Still from The South African Experience: Six Days in Soweto (1977)
Introduction
The Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre is delighted to share two remarkable documentaries by the award-winning filmmaker and author Antony Thomas.
Made in 1977, these films offer rare and powerful insights into life under apartheid in South Africa at a moment when the country’s system of racial oppression was facing increasing resistance both within South Africa and around the world.
For more than fifty years, Antony Thomas has been recognised as one of Britain’s most acclaimed documentary filmmakers. His work has explored some of the most challenging political, social and human stories of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Yet his engagement with South Africa began much earlier and shaped the course of his entire career.
As a young filmmaker in South Africa, Thomas was commissioned to make a documentary for the apartheid government. Only later did he come to understand how the film could be used to obscure the realities experienced by Black South Africans. Deeply troubled by the experience, he reflected on it as a defining moment in his life and career.
The two films presented here reflect that commitment. Rather than speaking about South Africans, they create space for South Africans to speak for themselves, documenting lives, experiences and struggles that apartheid sought to suppress.
About Antony Thomas
Born in Calcutta in 1940 and raised in South Africa, Antony Thomas moved to Britain in 1967 and went on to become one of the world’s most respected documentary filmmakers.
Across a career spanning five decades, he produced and directed more than forty documentaries and dramas, tackling subjects ranging from apartheid and political conflict to religion, human rights and social justice. His films have been broadcast internationally and have received numerous honours, including BAFTA, Peabody and Grierson awards.
Among his most celebrated works are Death of a Princess (1980), The Tank Man (2006), For Neda (2010) and Secrets of the Vatican (2014). Throughout his career, Thomas demonstrated a commitment to investigating difficult subjects with rigour, humanity and moral courage.
He retired from filmmaking in 2016, and his powerful work continues to be watched, discussed and to inform audiences around the world.
Image: Peabody Awards – Peabodys_CM_0517, CC BY 2.0
Learning Through Film
We are enormously grateful to Antony Thomas for generously allowing the Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre to make these films available as part of our educational programme.
These documentaries provide valuable opportunities for students, teachers, researchers and community groups to engage directly with historical sources from the apartheid era. They offer a powerful starting point for discussions about racism, state power, resistance, solidarity, human rights and the role of media in shaping public understanding.
The films are intended to be viewed within an educational context and are accompanied by supporting information to help viewers understand the historical circumstances in which they were made.
Please refer to the content guidance and educational use information available on each film page.
Accessing the Films
The films are available to schools, colleges, universities and other educational organisations.
To request access, please email:
info@antiapartheidlegacy.org.uk
Please include:
- Your name
- Institution or organisation and position
- Intended scope of educational use and audience
Access details and passwords will be provided following review.
Requests from independent researchers, individual students and home-education groups will also be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Note that the film format available through the website is low-res only, suitable for screening in classroom settings.
For larger scale screenings, these can be arranged by the Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre in your educational space. Please contact us for more information about how to go about arranging this.
Available Films
The South African Experience: Six Days in Soweto (1977)
A powerful documentary filmed in the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, capturing the voices, experiences and daily realities of Black South Africans living under apartheid and particularly in the wake of the events of 1976.
The film runs for 53 mins 13 seconds
In Search of Sandra Laing (1977)
An extraordinary documentary exploring the life of Sandra Laing, whose classification under apartheid’s racial laws exposed the absurdity and cruelty of the regime’s system of racial categorisation.
Coming Soon!
The film runs for 53 mins 28 seconds
