Sophiatown

The story

Little Bird's first South African production, SOPHIATOWN has won the award for Best Documentary at the Cape Town World Cinema Festival 2003. SOPHIATOWN celebrates the great popular jazz music of the 1950's in South Africa; a rich tradition deserving international attention. Director Pascale Lamche, traces the music, uncovers the artists who created it and the unique culture in which it thrived, concentrated in Sophiatown, Johannesburg's own Harlem, which fuelled by liberation politics until its destruction by the Apartheid regime. The film features Nelson Mandela and such household names from the jazz world as Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Abdullah Ibrahim, Jonas Gwangwa and Caiphus Semenya.

Cast & crew

Jonas Gwangwa

Jonas GwangwaSelf

Abdullah IbrahimSelf

Nelson MandelaSelf

Hugh MasekelaSelf

Dorothy Masuka

Dorothy MasukaSelf

Jürgen Schadeberg

Jürgen SchadebergSelf

Dolly RathebeSelf