The Liberation Films of Southern Africa

The liberation films of Southern Africa emerged to counter the propaganda of apartheid and the media biases of former colonial powers. Join Professor Shawn Sobers and special guests Professor Mhando (filmmaker, academic and curator), Francis Karungu (whose work focusses on engaging a new generation working with liberation archives) and filmmaker Simon Bright for an illustrated panel presenting the forgotten history of Southern African cinema as radical change decolonised Mozambican and Angola, Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, and Namibia and South Africa finally threw off the yoke of apartheid. 

The movement developed collaboratively, beginning in Mozambique Angola and Tanzania and broadening out to co-productions between Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Angola and Mozambique. Film Festivals became the creative cauldrons for further collaboration attracting investment, talent and exchanges of ideas. The productions combined skill and talent between cultures across national boundaries, overcoming language barriers. Many films won prizes, were distributed internationally and our panel will challenge the prevailing focus on colonial archive and national cinema by celebrating the vibrant resistance and collaboration of Southern African Transnational Cinema.