Jacqueline Maingard coordinates research into South African cinema histories

APC Honorary Research Fellow Jacqueline Maingard, reader in Film at the University of Bristol (UoB), organised a research meeting with a small group of film and history colleagues at UCT in July in association with APC. 

Funded by University of Bristol’s Vice Chancellor’s International Strategic Fund, the purpose of the meeting was to discuss mutual research interests that intersect in and through the histories and politics of cinema’s globalisation in South Africa, particularly in relation to black audiences. 

Carolyn Hamilton, APC director, framed the discussion in the light of the initiative's specific interests in archive and public culture, and in supporting collaborations between research fellows. The group decided that it would be valuable to have further collaborative discussions, with a wider remit focusing on Southern African cinema histories, where colleagues could produce short papers in order to build a cohesive framework towards an international funding bid. 

Ongoing problems of access to crucial film and related archives were raised, while the valuable resources of UCT’s Special Collections were highlighted. Maingard subsequently met with a representative of UCT’s Research Office, who identified funding opportunities primarily through the NRF, for further collaborative meetings, which could bring a wider grouping of colleagues together in the future. 

Maingard’s visit to South Africa also included her participation in the Durban International Film Festival’s (DIFF) panel on “Lost Classics”, celebrating the launch of the book Africa’s Lost Classics: New Histories of African Cinema (2014), edited by Lizelle Bisschoff and David Murphy, to which she contributed a chapter entitled “'Lost Classics' in Context: Film Production in South Africa 1920–1960”.

Maingard introduced screenings of the recently restored and powerful 1950s classic, Come Back, Africa (1959), filmed in Sophiatown and Johannesburg, and the highly acclaimed political thriller Mapantsula (1988), filmed in Soweto and Johannesburg during the State of Emergency in the late 1980s, both of which were included in the festival’s “Lost African Classics” strand.

She also participated in the People To People International Documentary Conference hosted at DIFF, giving a presentation on histories of anti-apartheid documentary film in the 1980s and early 1990s on the panel “The Art of Persuasion”, which discussed the role of documentary in championing a cause. 

Maingard further contributed to the “Human Rights Cinema Now!” event convened by APC Honorary Research Fellow, Emma Sandon, with input on Mark Kaplan’s politically committed and personally motivated documentary, Between Joyce and Remembrance (2003). The film documents Gideon Niewoudt’s unsuccessful attempt to extract forgiveness from the parents of Siphiwo Mtimkulu, whom he assassinated in the early 1990s. 

Together with the People To People conference, the festival’s focus on “Lost African Classics” provided important forums for re-visiting landmark historical films, reflecting on their significance both in past contexts and for the present.