Adding Hope to Healthcare
(2013, 48mins – Produced and Directed by Lucilla Blankenberg) After an extensive three year programme at university, the first group of Clinical Associates are integrated into the South African Health System. They are faced with many obstacles and many medical staff and patients to not yet fully understand their role. In addition, the South African Health System landscape is vast and diverse, and our Clinical Associates experience conflicting, highly emotional situations and work under extreme pressure.
TAC – Taking HAART
(2011, 99mins) – In 1999, Thabo Mbeki became President of South Africa. Between 1999 and 2010, over two million people in South Africa died of AIDS. This was despite the existence of Highly Active Antiretroviral Treatment, known as HAART. During these years, government sponsored AIDS denialism combined with the high price of these lifesaving drugs to ensure that poor people could not get the treatment they needed.
TAC – Taking HAART provides a fly on the wall view of how outrage ignited a movement that united people across race and class, one that developed a well-educated cadre deeply versed in the issues it confronted, built coalitions, used the courts, peaceful protest and civil disobedience to achieve its objectives. TAC played a critical role in showing how the bill of rights entrenched in the South African constitution could be used to win social and economic rights and to change government policy. It was through such a mass movement that the right to universal access to treatment was won. Thousands of hours of footage gathered by journalists at Community Media Trust, the producers of Beat It, a weekly AIDS television show, make up this fast paced documentary that captures an important era of recent South African history. As part of a national campaign, TAC- Taking HAART contains never before seen footage, leading viewers through one of the most extraordinary struggles in post-apartheid South Africa. The film raises the moral culpability of those responsible for withholding treatment while standing as a heartfelt tribute to those who have died and to those who engaged in twelve years of remorseless activism led by the Treatment Action Campaign.
A Country For My Daughter
(2010, 54mins) – South Africa has one of the highest rates of gender based violence in the world. This is not the country that Nonkosi Khumalo wants her daughter to grow up in. As a human rights activist Nonkosi is dedicated to the struggle for equality in South Africa, especially for women. In A Country For My Daughter she travels the country investigating the stories of survivors, activists and lawyers whose cases have transformed the law in South Africa for the better.
Don’t Shoot
(2008, 11min) – A documentary on Riaan Cruywagen for the International Why Democracy Series. This film opened the Encounters International Documentary Festival in 2008. – Director
Black People Don’t Swim
(2008, 48mins) – Six years ago Kwezi Qika couldn’t swim, never mind surf. Yet in 2007 this poor black boy from Ocean View township in the Western Cape became a junior surfing champion. Featuring footage shot in Muizenberg’s Surfer’s Corner and along the beaches of Durban, Black People Don’t Swim is both a story about a young man’s journey into manhood and a film about the thrill of a catching a wave.
Brothers in Arms
(2007, 83mins) – The story of Ronald Herboldt – the only South African to fight in the Cuban Revolutionary war. Forty years later Ronald’s desire to return home to a free South Africa is complicated by the fact that he has family in both countries and needs to qualify for a special liberator’s pension. Filmed in South Africa, Cuba and Angola.
A Truly Wonderful Adventure
(2007, 48mins) – In 1980 students in the Western Cape boycotted and the ‘Committee of 81’ was formed. Using new interviews, the film takes us through the images and events that culminated in the murder of Bernard Fortuin by the police.
Law and Freedom
(2005, 95mins) – A documentary series looking at laws that have changed South Africa and the history of its constitution.
Tania Raised Us
(2004, 49mins) – A documentary on the life of the “horse and cart” people of Cape Town.
Goniwe’s Calling
(2004, 24mins) – A documentary from SABC’s ‘Issues of Faith’ series, telling the story of a gay man from Langa becoming a traditional healer.
Casa de la Musica
(2003, 52mins) – A documentary exploring the links in culture and music between Cape Town and Havana. (Winner of the Encounters Audience Award, 2003).
Home is Where the Music is
(2003, 48mins) – A biographical documentary on Cape Town jazz musician Robbie Jansen, exploring his 30 year career, his time in the legendary band Estudio and the development of Cape Jazz as a genre.
Through My Eyes: Blanche La Guma
(2003, 48mins) – Blanche LaGuma is a Cape Town activist and widow of local author Alex La Guma. This film takes a look at her life.
Apostles of Civilised Vice
(1999, 104mins) – A documentary exploring the history of homosexuality in South Africa from colonial times to the present. Among the events considered is the adoption of the South African Bill of Rights ensuring equal protection to all citizens regardless of sexual orientation.
Sando to Samantha aka The Art of Dikvel
(1999, 52 mins) – A Docu-drama blending interview material and drama to tell the story of Sando Willemse, aka Samantha Fox, a drag queen from Bonteheuwel in Cape Town. Having joined the SADF in 1991, Sando was tested for HIV without giving his permission – subsequently his positive status was disclosed to his entire squad and he was summarily discharged.
Die Skerpioen Onder Die Klip: Afrikaans van Kolonialisme Tot Demokrasie
(1997, 30mins) – A documentary series on Afrikaans – from colonialism to democracy.
A Normal Daughter
(1997, 58 mins) – The story of Kewpie, a drag queen from Cape Town, South Africa’s District Six, a legendary enclave of gay life since the 1950s. Together with friends and family, Kewpie narrates the story of her life as part of a thriving homosexual world of drag shows, concerts, and clubs.
Die Duiwel Maak My Hart So Seer
(1993, 55mins) – In 1993 Idol Pics documented the stories of a group of racially diverse South African children, mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds, as they and their mothers talk about the things that affect their lives.