 2003. SOPHIATOWN celebrates the great popular jazz music of the 1950's in South Africa; a rich tradition deserving international attention. Director Pascale Lamche, traces the music, uncovers the artists who created it and the unique culture in which it thrived, concentrated in Sophiatown, Johannesburg's own Harlem, which fuelled by liberation politics until its destruction by the Apartheid regime. The film features Nelson Mandela and such household names from the jazz world as Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Abdullah Ibrahim, Jonas Gwangwa and Caiphus Semenya.

This controversial political thriller, which provoked mass demonstrations and nine deaths in South Africa when it was first shown, gives dramatic form to the African National Congress's basic program of reconcilliation within a non-racialist, democratic society. A train massacre by an Inkatha militant causes the sole witness to the crime to flee the Soweto townships to take refuge in Johannesburg; but the violence follows him when his ANC comrades try to buy guns for a retaliatory raid against Inkatha supporters.

The beginning of the end of the apartheid era in South Africa is seen through the perspectives of three female friends: Sophie, who is of English descent; Aninka, who is an Afrikaner; and Thoko, who is black.

En Afrique du Sud, dix ans après la fin de l'Apartheid, Sox Moraka (Tony Kgoroge), un jeune noir sappé comme un rappeur et à l'attitude décontractée, est fiancé à une fille blanche et vit dans un luxueux appartement du quartier blanc de Johannesburg, où il passe le plus clair de son temps à animer des émissions de clips vidéo. Souhaitant devenir une star de cinéma, il passe une audition pour jouer le rôle de Bra'Biza, un braqueur de voitures, mais on lui fait remarquer qu'il n'a pas le vécu nécessaire pour incarner un tel héros. Humilié par le réalisateur blanc qui le vire sans ménagement, Sox décide de se rendre dans les townships de Soweto afin d'appréhender au mieux son futur personnage, et même si pour cela il risque de tout perdre : le confort, la liberté, la vie.