A documentary about the transformation of Pretoria’s JG Strijdom Square is to be screened at a Canadian film festival
Thebe Mabanga and Connie Selebogo
A Pretoria-based black film-maker’s story about an apartheid-era icon is about to enjoy a world-wide audience.
Pule Diphare’s JG Strijdom is Very, Very Dead will be shown at Halifax Input 2000, a biennial public television festival to be held on May 12 in Halifax, Canada. It has also been nominated for the upcoming National Television and Video Association Avanti Awards for best documentary.
“In making this film, I sought to explore all aesthetics of film-making,” says Diphare of his critically acclaimed documentary. It chronicles the transition of JG Strijdom Square, a precinct in the heart of Pretoria next to the State Theatre.
The square is named after South Africa’s late-1950s prime minister and for a long time after its establishment, black communities were barred from it.
It has since become a makeshift market with a lively community, teeming with hawkers, pavement musicians and the new elite who have grown blas, and yet remain bitter, about the ideology that founded the square.
The imposing Strijdom bust at its centre has become an object of ridicule. “The manner in which I tell this story is subjective,” Diphare says unapologetically, explaining his decision to tell the story through a range of interesting characters.
Angel, an Afrikaner woman who uses her pension money to feed stray cats, reckons this bastion of Afrikaner nationalism has gone to the dogs. Bobo – an upwardly mobile, black hair-salon client – feels that being at the square is an integral part of her daily routine. The choice of characters that represent these divergent views makes an interesting contrast. The documentary exposes a streetmarket life with a boisterous ambience. It is held together by jagged editing and driven by an engaging narrative
Diphare’s decision to pursue film-making was thrust upon him by unfortunate circumstances. “Following an abrupt end to my legal studies – partly due to politics – at the University of the North, I was forced to cultivate my artistic talents to earn a living,” he says.
In 1986, he joined the African Cultural Centre in Johannesburg and was groomed under the tutelage of Wits University lecturer Bheki Peterson, among others. “In 1991, I had moved back home and I met Walter Chakela who gave me one of my early breaks.”
Diphare says a chance encounter with the respected arts administrator and practitioner led to him taking part in a cultural showcase where he was discovered by Bop TV.
After joining Bop as trainee producer, he rose through the broadcaster’s ranks to become a director, winning a Marang Award in his first year. Diphare has been part of numerous training programmes, the latest being last year’s Swiss/South African Documentary Film Workshop in Cape Town where JG Strijdom was commissioned on what Diphare considers a shoe-string budget of R70E000.
He has now been commissioned by the SABC – for R180E000 – to research, write and direct Dance of The Graves, which is scheduled for a late 2000 broadcast. Dance of The Graves examines inherent contradictions within black people’s value systems. It uses the widespread practice of turning funerals into trivial social gatherings to illustrate the paradox – hence the title.
This expressionist film-maker is passionate about tackling social issues on film. At Halifax, the world will attest to that.