With TSOTSI, Gavin Hood has taken the liberty of updating the timeframe of South African writer Athol Fugard’s only novel. In doing so, the politics of apartheid that spurred the story in the book has given way to the tragedy of AIDS. Changing the circumstances of its title character’s orphaning, though, doesn’t affect the nature of… Read More »
Gavin Hood Tells the Story of TSOTSI
Gavin Hood felt that there was more than just an Oscar ™ riding on the success of TSOTSI, based on the novel by Athol Fugard and South Africa’s official entry for the 2005 Best Foreign Film Academy Award ™. It’s one of the many things we talked about when I interviewed him on February 10, 2006. … Read More »
Connie Field Asks HAVE YOU HEARD FROM JOHANNESBURG? APARTHEID AND THE CLUB OF THE WEST
Connie Field started from scratch in putting together her six-part documentary, HAVE YOU HEARD FROM JOHANNESBURG. Undaunted, she set about assembling an archive of first-person narratives about apartheid at home and abroad in South Africa. When we spoke on October 30, 2007, she discussed how the 2000+ hours of interviews and footage would be made available to scholars,… Read More »