NFB Collection
Story of a Beautiful Country
20041 h 12 min 14 secFilm: Documentary
Direction: Khalo Matabane
Production: Don Edkins (Day Zero Film and Video)Claude Bonin (National Film Board of Canada)Éric Michel
Script: Khalo Matabane
A Day Zero Film & Video production in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada's International Co-Production Unit and the South African Broadcasting Corporation, with the assistance of the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa, and financial support from Jan Vrijman Fund, French Foreign Ministry-Production Fund and Sundance Institute.
Story of a Beautiful Country is the journey of Khalo Matabane, a young Black filmmaker in search of his "new country," the promised land - the new South Africa. Matabane, travelling with a hand-held camera throughout nine provinces, films entirely from the seat of a mini-bus taxi.
The taxi also serves as an open forum for ordinary people to talk about their feelings on such controversial issues as land, race, language, globalization, democracy, identity and violence in the new modern South Africa, which broke away from apartheid in 1994. This story follows the format of talk radio and takes on the look of an adventurous road movie.
Many realize that after hundreds of years of racial tensions, peace and tolerance will not come to this country overnight. Still the South African people are proud of their country and are willing to defend it.
Story of a Beautiful Country expresses the hopes and dreams of the youth - the next generation of people trying to find their way and their voice in the new South Africa.
Availability
Subject categories
- Developing Countries > AfricaEconomic and Industrial DevelopmentSocial Change
- Social Issues > Foreign Societies
Credits
- character
- Itumeleng Mahabane
- Kim Mulder
- Eddie von Maltitz
- Nothando Migogo
- Kutloano Masote
- Henry Mokoka
- Sinta Mokoka
- Maria M. Mathloga
- Mo Phala
- Nina Callaghan
- Yolisa Qunta
- writer
- Khalo Matabane
- director
- Khalo Matabane
- producer
- Don Edkins
- Claude Bonin
- executive producer
- Éric Michel
- Don Edkins
- editor
- Vuyani Sondlo
- camera
- Matthys Mocke
- sound
- President Kapa
- music composition
- Carlo Mombelli
- Markus Wyatt
- production manager
- Theresa Meyer
- production assistant
- Sphiwe Khazamula
- associate producer
- Khalo Matabane
- development consultant
- Johan Heyns
- online editor
- Greg Shaw
- title design
- Michael Fitzmaurice
- sound mix
- Stef Albertyn
- creative consultant
- Brian Tilley
- commissioning editor
- Pat Van Heerden
- head of programmes
- Siven Maslamoney
- consulting commissioning editor
- Iikka Vehkalahti
Awards
- Special Acknowledgement AwardBlack International Cinema I.U.S.B.
- Honorable Mention - Category: Social Issues International Film and Video Festival