PHELA-NDABA -
END OF DIALOGUE
Apartheid in South Africa – 1970. |
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South Africa has a population of three million whites; fifteen
million blacks, one million coloured and half a million Asiatics.
Blacks have no vote. There are no blacks In parliament and no blacks in the
armed forces.
South Africa mines more then fifty minerals and is the world's largest
producer of diamonds, chrome, platinum and antimony. South Africa produces
over-seventy-three
per cent of the gold supply of the so-called free world. The black miner
digs gold In the Transvaal for £5 a month.
Fifty per cent of the black children born in South Africa die before the age
of five. The average life expectancy for blacks is thirty-four years.
The government spends on education £73 on every white child per year – and £7
on every black child per year.
Park benches are for whites only. No blacks are allowed inside the parks.
A black servant’s wage is £4 per month. 87 per cent of South
African land area is reserved for whites.
Over ten thousand political prisoners are now in prison. Many have died while
under police interrogation. Scores have already been hanged.
These are just some of the facts in this film which shows
the day today face of Apartheid from the point of view of the victimsthe South
African blacks. The makers have deliberately avoided a sensational presentation.
Their approach is low-key and relies for effect on the stark presentation of
facts. They have tried to show that in addition to the brutalities that are
recorded in the press from time to time-the violence which the blacks have
had to come to terms with for decades past-there is another form of violence
- more prevalent, more corrosive, more insidious-with which the blacks have
to contend, and that is the violence which Apartheid inflicts on the minds
of its victims: The mental violence where the victim is forced to participate
in, his own torture in the form of daily harassment, total insecurity, complete
denial of human dignity.
The film material was shot mostly by five young black South
African members of the PAN AFRICANIST CONGRESS and was smuggled out of South
Africa. A group of South African exiles, who formed a charitable trust, MORENA
FILMS, helped to edit the film and have produced a 45 minute documentary.
In order to make this film, the people in South Africa risked
both life and liberty. Under the laws of South Africa they and everyone who
assisted them in the making and smuggling of the film could have been arrested
and charged under the 'Sabotage' or 'Terrorism' Act.
In these days when dark prophecies are made about the hopelesness of the South
African situation, a few young people have arisen 'above' the prevailing mood
of despair and have shown that it is still possible-to struggle meaningfully
in South Africa.
End of the Dialogue is now distributed by First
Run Icarus Films,
at 32 Court Street, 21st floor, Brooklyn NY 11201 (718-488-8900)
www.frif.com/new2003/log.html
