The Survival of Big-Screen Cinema in South Africa

Abstract

South African filmmakers who were marginalized from the film industry under apart-heid are today making feature films but primarily for the small screen. The few making theatrical films for cinema face massive systemic challenges to produce and get their films to market, in particular filmmakers of color and especially those on the margins of race, gender, and sexual orientation. By referring to developments in Nigeria and by analyzing historical and contemporary developments in the South Korean film industry, some practical propositions are presented in this paper in relation to content creation and the expansion of the big-screen cinema infrastructure to transform and grow South African cinema.