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With a vast native population, the South African censors are faced with unusual difficulties. Potemkin was prohibited by the Customs. The Blue Angel was banned, while Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was passed for exhibition to European adult audiences. Strange things happen, although it is difficult to know whether the censors or the professional cutters are to blame. An instance is provided by Pitz Palu. On seeing the film for the second time, a few days after the premiere, one was astounded to find that a most important sequence had been eliminated.
Local production is at present confined to news, public ity or navel shorts. Earlier productions included some of Rider Haggard's novels. Probably the only significant South African production was Die Voortrekkers, produced by Harold Shaw in collaboration with tl historian, Gustaf Preller, for African Film Productions. Based on historical events in the early pioneer days, Die Voortrekkers w; in some respects, a forerunner of The Covered Wagon. It differed in this respect, however, that only a few of those who took part we professionals. The cast included hundreds of natives from t kraals and mine compounds. Die Voortrekkers is unique in ith African film production, and is still being shown throughout the country on the occasion of certain national celebrations.
Sub-standard production of documentary or experimental fill is, as far as is known, non-existent. There are no societies for purely documentary or experimental work. Apparatus is expensh although the dealers seem to be doing well. One surmises that good deal of 16 m.m. stock is consumed every year for m< family movies, with perhaps many attempts at aping Hollywood. The only important production on record is Professor Comptoi 3 document, National Parks in America. There is a rich field for documentary work still unexplored. The farmers' co-operatives, labour settlements, the mines, even the conditions created by the extreme drought, from which a large area of the agricultural distric suffering at present, provide almost unlimited scope for documentary work.
While it may not be unusual to find Trenker's Doomed Battalion with only a half-filled house and, at the same time, crowds flocking round the corner to see Constance Bennett in Bought, and although the film critics may think Marion Gcring {Twenty-four Hours oi of the outstanding women directors, the cinema is progressing in South Africa.
The fact that the founders of the Cape Film Society include prominent artists and educationalists while the majority of tl members are people who have probably never been movie star worshippers, is not without significance.
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