It pumped out hugely successful cowboy films, heist dramas and Bond-style thrillers. It launched a Hollywood career and made the world’s first Zulu-language film. So does it matter that the explosion of black cinema in apartheid South Africa was funded by Pretoria – and led by an Afrikaner construction boss?
Last year, Tonie van der Merwe clutched that most Afrikaans of drinks, a double-brandy and Coke, as he accepted his Simon Sabela award as one of four “heroes and legends” at the Durban international film festival. “Without being racist, I thought a white guy won’t easily win a prize, but I was wrong,” he said from the stage, in his tux and big owlish spectacles.
Certainly, few white guys in the new South Africa receive awards for films they made under an apartheid subsidy scheme to create films for black audiences. Yet here he was – 20 years after apartheid...
Last year, Tonie van der Merwe clutched that most Afrikaans of drinks, a double-brandy and Coke, as he accepted his Simon Sabela award as one of four “heroes and legends” at the Durban international film festival. “Without being racist, I thought a white guy won’t easily win a prize, but I was wrong,” he said from the stage, in his tux and big owlish spectacles.
Certainly, few white guys in the new South Africa receive awards for films they made under an apartheid subsidy scheme to create films for black audiences. Yet here he was – 20 years after apartheid...
- 4/14/2015
- by Gavin Haynes
- The Guardian - Film News
British-born star picked to play Nelson Mandela in biopic after casting agent says local actors lack stature for role
Morgan Freeman, Danny Glover, David Harewood, Dennis Haysbert, Terrence Howard, Clarke Peters, Sidney Poitier and now Idris Elba: all are actors who have been cast as Nelson Mandela – yet none is South African.
This is already a sore point for local performers, and now salt has been rubbed in the wound. Why do they never get the chance to play their national hero? Because they are too short, according to the country's top casting agent.
Mandela, a towering figure in every sense, is 6ft 4ins (1.93 metres) tall: actors in South Africa just don't measure up, says Moonyeenn Lee, who picked British-born Elba – star of The Wire and Luther – for a planned film adaptation of Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.
"I was free to cast a South African, and...
Morgan Freeman, Danny Glover, David Harewood, Dennis Haysbert, Terrence Howard, Clarke Peters, Sidney Poitier and now Idris Elba: all are actors who have been cast as Nelson Mandela – yet none is South African.
This is already a sore point for local performers, and now salt has been rubbed in the wound. Why do they never get the chance to play their national hero? Because they are too short, according to the country's top casting agent.
Mandela, a towering figure in every sense, is 6ft 4ins (1.93 metres) tall: actors in South Africa just don't measure up, says Moonyeenn Lee, who picked British-born Elba – star of The Wire and Luther – for a planned film adaptation of Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.
"I was free to cast a South African, and...
- 3/21/2012
- by David Harewood, David Smith
- The Guardian - Film News
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