Documentary Description
Apartheid based on race is outlawed now, but the system always went
far deeper than that. The cruelty and injustice were underwritten by an
economic apartheid, which regarded people as no more than cheap
expendable labor. It was backed by great business corporations in South
Africa, Britain, the rest of Europe, and the United States. And it was
this apartheid based on money and profit to allow a small minority to
control most of the land, most of the industrial wealth, and most of
the economic power. Today, the same system is called – without a trace
of irony – the free market.
John Pilger was banned from South Africa for his reporting during
the apartheid era. On his return thirty years later with Alan Lowery,
he describes the extraordinary generosity of a liberated people, but
asks who are the true beneficiaries of a democracy – the black majority
or the white minority? Won the Gold Award in the category of ‘Film
& Video Production: Political/International Issues’,
Worldfest-Flagstaff, 1998; Certificate for Creative Excellence (third
place), U.S. International Film & Video Festival, Elmhurst,
Illinois, 1999.
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