Best South African documentary movies

After years of swimming every day in the freezing ocean at the tip of Africa, Craig Foster meets an unlikely teacher: a young octopus who displays remarkable curiosity. Visiting her den and tracking her movements for months on end he eventually wins the animal’s trust and they develop a never-before-seen bond between human and wild animal.

Rescued from poachers, an endangered baby pangolin embarks on a journey back to the wild with help from a devoted human guardian in this documentary.

South African producer / director JON DAY spent the last 5 years making a documentary about the mysterious rap-rave group, DIE ANTWOORD. Art directed by surrealist photographer, ROGER BALLEN. Narrated by NINJA & ¥O-LANDI'S daughter, 16 JONES.

Louis goes to South Africa where American tourists pay to hunt wild animals in privately owned reserves.

As the world races to lead the way in blockchain technology, could Africa have an advantage? This documentary follows the journey of Bitcoin pioneers as the continent seeks to leverage cryptocurrency to leapfrog standing world economic powers.

“Filmed in the remains of Soweto’s historic Sans Souci Cinema (1948-1998), YOLO is a makeshift structuralist mash-up created in collaboration with the Eat My Dust youth collective from the Kliptown district of Soweto, South Africa. Vibrating with mic checks and sine waves, resonating with an array of pre-roll sound—this is cause and effect shattered again and again, temporarily undone. O humanity, You Only Live Once!”—Ben Russell

Two halves split by the perseverance of a scorpion. Come on, feet.

TITANIC: THE SHOCKING TRUTH explores the conspiracy theory that the Titanic never sank to the bottom of the Atlantic/. Evidence is documented to support the theory that the Titanic and her sister ship, the Olympic were swapped and the weakened Olympic tragically sank. Were White Star Line and the British government responsible for possibly one of the greatest frauds and sea tragedies in living history?

Alatha's father calls himself a Mover. Using African dance moves, he helps kids in Khayelitsha township to transcend their hardship (drugs, poverty and abuse) and "find their superpowers." The Mover is also a single father. And while he has helped many kids, he still has difficulty getting his own daughter to find her own powers. But in a tender moment together, this is all about to change.

This film reveals some of Madagascar's secretive and rarely filmed inhabitants, from the apex predator, the fossa, to the aye aye – possibly the weirdest creature on earth.

Is it possible to look into the future? Does mind over matter really exist? What is true about psychic healing? Is remote viewing real? Where is the boundary between real magical powers and fraud? Find out what scientists have to say.

Coelacanth (SEEL-uh-kanth): a large fish with limblike fins, armored scales and a tail that no other living fish possesses. This prehistoric fish was thought to have died out with the dinosaurs in the great extinction. It has laid hidden deep in our oceans undisturbed and undetected for 70 million years—a true living fossil. The coelacanth is thought to be related to the creatures that grew legs, breathed air and came ashore nearly 400 million years ago.

The story of the people of the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains in Sudan, showing how they deal with civil war. Traditionally music has always been part of daily life in these areas, but now, it has a new role in a society challenge by war.

Roca Partida looks little more than a rocky outcrop inhabited by seabirds. But below the waterline, the steep mountainous walls are surrounded by the greatest concentrations of fish of any reef in the world.

For centuries, indigenous people have lived sustainably while resisting invaders on South Africa's Wild Coast. In this documentary about a David and Goliath court-case struggle against Shell, these communities succeeded in halting oil and gas exploration, winning ongoing protection for their ocean and culture.

The effects of cancer and its subsequent treatments on an individual, and his family.

As the largest living terrestrial mammals, elephants are usually considered as survivors under even the most dire climatic conditions. But all too often, these majestic giants are killed illegally for their ivory tusks. So, every dead full-grown elephant, whose carcass or skeleton is found with the tusks still in it, is a symbol of paradise – an elephant allowed to die of natural causes instead of bullets, snares or poison.

For twenty-three years, five western nations, members of the Soviet bloc and two superpowers were locked into a war never formally declared. It all began in 1966. Once the Draft started, every able-bodied white South African male was called up for service.

Enock is six years old when he is taken to a Confucian Buddhist orphanage and given the Chinese name Alu. He becomes extremely skilled in acrobatics. Suddenly he must make a choice to reunite with the culture of Africa or to sign up for five years in order to study in Taiwan.

In a household where meal times are a delightful feast full of bonding, fellowship and good eating, 3 members of this tight-knit family are diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus.

Hippos and crocs have lived side by side for millennia, but are they cozy bedfellows or arch-enemies? One is a hefty herbivore, the other is the most successful freshwater predator on the planet, so how do they manage to survive together in the same habitat? They each have a unique arsenal of attributes honed by centuries of evolution; muscle power, bite force and ferocious dentition give them the edge in their environment. But once a year, their peaceful semi-aquatic existence turns into a battle for survival.

