Ethnic films for ethnic homelands: 'Black Films' and separate development in apartheid South Africa, 1972-1979

Abstract

introduction of a differential state subsidy for film production in African languages. This paper is a critical examination of some of the productions of this B-Scheme film subsidy. The'black films' analysed here are identified as those that fall in the 'back to the homeland' category. These films represent an urban/rural binary that reflects the apartheid government's preoccupation with spatial separateness, most notoriously in the policy of separate development in ethnic homelands or bantustans.