Black Film Center/Archive

The Peter Davis Collection constitutes over thirty years of activities by Peter Davis as a producer, director, scriptwriter, cameraman and editor of documentary films on social and political issues. Davis' films include interviews with many South African activists, as well as revolutionaries world wide.

Peter Davis has produced over 30 full length documentary films and has contributed to the production of many others. Davis began making films in South Africa twenty years ago and became deeply involved in the anti-apartheid movement. The South African material in the Peter Davis Collection not only spans the period of the most intensive struggle for human rights in that country, but also includes historical work dating from the beginning of the century. Although the emphasis of the Black Film Center/Archive is on Black American cinematic research, the comparative nature of African and American films is one of critical importance.

Peter Davis' films include:

• South Africa: the White Laager, a history of Afrikaner nationalism.
• Generations of Resistance, documenting the long history of African rebellion against white rule up to the student uprising of 1976. ENGLISH AND FRENCH (Des Generations de Resistants).
• Winnie Mandela.
• Remember Mandela, which was shown on the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta in 1988.
• In Darkest Hollywood, which looks at the depiction of South Africa in fiction films during the apartheid period.
• Anatomy of Violence, which was made in conjunction with Stokely Carmichael and Allen Ginsburg.
• Side by Side: Women and AIDS in Zimbabwe, a documentary which examines the crucial roles that Zimbabwean women are playing in the effort to increase public awareness about AIDS.
• Counterpoint: the U-2 Story (note: printed out of alignment).
• Winnie et Nelson Mandela. French short version, 28 minutes.

Stills, photographs, documents and film footage connected with the production of Davis' films are housed in the Black Film Center/Archive (BFC/A) at Smith Research Center. The documents range from scraps of papers with notes to letters to complete scripts. These documents trace the activities of this producer from the inception of a film idea to the birth of the finished product.

Except for a few instances all documents have been kept in the same order as designated by Davis. Descriptions of films may be obtained from BFC/A. All original newspaper and journal articles have been retained in the collection, except for those clipped from The New York Times.

Review

A half century after the establishment of apartheid in South Africa, Villon Films is reissuing four award-winning anti-apartheid documentaries: White Laager, Generations of Resistance, Winnie Mandela, and Remember Mandela!

These documentaries constitute a record of the timesthe issues, the people, the passions, the conflict. They were important tools in the struggle against apartheid, and were shown worldwideand clandestinely in South Africa itselfduring the apartheid period. Offered as a package of four videos for $550. Single titles, $165.

In South Africa there has been film industry almost as long as there has been one in Hollywood. But it was an industry by, for, and about white. Blacks were depicted only as servants and laborers, or as savage enemies.

This changed in 1949 with African Jim, the first film made in South Africa to place Africans center frame. Zonk! and Song of Africa which followed made ample use of black entertainersmusicians and singers who, apart from their own rich tradition, copied the African American jazz musicians they admired so deeply.

But the 50s were the first decade of apartheid, and apartheid put an end to such films. In 1959 came Come Back, Africa, a hard-hitting docudrama made by the American maverick director Lionel Rogosin. Shot illicitly, it was a searing indictment of racism, told for the first time by those who suffered from it. It shocked the world, and was one of the most powerful anti-apartheid films made. Offered as a package of four for $700. Single titles, $200.

A documentary on the lives and 50-year-long career of South Africa's Queen of Jazz Dolly Ratheby, and the singing group The African Inkspots. Price: $175.

To order, contact Peter Davis:

Villon Films
4040 Ontario St.
Vancouver, BC
CANADA
V5V 3G5

Date of Deposit
February 1993