Chromatic Existences

This film will take you to Johannesburg city centre, a sensitive neighbourhood where rampant urbanisation is at work and where the stigmata of apartheid are still visible.

Guy Tillim wanted to live here to better understand his country. The only white in his neighbourhood, he shares the precarious daily existence of his fellow citizens. Live together to understand each other.

Thandile Zwelibanzi has photographed the centre at night, when its street vendors invade the area to survive. He looks at those that no one sees.

This film will introduce you to two major figures of South African photography who reveal a hidden violence. 

David Goldblatt produced a series of large-format photographs of criminals. With them, he revisited crime scenes, He listened to them, caring about who they are, where they're from, what they think. What remains of the acts committed in these places?

Mikhael Subotzky questioned the violence of his country. He sought to photograph it; he photographed prison, hunting, the margins, but always some form of beauty would enter the frame. He then intervened artistically, physically on his photos, breaking the surface with a hammer, bringing the violence to the surface.

This film reveals an unknown face of Soweto. To photograph Soweto as "home" Jodi Bieber travelled 7000 km in three months. With her book Soweto in hand, she returns to the places where she captured her large portraits, and the memories surface.

 Far from the sensational images associated with this township, she watches intently for everyday life, for humanity; she defies fear.

This film highlights the invisibles of South Africa.

Zanele Muholi turned her lens towards her country's black lesbians and transsexuals. Often victims of crimes, the issue of their rights and their dignities is forced out of the social sphere. Zanele Muholi decided to make them visible, to make them exist.

Pieter Hugo wonders about his country, about what it means to be African. He was born in South Africa, he is white, and he asks similar citizens in the street whether they're African. Sometimes the answer is no. The after-effects of apartheid linger; he photographs them.