The wastelands and crowded streets of an African country are traversed by a woman bearing a wooden cross on her back. She is followed by sellers, beggars and passersby, outraged voices, pity and curious glances. Parallel to her, among a herd of sheep, a lamb toddles its way from the far away mountains into the heart of the city, only to find itself dangling, skinned and headless, on a butcher’s shoulder. In the meantime, under the scorching sun, in a roofless house, a woman is persistently knitting a garment, unwinding a thread coiled over her son’s face. ‘Mother, I Am Suffocating. This is My Last Film About You’ is a symbolic social-political voyage of a society, spiralling between religion, identity and collective memory. “I saw in you what they saw, mother. You deserve your war”.

Chronicling the creative process, intimate collaborations and the fascinating characters behind Africa Express' EGOLI album, recorded in one week in Johannesburg South Africa in 2018 with BCUC, BLK JKS, Blue May, Damon Albarn, DJ Spoko, Dominowe, Faka, Georgia, Ghetts, Gruff Rhys, Infamous Boiz, Mr Jukes, The Mahotella Queens, Moonchild Sanelly, Morena Leraba, Muzi, Nick Zinner, Nonku Phiri, Otim Alpha, Phuzekhemisi, Poté, Remi Kabaka Jr, Sibot and Zolani Mahola.

Filmed over six years, Mother City follows the David versus Goliath battle as activists and domestic workers take on property power and politics in Cape Town – a city still disfigured by spatial apartheid 30 years into democracy. The story begins when the government sells a school, meant for affordable housing, to a private developer. Set against the backdrop of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, this intimate and at times funny narrative documentary charts Nkosikhona (Face) Swartbooi leading a defiant war against government and property developers – on the streets, in the supreme court and in parliament.

In this documentary, South African rapper Nasty C hits the stage and streets of Tokyo, introducing himself to the city's sights, sounds and culture.

Get up close and personal with a hippo who's the king of his territory: mighty leader by day, defender of his clan by night. After the sun goes down, the greatest threat to his hippo family is a ruthless pride of 12 lions. These magnificent animals share the same territory in the cool of the night, and it can become dangerous for this hippo clan to feed. Using thermal and infrared imaging, witness the age-old battle for survival and dominance play out between huge hippos and their predators.

Soccer player Senzo Meyiwa was a national hero before his killing shocked South Africa. Who did it, and why? This docuseries dives into the evidence.

The last time Hannetjie Stadler heard her daughter's voice was a voicemail as she called for help during a brutal murderous attack. In 2005 the popular tourist town of Knysna was shattered when two young women were murdered in a nightclub over a period of two months.

After an explosive and fortuitous encounter, a male hyena and a leopard join forces and create a peculiar hunting alliance.

A train, with locomotives and armoured cars at each end, passes over a temporary bridge erected over the Modder river; Seaforth Highlanders are riding in coal trucks and the train moves towards the camera.

Oedipus and Punishment (2005) is an adaptation of a pre-existent sketch in Aryan Kaganof's early masterpiece Ten Monologues from the Lives of the Serial Killers (1994), which the auteur made when he still went by his birth name 'Ian Kerkhof.' The film features a monologue from American serial killer Edmund Kemper who is noted for his imposing size and high intelligence, standing 6 ft 9 inches (2.06 m) and weighing over 300 pounds (140 kg), and having an IQ in the 140 range – attributes that left his victims with little chance to overcome him.

[DUPLICATE of the other 'Panoramic View of Frere Camp']

Filmed clandestinely, Zauberman’s extraordinary documentary exposes South Africa’s insidious apartheid policy of “race classification” by focusing on the love affair of Robert and Doris, and unresolvable, moral fissure with Robert’s children and the country. Winner of the Paris Film Festival Grand Prize.

"Acclaimed Cape Town filmmakers the Foster Brothers, in their groundbreaking documentary Sharkman, have something important to tell us about sharks. But the question is: will you be listening? You might be too busy watching in amazement as a four metre White Shark – weighing 1½ tons – cruises the big blue with a diver clutching her dorsal fin. Every spare synapse will be used up as the same diver gently wrestles a Tiger shark into catatonia, its oven-wide head and tooth-riddled jaw inches from his face. You will be too busy gawping as Caribbean Reef and Black Tip sharks cuddle in the lap of Gansbaai free diver Mike Rutzen, also known as South Africa's "shark whisperer"..." (excerpt from a press article by Steve Pike, about the film commissioned by Animal Planet and Discovery Channel to, acclaimed Cape Town filmmakers, the Foster Brothers).

Africa is a land of giants. Its powerful rivers sculpt the earth and form impressive valleys and waterways that are home to many imposing and powerful inhabitants. These are the rivers where massive elephants and hippos live, feed and drink, and where ancient crocodiles hunt and breed. They share the rivers with porcupines, the martial eagle, and the leopard.

