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Movie: Amandla!
A Revolution in Four Part Harmony
Starring: A Multitude of South African Musicians
Written and Directed by Lee Hirsh (Artisan Entertainment)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
Amandla is a chronicle of the music behind the 40 year struggle against apartheid in South Africa. It begins with footage of the exhumation of Vuyisle Mini's bones, a famous musician and poet who was hanged in the early 60s for making songs about the injustice of apartheid. He didn't even get the dignity of a pine box. Harsh doesn't begin to describe how repressive apartheid really was but you get a clear idea of how bad those four decades were from scenes like this.
Native South Africans had no proper schools, so for this fight the illiterate masses rallied themselves with music. The artists among them, working in the rich tradition of Zulu chants and more modern forms, wrote songs about the pass laws, songs about the trains taking them to work in the rich white areas and songs about imprisoned heroes like Nelson Mandela. In the 80s there was also a dance, the toyi-toyi, a sort of pogoing with a high knee kick that scared whites to death when a whole crowd did it.
Amandla tells the entire story in gripping newsreel footage, in interviews with participants from both sides, tours of abandoned prisons, and of course in stirring music. Strangely, Amandla's director, Lee Hirsh, is not South African. In fact he is an American Jew who got interested in South Africa's music and its struggle while he was at school in Vermont in the late 80s. Later he went to South Africa and shot music videos for artists there. Eventually he began Amandla which was shot on a budget of only $500,000. South African Dave Matthews helped release the soundtrack.
Cinematically, what's unusual about Hirsh's film is that it doesn't use a central narrator; the people tell the story themselves. Therein lies its power. It's priceless as a first hand account of an oppressed people finding their way to freedom. Amandla will always be important because it's one of the few places that their story has been recorded for posterity. And probably the only source that documents the music they made.
Music is the key and Amandla is built on performances by many singing activists. Sometimes it is onstage, sometimes it's in the streets, sometimes it's older people relaxing on their doorsteps. Apparently no footage of Vuyisile Mini performing exists but we get words and song from Dolly Rathebe, Sophie Mgcina, The SABC Choir, Sifiso Ntluli, Hugh Maskaela, Miriam Makeba and dozens of others. There's also wonderful studio footage of songs performed by Sibbongile Khumahlo and Vusi Mahlaseha.
Now if we could only solve some of our other struggles with song!
The Skinny:
Am I glad I saw the film? Yes, it's a worthy testament to their struggle.
Would I go to see it again? It's not only good on music it's a good primer for activism too.
© 2003 - Rusty Pipes