Catalog Search Results
1) Catch a fire
Summary
The true story of a South African hero's journey to freedom. In the country's turbulent and divided times in the 1980s, Patrick Chamusso is an oil refinery foreman and soccer coach who is apolitical. That is, until he and his wife Precious are jailed. Patrick is stunned into action against the country's oppressive reigning system, even as police Colonel Nic Vos further insinuates himself into the Chamussos' lives.
2) District 9
Summary
Back in the 1980s, a giant spacecraft stalled in the skies over Johannesburg. 1.8 million of the aliens that were aboard were rescued, and placed in a refugee camp--District 9. Over the next 20 years, District 9 became a teeming shantytown like so many others in the developing world. Although there is evidence that the extraterrestrials represent an advanced civilization, their lives on Earth are marked by squalor, dysfunction, and xenophobic hostility....
3) Invictus
Summary
In 1994, having been released from his long imprisonment, Nelson Mandela is elected as the first president of post-apartheid South Africa. Racial tension runs high, even in the president's offices, and especially among the members of his half black, half Afrikaner security team. As hosts of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, South Africa's low ranked national team, the Springboks, have a berth in the tournament. Mandela begins making public appearances supporting...
5) Aces
Summary
Aces is the story of a young man who fights against the battering of his mother by his drunken father. The situation escalates until Ace desperately stabs his father to death, and is sent to jail for a period of 15 years. Nine years later he is out on parole. He kills again within a day's time of his release.
Summary
In New Brighton, South Africa, 63-year-old librarian Sipho Makhaya prepares for the return of the ashes of his brother Themba, recently deceased while in exile in London. Nothing but the truth is a gripping investigation into the complex dynamic between those blacks who remained in South Africa and risked their lives to lead the struggle against apartheid and those who returned victoriously after living in exile.
Summary
After young Kirra arrives in South Africa to summer with her grandfather, she discovers a baby orca stranded in a lagoon near a rundown amusement park. She names the lonely whale Willy and embarks on a quest to lead the little guy back to his anxious pod before he becomes a captive at the theme park.
Summary
The play, Sizwe Bansi is dead, follows the main character, Sizwe, as he writes to his wife after an unsuccessful search for a new job and better life for his family. This film places the viewer in the discussions between Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona as they attempt to explain and re-write the play. Director: Peter Davis.
11) Beast
Formats
Summary
Recently widowed Dr. Nate Daniels and his two teenage daughters travel to a South African game reserve managed by Martin Battles, an old family friend and wildlife biologist. However, what begins as a journey of healing soon turns into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of bloodthirsty poachers, begins stalking them.
12) Love on safari
Summary
After Kira inherits a wildlife reserve in South Africa, she travels there to meet the no-nonsense head ranger, Tom. When she learns the reserve is in financial jeopardy and she may have to sell it to her uncle's competitor, Tom urges her to save it by taking her on a safari in hopes that she will fall in love with the land, the animals, and hopefully him.
14) The homecoming
Summary
Homecoming is the first film to explore the rural roots of African American life. It chronicles the generations-old struggle of African Americans for land of their own which pitted them against both the Southern white power structure and the federal agencies responsible for helping them. Director Charlene Gilbert weaves this history together with a fond portrait of her own Georgia farming family into what she calls, "A story of land and love." Like...