The Passing of the Armoured Train - A large group of British soldiers are seen digging entrenchment's under the supervision of officers. A brief second shot shows an armoured train going past. The first film of British troops at the front taken during the war.

In a meditation on the meaning behind sports in a Post-Apartheid South Africa, three young girls muse on their hopes and dreams as aspiring Drum Majorettes.

The multi-generational story of women’s football in South Africa through the ambitious Mamelodi Sundowns FC. The film follows the team as they battle it out at the inaugural CAF Women’s Champions League in Cairo.

In the final days of the pro-apartheid government, bigoted policeman and assassin Andries Fourie is assigned an undercover job. His task is to pose as a political progressive to infiltrate the African National Congress and assassinate one of the party’s leaders.

Recovering from a severe illness (likely typhoid), W.K.L. Dickson received word from London that the audience's enthusiasm for the military was lessening. He sent back this celebration of the expanding empire in response, capturing the annexation ceremony of 28 May 1900. "Thanks to the Biograph, which faithfully recorded this magnificent scene," Dickson later wrote, "the people of the world who were not as fortunate as those present will see what it saw, and doubtless sing 'God Save The Queen'".

Filmed on Super 8mm, Scenes from a Transient Home presents a fractured portrait of life for Zimbabwean migrants when they travel back home to visit. Christmas dancing, New Years Eve celebrations, house floods, and illegal gold panning are just a few of the events filmed by Roger Horn who bookends the film with a major life event for his family.

Documentary which follows crocodile expert Brad Bestelink on a quest to dive with crocodiles without a cage or any other protection.

Footage from the Boer War.

Explore the tropical waters home to Whale Sharks.

The search for other life in the Universe begins in our imagination as we travel to undiscovered planets out in deep space.

The film follows Hjalmar and Simon, the director’s sons, on a journey of discovery through a foreign land. The family has moved to South Africa, not long after the end of the rigid white apartheid regime, which brutally oppressed the country’s black population.

In 1810, 20 year old Sara Baartman got on a boat from Cape Town to London, unaware that she would never see her home again, or that she would become the icon of racial inferiority and black female sexuality for the next 100 years. Four years later, she became the object of scientific research that formed the bedrock of European ideas about BFS. She died the next year, but even after her death, Sara remained an object of imperialist scientific investigation. In the name of Science, her sexual organs and brain were preserved and displayed in the Musee de l'Homme in Paris until as recently as 1985. Using historical drawings, cartoons, legal documents, and interviews with noted cultural historians and anthropologists, this documentary deconstructs the social, political, scientific, and philosophical assumptions that transformed one young woman into a representation of savage sexuality and racial inferiority.

"Sando to Samantha" is the true story of Sando Willemse, aka Samantha Fox, a black drag queen turned soldier in the South African Defence Force. Sando perfected the art of 'dikvel' - a real thick skinned queen who never let life's challenges get the better of him.

White South African farmers risk everything to start a new life in the Congo.

Thirst overcomes the hordes of Wildebeest and Zebra moving through Kenya's Masai Mara game reserve on their spectacular annual migration. With the cycle of the seasons comes the dry months, the water of the marsh receded. Now the residents of the marsh face a time of hardship, food will be scarce, until the next rains fall.

A documentary that follows two of Africa's greatest predators -- the cheetah, who is the fastest sprinter in the world, and the leopard, a master stalker. Both mothers are followed through the cycle of seasons as they raise their cubs and teach them to hunt and fend for themselves. The cubs watch and try to mimic their mothers. When they reach independence, they join in the hunt and the cycle of life begins again

Since the days of Apartheid, Main Reef Road has linked Johannesburg, its suburbs, and the outlying villages and gold mines of the region. Now the people of means flee the more remote reaches of the Road for the suburbs. Who remains along this once heavily travelled highway? Who slaves for the mining companies today? Filmmaker Nic Hofmeyr takes to the road to meet them. South Africa's history echoes in their stories, and in the very landscape.

Before South Africa’s apartheid government in the 1970’s destroyed District Six, being gay, or “moffie,” was an accepted part of this racially and religiously diverse community in Cape Town. Kewpie's hairdressing salon was the epicenter of this culture, a meeting place where the “girls” organized drag balls and cabaret performances, all of which are captured through her amazing collection of snapshots.

Rite of initiation of a Sangoma: medium, healer or sorcerer, which takes place in a neighborhood of Soweto.

Have You Seen Drum Recently? is a 1989 film which uses photographs from the Drum archives to tell the story of the magazine and documents its contribution to the cultural and political life of South Africa.

The Action Centre is Johannesburg’s only black theatre. The accent here is put on the collective work of the members of the Centre to create and to keep this very different kind of cultural centre going.

A BAFTA award nominated documentary featuring native African musicians and dancers.

The first film to ever show what life was in South-Africa under the Apartheid state. The film was released as an anonymous production under the aegis of the Pan Africanist Congress in 1970.

A documentary about democracy in South Africa.