Images of Apartheid: Filmmaking on the Fringe in the Old South Africa

Images of Apartheid: Filmmaking on the Fringe in the Old South Africa is an exploration of the low budget, black-action cinema that emerged in South Africa during the 1970s and led to subsequent gangster and race-conflict films that defined an era of prolific genre activity, from Joe Bullet (1973) to American Ninja 4 (1990). Contextualising and documenting the cheap, government-funded ’B-Scheme’ films, largely unseen since the fall of the National Party, but also acknowledging the impact of international co-productions such as The Wild Geese (1978) and locally made provocation, including the classic Mapantsula (1988), this study is an exhaustive tour of race-representation and state-subsidised subversion. Also discussing the political turbulence of the era, Images of Apartheid argues that so-called ’ZAxploitation’ should be considered within both localised and wider international paracinematic networks of genre adaptation, resulting in the identification of a uniquely South African form of trash and treasure, and schlock and awe.

Calum Waddell gained his PhD at the University of Aberdeen. His published works include Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, and RoboCop: The Definitive History and Cannibal Holocaust. He has also written extensively for newsstand publications that include SFX, Sci-Fi Now, Total Film and Dazed. His work as a documentary director include 42nd Street Memories and Slice and Dice: The Slasher Film Forever.