Black Women in Post-Apartheid Films

This book investigates the intersection between race, class and gender in South Africa’s post-apartheid cinema.

The book argues that the colonial and apartheid era established a multiform, racist and sexist narrative in the film industry that persisted into the post-apartheid era, with films often struggling to render a nuanced and dynamic representation of Black women. The end of apartheid marked a crucial moment in the history of South Africa’s struggles against all forms of oppression, and it came with a notable shift in film production in the country. This in turn led to increased international recognition, with many films being nominated for prestigious major awards. Considering key films of the period, and drawing on cultural studies, Black feminism, standpoint theory and Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, this book argues that despite these advances, the inequalities and power relations that characterised both the colonial and apartheid eras continued to be reproduced and re-envisioned in post-apartheid South Africa’s movie industry, except for a few discontinuities in some of the films directed by women.

Encouraging readers to challenge assumptions about the post-apartheid era, this book will be an important read for researchers of South African media studies, cultural studies, communication studies, and film studies.