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Amandla! A revolution in Four part harmony (2003) | |||||||||
| Director: Lee Hirsch. Production Co. Kwela Productions , Bomb Films. Production Country: USA. Format: 35mm, DVD, VHS. 103 minutes. Color | |||||||||
| Distributor Descriptions: Amandla! tells the story of black South African freedom music and reveals the central role it played in the long battle against apartheid. The first film to consider the music that sustained and galvanized black South Africans for more than forty years, Amandla!'s focus is on the struggle's spiritual dimension, as articulated and embodied in song. Named for the Xhosa word for 'power' Amandla! lives up to its title, telling an uplifting story of courage, resolve, and triumph. | |||||||||
| Country: South Africa | |||||||||
| Languages: Narration English. Speech English, Xhosa, Zulu. | |||||||||
| Audience: Adult, Archival, Graduate, High School, Undergraduate | |||||||||
| Genre: documentary, feature | |||||||||
| Specific Subjects: apartheid/anti-apartheid, music, political, political movements | |||||||||
| Synopsis: Amandla! recounts the history of the anti-apartheid struggle from 1950-1990’s by examining different freedom songs. Particularly valuable for its interviews, archival footage, and filmed performances, the film shows that music was crucial not only in communicating a political message to protesters and opponents but also in strengthening the resistance itself. | |||||||||
| Inventory: Chapters on DVD: 1. Struggle and Music 2. Vuyisile Mini,Exhumation-When You Come Back 3. 1948 Good Neighborliness;Beware Verwoerd 4. From Sophiatown to Meadowsland 5. Apartheid is Schizophrenic-Nkosi Sikelei iAfrica 6. Origins of the Freedom Songs 7. The Train-Coal Train (Stimela) 8. Madame Please 9. The Sharpeville Massacre-Thina Sizwe 10. Free Mandela or Bombs-Bahleli Bonkwe 11. Dreaming in Exile 12. What have we done? Senzenina 13. 1976-The Soweto Uprising- Mannenburg 14. The MK Lihambile Hamba Kahle 15. Ingoma-The Songs 16. Sheila’s Day-Shonamalanga 17. Radio Freedom Uncover 18. Love Songs- Kuyobanjani Na? 19. Birth and Death in Prison 20. The 1980s: A Decade of Funerals 21. The Toyi-toyi 22. Barbeque with the Riot Police 23. The Tide Turns-Papa, Stop the War 24. Free Mandela-Bring Him Back Home 25. Freedom! 26. A Song for the Ancestors: The Untold Story 27. “He is Moses!” Mandela’s Dance 28. End Credits Summary by Minutes: 0-5 Music's role in the anti-apartheid struggle; footage from the 1998 exhumation of Vuyisile Mini, a famous liberation singer who was hung; "When You Come Back;" 5-10 Commentary on Vuyisile and his use of song to organize freedom fighters; video clips from 1948 of Verwoerd; Vuyisile's family sings "Watch Out Verwoerd" 10-15 Footage of demonstrations; Discussion of Sophiatown's destruction and forced relocations; clip from "Come Back, Africa;" Forced removals to Meadowland and the song it expired; Footage of removals; 15-20 "Music was a part of liberating ourselves;" The Peoples' Song-sung at beginning and end of liberation meetings; 20-25 Clips from a current radio show about liberation songs; Songs and spirituality; the train as a symbol of migrant labor and the songs it inspired; 25-30 Train song performed at a jazz festival; How one woman's gift of voice saved her from working as a domestic like her mother; 30-45 Clip from government propaganda film about pass books juxtaposed with documentary footage of pass book laws' oppressive reality; Pass law demonstrations; Nelson Mandela interview from the 1950's; Sharpeville Massacre; Songs about the Sharpeville Massacre and pass laws; 45-50 Nelson Mandela imprisoned for life in 1964; Government uses fear as a weapon against black townships; Singing certain songs in the streets could be punished by imprisonment; 50-55 Conversations about exile by people previously exiled; "Now what have you done?" the Soweto Uprising in the 1970's-began with protest over students being forced to learn in Afrikaans; Youth songs; Crystallizing the anti-apartheid movement in the 1970's; 55-60 the MK is formed, the militant branch of the ANC; the youth left South Africa to train at ANC bases in southern Africa; Songs reflected the more violent tones of the struggle, especially after the Soweto Uprising--"Putting an AK there, taking out a bible there" in the lyrics; 60-65 Soldiers sung at comrades' funerals instead of crying; Songs uplifted spirits; Songs about death and fighting; Ingoma, the song for struggle in Zulu: "The whites won't negotiate with us, so let's fight." Each phase of the struggle had its own songs; 65-70 Shonamalanga--"Sheila's Day"--a domestic worker song adapted to the conditions of the liberation struggle; Listening to "Radio Freedom," the illegal radio station in the townships; 70-75 Love songs could be struggle songs; A woman talks about her relationship despite being an information gatherer for the ANC--struggle didn't take up all of life, people still loved; 75-80 A woman talks about her detainment and torture at the police headquarters, while she was pregnant; Defiance through song in prison; A man talks about his imprisonment at the Pretoria Maximum Security Prison; 80-85 Interview with one of the prison wardens; Prison songs and preparing for death; Vuyisile Mini went to the gallows singing; Warden talks about prisoner executions; 85-90 State of Emergency in the 1980's and increased numbers of funerals; the 80's was the beginning of the peoples' war and a deepening militarization--the songs communicated a new direction and urgency; Toyi-Toyi, a combination of dance and song used at demonstrations; Toyi-toyi's military roots in Zimbabwe; 90-95 Using song as a weapon against the police; Footage of mass demonstrations; Riot police at a barbeque chat about their jobs during apartheid; 95-100 Nelson Mandela as a symbol for liberation in songs; "Free Mandela-Bring him back home;" FW de Klerk releases Mandela-footage of celebrations; Mandela for President! 100-105 Elections in 1994; ANC wins 64% of the vote and control of the government; Official reburial of Vuyisile Mini; pictures of various freedom fighters and ending shots of township life; Mandela does a freedom dance; | |||||||||
| Reviews: Click Here | |||||||||
Distributor Info:
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| Record updated: 2009-10-07 12:15:31 | |||||||||
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