Blackness In South African Cinema

1994 saw South Africa getting its chance of the first democratic elections from the hands of a Nationalist Party, the apartheid government-ruling party which ruled the country from 1948. The new government, under the African National Congress (ANC) came with political, economic and social changes that saw South African as one of the most respected democratic countries in the world. The current South African film industry (post-apartheid cinema) emerged as a result of governmental involvement, private initiatives, and the country’s emergence as one of the top-five production locations in the world (McCluskey, 2009). Nonetheless, the country’s industry is still struggling with establishing and developing the local audience for its products. The responsibility for this struggle is partly attributed to the apartheid film industry which served white consumers only with little access to black audiences.

A historical influence of South African cinema dominated by white oppression, white supremacy, and white nationalism has

According to Lott (1991), when defining black cinema, ‘blackness’ – as a concept - is always a burden because it is often defined based on biological or cultural criteria. In the context of this research paper, “blackness” will be defined in political terms, which means, any people that were politically, economically and socially oppressed by slavery, colonialism, apartheid. In this sense, blackness in the South African context includes Blacks, Indians, and Coloureds. With regards to the definition of blackness, Thomas Cripps’ defines ‘black cinema’ as a “cinematic experience that is produced, written and performed by black people primarily for black audiences (Cripps in Lott, 1991:40). I define a cinema of Black Consciousness not as a cinema of black filmmakers, but as an inclusive cinema for any filmmaker of any skin colour who is willing to use cinema as a tool for the needs of black