that I will try to identify.

analysis of the S.A. film industry rests on two observations - that it is

.r~ues that the fault is to be corrected by altering the formula the state uses

the questions raised in the study are enormously complex. involving
between art, economy, ideology and the state - theoretical problems
Tomaselli's account of all this is

On Reading "The S.A. Film Industry"
• II. Il~rvey
'~,~plll's
11~~r.(lallynot self sustaining and that the films it produces are not artistic.
~
,,,~'anting aid to local productions.
I believe that the analysis and proposals
tcnlain critical misunderstandings,
l~~ubtedly
~lationshlps
crucial in a discussion of film production.
I hope
~dled
that his pUblication may stimulate criticism and discussion of cinema,
~'~rtheless
South African and other, in a more rigorous mode than the connoisseurism of the film
\O<lety movement.
'olitical Economy of Film Production
l~ root ambivalence in Tomaselli's book can be inferred from these two sentences:
(The film industry) should not have to rely on tenuous lifelines like
subsidy systems and state hand-outs. (p.114)
Society cannot rely on the free market to create cultural and social
services to serve the needs of the nation. (p.120)

because his concepts are simply not adequate for so complex a task.

There's a fascinating drift of tendency from the one position to the other.
On the
one hand Tomaselli proposes financial independence as a defence against state control;
on the other hand, he looks for a defence against the 'bad art' of commercial enter-
prise, in some form of social control.
It is an engaging paradox, and gives rise to
all sorts of approaches:
but at the bottom the problem is wholly factitious, based
on superficial notions of capital and society:
disservice too, for it tends to obscure real social operations that must be analysed
accurately if one is ever to be in a position to develop an alternative film culture
In this country.
economic framework derives from the neo-classical, free-enterprise model:
T~se1li's

Putting the case like this does a

'" film is basically a commercial product.
As with other goods a film is
produced and consumed, it earns an income, makes a profit or a loss and is
subject to market trends and potentials. (p.8)
this is a disastrous model for anyone seeking to provide an analysis of cultural

~
action, because its fundamental implication is that economic structure and culture
~cupy
different places, so that, while at certain moments they may meet, agree,
Even on the level of economics
conflict or whatever, they are not of the same cloth.
tt is thoroughly misleading to conceptualise the ideal of commodity production in
conditions of free-enterprise.
No part of any economy is without extensive structur-
.lion and management.
Rails, road-grids, dams, power supplies, health, agriculture
- these are not accidentally determined, nor are they the product of benign evolution.
taken together the infrastructure reveals a particular conformation, shaped and
~fended
Perhaps most particularly when model-building, one
should make an effort not to isolate economics, but to see, in its stead, political
tconomy.

by powerful interests.

BOOK REVIEW

57

To say of a film that it is "basically a

part.

a mutant of the films of the New Wave. Italian neo-Realism

for instance. by the artist to use as "a tool for the investigation of

A notable feature of the model I have criticized is that it tends to present products
as being, so to speak. ideology-free.
cOlTvnercialproduct" is to separate it conceptually from the social formation in which
it is conceived and where it will playa
It also insulates it from the details
of the relations of production in which it is. of course, grounded.
The consequence
is a specific problematic, a certain way of thinking about films. that in Tomaselli's
work can be identified in three prominent instances:
He is inclined to treat the 'product' film as if it could be commandeered by special
interests:
rea1ity".
Secondly. he does not feel obliged to examine in detail the social formation from
which film emerges.
And thirdly. he develops the idle dream of the sort of film he would like to see
produced in South Africa:
or Third World Cinema.
The South African commercial film emerging from the South African film industry. is t~
product of long established industrial structures; and this means that it is the
product of defined social relations.
Long before it becomes what Tomaselli calls a
'commercial product'. the social character of a mrvie has already been substantially
determined. and it is responsive to special agenc). for instance the state. or the
artist, only within very narrow margins.
industry for its products to be the work of isolated forces.
Products embody social relations.
However they may appear as commodities. neutral.
purely themselves, the fact they
have come into being at all. proves that they are
not so. Again, while it may be convenient to regard them as objects while they are
being traded, their identity. their presence. cannot be understood except in relation
to the social forces. and the relations of production. in which they are embedd~d.
~hese facts should be particularly obvious in the case of film. which. being a prime
1d~01ogical medium. puts more at stake, so that the struggle for control is by that
much the more especially marked.
actors, exhibitors all have objectives that they strive to realise in the production
O! films.
This mass of conflicting and corresponding purposes forms, by overlap. a
s1eve. through which movies ~ust be shaped to go.
The industry anticipates the
~ro~uct.
We are therefore looking at a multiform. heterogenous production, in which
1t 1S not typically direct intervention that dictates the character of the event,
the Object. but rather a struggle. or mutual accommodation among interests._ One
f~ctor will be the state, using the subsidy to nudge in a certain direction; another
w11l be the malign threat of censorship; a third•.the energetic work of the director;
a fourth. the calculations of distributors and the effects of their advertising
campaigns.
It is with all this in mind that we should assess the strategy of the state.
The
state has no interest in 'art' - it does not understand the term, except as one of
the obsessions of people it is sometimes able to manipulate.
One should. perhaps,
pose the question thus: since the state has means of direct intervention in media
prOduction. why has it ever interested itself in the other commercial film industry,
where its role is inevitably modified by the forces I have described?
One of the
interesting revelations of the Information Affair, was the evfdent need the state
felt to short circuit the social process, and possess itself of media industries.
It is precisely the myth of the neutrality of film, that
without seeming to do so.
We must firmly. therefore, reject
1S most useful to part1san forces like the state.
any suggestion that the state
may have the benevolent intention to support an 'art'
form - a cultural worthy cause - and that its subsidy might be directed to ends that
are. by their nature, irrelevant to. or even distasteful to, the state.
The state
uses direct means. like SATV; it uses repreSSive means. like censorship; and it uses
the disguised route of influence wfthin the film production industry. where it is
obliged to rub shoulders with its cronies. capital, and its servants, white
directors and film technicians.

