On VOD: PUNK IN AFRICA

Now on VOD: PUNK IN AFRICA

Keith Jones and Deon Maas’ overview of music and resistance in southern Africa debuted at Rotterdam last year. It went on to screen at the New York Film Festival, Warsaw, Austin, One World, Hot Springs, Rio, and Cork, among others. The film has been available on various VOD platforms since the Fall, but just came to Netflix this weekend via The Orchard.

Jones and Maas trace the seemingly unlikely emergence of the punk subculture out of the underground rock scene of 1970s South Africa, mobilized especially after the 1976 Soweto uprising into a distinctly political, militantly anti-apartheid, youth-focused movement. As the nation’s separatist system became more and more embattled, various bands profiled here demanded freedom from censorship, fought against racism, and challenged societal mores by including both black and white members in their lineups. Moving through the decades to the present, the filmmakers demonstrate how the punk sensibility changed over time, adapting to different musical genres and different concerns in the post-apartheid, new South Africa, while also exploring its more recent spread into other southern African nations like Zimbabwe which are facing their own political and societal challenges. Though featuring musicians and songs unknown outside of the region, Jones and Maas’ survey film is able to convey the universality of music to forge and galvanize communities, and in the process offers an intriguing look at a previously unexplored side of the fight against oppression in southern Africa.