Have You Seen Drum Recently? (1989)

Directed by

Jürgen Schadeberg

Genre

documentary film

Country

South Africa

Runtime

1h 17m

Rating

8.0 of 10 from 2 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary uses photographs from the Drum magazine archive to tell the story of South Africa in the 1950s. It shows the lives of black South Africans under apartheid through music, politics, and daily life.

informativenostalgicreflectiveearthyhopefuldignifiedsolemnobservational

What happens

Have You Seen Drum Recently? is a 1989 film which uses photographs from the Drum archives to tell the story of the magazine and documents its contribution to the cultural and political life of South Africa. In the 1950s, Drum focused on urban blacks living in a white-dominated apartheid world. It contained articles about the township jazz scene, crime, fiction and sport and documented the hopes, aspirations and despair of the urban, educated black sophisticate. Directed by Jürgen Schadeberg, the film includes such images as Oliver Tambo as a lawyer, Trevor Huddleston demonstrating against the demolition of Sophiatown, Nelson Mandela sparring in the boxing ring, Chief Luthuli the Nobel Prize winner and the singer Miriam Makeba. The background music is based on the music of the 1950s, including big band, jazz, swing, kwela and penny whistle. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Passé Komatipoort (2009)
• Born into Struggle (2004)
• Namibia 1989 (1989)
• The Heart of Whiteness (2005)
• A Dry White Season (1989)
• Voices of Sarafina! (1988)
• Last Grave at Dimbaza (1974)
• Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony (2002)