It is ~t characteristic of the movie

Finance. the state. producers. directors. technicians

58

that the area of agreement far exceeds the area of difference.

innocent, never undirected.

~'l

Taking a retro~

of which Grensbasis 13 is exemplary.

But no doubt the pay-off is to be seen in
It is a film

~'.1.11 this produces a certain ideological product.
It is not at all easy to
" ....eterise this, or to elaborate the modes of narrative, the themes, the styles
Tf .ctlng, the vocabulary, all of which contribute to a useful ideological effect
to ~'uth African produced films.
They do not all work the same way; but I would
~.jt
: ~Jve the impression that until recently the usefulness of locally produced films
••~ been rather limited for the state; perhaps confined to the conservative role of
~'~\enting the absence of a problem.
l •• rent 'terror~vies,
....ellously suited to the work of adaptlng whTte South Africans to conditions of
!ct.! war.
In characterization and style of narrative it is conventional: but its
'~tents are revolutionary.
The screen is astonishingly flooded from time to time
.Ith guerilla forces, between whom and the whites there is no longer the appearance
~f ~aternal relations, of patronising contempt, but instead a steady, simple
'~la9nition of fractured relations and contradictory interests.
'=~etive glance from the vantage of this film, one can see that the subsidy has never
This is to see, at the same time, how mediated the
II'fetion has been, how the state has relied on a consonance of interests between
Itself and other parties, capital, the public, authors and directors.
To ignore
'~11 nediated connection between state assistance, and the quality and kind Df
emerging from the subsidised industry, is to miss the crucial link in the
('~\tdl/state/ideology chain ..
~.ft's
"~ "'y Tomaselli habitually fonnulates the siutation implies a passivity in movie
: ..: ~.;':t ion:
~'"th African cinema has become entrenched in colonial values which refle~t
~lnant
r'<:;blems.
~'.rt is a misunderstanding here of the reciprocal movement between ideology, which
" • faMm. and its material instances - in this case cinema.
'tltched together, composed by productions such as cinema.
~
" precisely an articulation of these things; it is an arrangement, the point of
What
,.~ cinema says, or what it leaves unsaid, are inescapably traces of ideology.
~t(~
~nro\er,
what is referred to as the 'dominant' ideology, is not a conveniently
....-rated group of ideas. but consists in an overall organising of all ideas; a
'!r~turation
a (c~~equence is that one must beware of the illusion that some movies can easily
~ '~tn to reflect the dominant ideology. while others avoid doing so.
Dominant
'~logy
~~.r.nce
~.:. h the complex field referred to by the term 'ideology'; a crowded arena of
'~••l\e~. objectives, practices. kept overall in line by the institutions of the
~Ir.nt
elaborated,
f'\~'lbuted. viewed, discussed, put into storage.
:. ~
tr\\'~le, the question is put with some awareness of the pervasive presence of
.,..... '~~Y. that is. of the structuration of the state.
This, let me here add,
,~~~
It is always established with method and intention. soon comes to seem natural,
......'''('lIlngnatural, comes then to be invisible.
'~l~y,
t__ dlr.,tlon from which to challenge, and determine the strength needed to be success!

It is from a consciousness of
from it having been made visible again. that one may be able to estimate

ideologies, stay clear of social issues, and ignore political
(p.119)

Stparated from 'social issues' and 'political problems'. since what ideology is,

has ways of coping with rebel instances; and in most cases uses the

of dissent to project its forms more insidiously.

Is to contain and cope with social issues and political problems.

class.

And it is within this formation that movies, too are

arp now to ask whether a challenge to conformist cinema in South Africa is

Ideology is shape
Ideology must not

that suits the dominance of the hegemoniC class.

