Draft:African Film Productions

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African Film Productions (AFP) was a South African film production company established by I.W. Schlesinger in 1913. AFP started by producing weekly newsreels titled African Mirror, featuring African countries such as Tanzania and interviews with notable individuals, which were distributed for South African consumption until 1984.[1][2] Schlesinger imported Joseph Albrecht from Britain to manage the African Mirror.[3] In 1915, the Killarney Film Studios produced South Africa's first animated film, Artist's Dream, followed by five more animated short films.[4]

During the First World War, the scarcity of international films gave AFP an advantage and boosted its growth. AFP produced 43 films between 1916 and 1922, mostly aimed at the white market, featuring cooperation between Boer and Briton as a common theme.[5][6] After apartheid began in 1948, some films reflected the theme of whites standing together against black Africans. In addition to feature films, AFP produced documentaries for the state and industrial safety films. During the 1920s to 1940s, the distribution of AFP films to the black African market was facilitated by missionaries such as Reverend Ray Phillips, who used the medium to impart Western morals to black Africans.[7]

AFP made history by producing the first sound advertisement films in South Africa for Joko Tea and Pegasus products in 1930. AFP also produced the first films to encourage internal tourism in serial magazine form entitled Our Land. A special effects department was set up at Killarney in the 1940s. With the rise of Afrikaner nationalism, AFP produced many popular light-hearted Afrikaans films, such as Kom Saam Vanaand.[8]

20th Century Fox bought AFP in 1959, but the Schlesinger family took back AFP due to non-payment after the failure of the movie Cleopatra in 1963. In 1967, Fox produced two films in South Africa directed by Robert D. Webb with cinematography by David Millin, which were remakes of Fox films. The company made Majuba about the First Boer War in 1968.

In 1969, the Sanlam Corporation bought AFP from the Schlesingers, and the studio was later resold and renamed South African Screen Productions. The studio was moved to Balfour Park.[9]

Films[edit]

  • Zonk! (1950)

References[edit]

  1. ^ Abel, Richard, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of early cinema. Abingdon, Oxon, OX ; New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-23440-5.
  2. ^ Bickford-Smith, Vivian (2016). The emergence of the South African metropolis: cities and identities in the twentieth century. Cambridge New York: Cambridge University press. ISBN 978-1-107-00293-7.
  3. ^ Gutsche, Thelma (1972). The History and Social Significance of Motion Pictures in South Africa: 1895-1940 (Ed. limited No. 424 ed.). Cape: Timmins. ISBN 978-0-86978-004-6.
  4. ^ Wright, Jean Ann (2005). Animation writing and development: from script development to pitch. Focal Press Visual Effects & Animation. Amsterdam: Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-240-80549-8.
  5. ^ Tomaselli, Keyan G. (1988). The cinema of apartheid: race and class in South African film. New York: Smyrna/Lake View Press. ISBN 978-0-918266-19-4.
  6. ^ Botha, Martin (2012). South African Cinema: 1896 - 2010. Bristol: Intellect. ISBN 978-1-84150-458-2.
  7. ^ Balseiro, Isabel; Masilela, Ntongela, eds. (2003). To change reels: film and culture in South Africa. Contemporary film and television series. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8143-3000-5.
  8. ^ Maingard, Jacqueline (2008). South African national cinema. National cinemas (Repr ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-21679-1.
  9. ^ Ukadike, Nwachukwu Frank, ed. (2014). Critical approaches to African cinema discourse. Lanham: Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-7391-8093-8.
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