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Portrait of the all-singing, all-dancing revolution
By Jocelyn Newmarch
Posted Mon, 26 May 2003
This feature-length documentary has already been shown at several international festivals and was widely acclaimed, so I must admit I went into the showing with high expectations.
In retrospect, perhaps my expectations were a little too high...
Lee Hirsch's 'Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony' examines the history of the struggle through the popular music of the time. It's an ambitious and fascinating project, but the degree to which it succeeds or fails — as with any film — will largely depend on the response of the individual audience member.
If you're not very clued up on South African struggle history, chances are you'll find 'Amandla' an engrossing experience. If you are, you might well be disappointed by director Hirsch's high school textbook-style approach.
Fans of South African jazz will rush, as I did, to see the picture. Hirsch interviews luminaries such as Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba and Abdullah Ibrahim, among others, and his stack of interviews is probably the film's biggest selling point. Musicians talking about the music they love — it should have been a recipe for success.
But I couldn't help feeling that the film dwelt too much on struggle history and not enough on struggle songs, which I had assumed to be its primary subject matter. I wanted to know more about the songs, the instruments, the process of composition itself, which songs were people's favourites and why, what it felt like to perform them, what it felt like to not be allowed to perform them.
'Amandla' does talk about the songs, but always as a way of explaining the steps to revolution — steps which I knew already and didn't need the film to tell me about, in its prosaic and overly didactic approach.
For more information, visit the film's official website:http://www.amandla.com/home/index.php
What the international critics are saying:
"This celebratory film
is a testimony to the power of song and reveals that the inspiration of music provides fuel for the soul."
— Chris Gore, FILM THREAT
"It leaves you stirred and uplifted not only by its music but also by the determination and courage of the people who sang and danced it on the way to a freer life."
— Kenneth Turan, LOS ANGELES TIMES
"Whatever Amandla! lacks in cohesion is made up by the passion of those who lived through apartheid, and the power of their defiant, sad and joyous sounds."
— Jane Sumner, DALLAS MORNING NEWS
"Talking heads outnumber performing heads by a roughly 3-to-1 ratio."
— Lou Lumenick, NEW YORK POST