59

Art/Aesthetics/Politics
Tomaselli identifies the thrust of opposition to current conventional S.A. Cinema
as requiring a convergence of Art and Social Criticism.
not easily analysed or easily deployed, and Tomaselli's treatment comes nowhere
near doing justice to the matter.
For one thin9, his critical parameters are shallow.
confined to vigorous approval, or repudiation in strong terms:

His comments on films are

These are complex concepts,

... low grade S.A. movies supported by Spaghetti Westerns, American
"S" pictures and trash which specialise in cliche and convention.

It is an emotive and subjective style unfortunately common in critical journalism in
South Africa.
enlighten:

Van Zyl is another whose adjectives are in excess of his power to

... another quickie film based on some saccharine love story or some other
equally useless subject.

And here is Barry Range:

Pappa lap was a glowing gem ••, the rest •., were merely trite, clumsy and
stupefyingly dull.

Reasoning

1hese are all taken from Tomaselli's book, so that I feel entitled to infer reliance
on a mode of criticism that is not only outdated, but in itself reactionary, for it
places the focus of interest on areas of experience that do not help anyone penetrate
the film form and get to the social forms that support it.
The purpose, I think, of massing repudiative terms, is to create the illusion that
there is some sort of ideal, the opposite of 'trash', and that it is Art.
thus, however, makes art a term with position but without content.
useless.
There is also too shallow a development of the important notion of social criticism.
This is, in a way, more serious than the failure with the concept of art, because
it leads to a dubious defence of directors like Devenish and Rautenbach.
It should
be emphasised that it is eminently possible to use film in a way that appears critical
liberal, tolerant, yet is in fact reactionary. Dne is led to ask if any challenge
to the Ster Kinekor type of South African film has ever been produced: and then one
is forced to acknowledge, that although there have been films make locally that
object to apartheid thematically, all films nevertheless, whether those that
Tomaselli knocks for their colonialist character or those that he praises ("Art,
not soap opera, is their norm"), have been rooted in an industry that subscribes to,
reproduces and supports the apartheid state.
This is not, of course, what it sounds
like - direct aggression.
It is more a case of complicity, by enforcement or by indifference doesn't matter;
the effect is the same.
first page:

You find the phenomenon ina

blythe note on Tomaselli's

It becomes

Unless otherwise indicated, references refer to the white South African
population.

In this way
is submerged.
film industry; in elite roles as wonder actors.
to exist as subjects of a different space.

by footnote or by fiat, seven tenths of the South African population
They surface elsewhere in the bantustans; in the so-called black

In one way or ~nother they are made
In what we are call1ng the South African

60

that produced

from financlng,

The Guest and Grensbasis

producing~ng:-

... ' even from viewing

films .
It is class

of individuals.
of certain
film practice
reactions

of the goodwill
than the integrity
oppositional
is it made, whose
nationalist
to the social arrangement

and class sympathy:
No film made for white interests,

individuals.
in the condition!
with whom
does it

in form,
or to

or liberal

forn~tion

otherwise

'1 .

t~

a critical,

in terms of whose

is excluded

indicated

by evidence
rather

not here be misled

that are in questions

- that is, the industry

alternative,
interests

of the social
and, 'except where

questions
in whose
desire
South African
at present

.,,~ InJu~try. however
~~s
Zr,trlbuting
., ~~t
~l.tlons
~~ (onctptualise
of class pOsition
involves
I ~•• r adduced
a film identify,
~~Id
is it evolved?
'-tlclpate,
or foreign,
fi~anclal or political,
('~ possibly be set up to launch a real challenge
in South Africa.
practice
~vie
t~
intertwined:
politics
(:~nomics,
~Q w!ge a campaign
Undoubtedly
fa:t of greatest
significance
In Tomaselli's
in the country
book, as it
of blacks from participation.
~
T~
••~Iained
ef this white elite.
C.lt~ral
t~s

dominant
and art are tumbrously
in one but not another.
is suppressed

that suppression,
effect of his recommendations

life being rooted
one to an ineffective

life, failure
struggle.

in political
cultural

be to redistribute

is not likely)

and therefore

would merely

of film production
in the question
recommendation
And Tomaselli's
implicitly
condone
white
were they to be followed

to choose

it is impossible
the social and economic
is suppressed
- that is, the exclusion
based
domination.
among members

capitalist
(which I have

are ultimately

incentives

to take them both into account

Studies

Institute,

University

is published
Johannesburg,

by the African
I979
.
du Preez.

r~
S A Film Industry
or lhr Witwatersrand,
~1H!~ BOOKS RECEIVED
r.lrvision Through
IvoL Company, Jonannesburg,
Although
anything.
~ndout
do during auditions

The reason

The Front Door by Michael

1979, 69pp.

Published

by McGraw-Hill

this book was sent out for review,
for the SABC television

is that this publication

the recipients
is nothing

to submit
refused
more than a publicity
how and what to

for beginners

service.
wanting

It purely describes
to perform on television.

61