Speaking with Earth and Sky: Oral Storytelling in the cinema of Craig and Damon Foster

Abstract

The focus of this article is the documentaries of the Foster Brothers and in particular their bold experimentation with form. A brief historical overview of developments in South African documentary filmmaking from the late 1970s till the 21st century contextualises some of the important thematic concerns in the work of Craig and Damon Foster, namely marginal characters, the forced removal of people from their land, as well as the destruction of indigenous cultures. The directors are among very few South African film-makers, who use the African tradition of oral storytelling in their documentaries. In many ways the documentaries combine the social concerns of the progressive political documentaries of the 1980s with the oral aesthetics of film cultures elsewhere on this continent.