Little Bird's first South African production, SOPHIATOWN has won the award for Best Documentary at the Cape Town World Cinema Festival 2003. SOPHIATOWN celebrates the great popular jazz music of the 1950's in South Africa; a rich tradition deserving international attention. Director Pascale Lamche, traces the music, uncovers the artists who created it and the unique culture in which it thrived, concentrated in Sophiatown, Johannesburg's own Harlem, which fuelled by liberation politics until its destruction by the Apartheid regime. The film features Nelson Mandela and such household names from the jazz world as Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Abdullah Ibrahim, Jonas Gwangwa and Caiphus Semenya.
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Cast
7 people
Jonas Gwangwa
Self
Abdullah Ibrahim
Self
Also in
Abdullah Ibrahim: A Brother with Perfect Timing
Nelson Mandela
Self
Also in
Malcolm X
Bill Moyers: Beyond Hate
Hugh Masekela
Self
Also in
Alekesam
Blue Notes and Exiled Voices
Dorothy Masuka
Self
Jürgen Schadeberg
Self
Dolly Rathebe
Self
Also in
Cry, the Beloved Country
Friends
Pascale Lamche Director · Catherine Meyburgh Editor
First release August 16, 2003 · Produced in United Kingdom, Ireland · Languages Afrikaans, English
Production
Little Bird
Production
United Kingdom · Ireland
Produced in
Languages
Original language
English
Spoken on screen
Afrikaans · English
Release dates
United Kingdom · August 16, 2003
Theatrical
No release date listed for United States.
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Some details come from TheTVDB.