IB: Rights and Protest, Apartheid

'In 1973, a ground-breaking film, Joe Bullet, was screened - for the very first time - at the Eyethu Cinema in Soweto. It was the first South African-produced film with a black action hero and an all-black cast.

Benjamin Cowley, the CEO of Gravel Road Productions, described the film as "unique" because "at the height of apartheid, no one was producing movies with all-black cast members for black audiences".'

'South African president Nelson Mandela has paid tribute to Joe Slovo - the man once known to supporters of apartheid as public enemy number one.

Slovo, former leader of the South African communist party, died Friday of cancer at the age of 68.

He was the first white member of the African National Congress's leadership and became a minister in South Africa's first multi-racial government.

His death was officially announced by Mandela, who says his close friend will be honoured with a national day of mourning and a state funeral.'

Anti-apartheid stalwart and icon, Walter Sisulu, died. Sisulu, who was a long time friend of the late former President Nelson Mandela died at the age of 90. He was a founder member of the ANC Youth League - formed in 1943.

'David Goldblatt was a white South African photographer. Ernest Cole was one of the country’s first black photojournalists. Each had access to places the other was denied – and together their work captures a divided land.'

First transmitted in 1968, Black, Coloured and Asian South Africans are interviewed in this eye-opening BBC documentary about their views on apartheid.

'Nelson Mandela appears in what is thought to be his first known television interview, most likely filmed in 1956 during the ‘Treason Trial’. Mandela, sporting a beard and wearing a suit and tie, stands before a plain wall in what is said to be the Old Synagogue in Pretoria and tells the interviewer that the African National Congress intends to fight against racial discrimination “until freedom is achieved”. Prior to the discovery of the clip it was thought Mandela had not been interviewed for television until 1962.'

'Until five years ago ...  the U.S. officially considered Mandela a terrorist. During the Cold War, both the State and Defense departments dubbed Mandela’s political party, the African National Congress, a terrorist group, and Mandela’s name remained on the U.S. terrorism watch list till 2008.'

This film from 1957 explores South Africa's apartheid policy, focusing on issues such as race relations, political practices, and segregated dwellings. The footage includes several interviews with black leaders.

Oliver Tambo

Biographical documentary: Nelson Mandela. 

'The last 5 minutes of Nelson Mandela's speech at his trial, 20th April 1964 in which he uttered the memorable line "It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."'

'Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Greg Marinovich reflects on a legend of our time.'

The story of Nelson Mandela and the other Rivonia Trialists, from the series "Have You Heard From Johannesburg."