Amandla! A Revolution In Four Part Harmony : Movie Review


I'm used to being branded a cynic, heathen, asshole, or what have you, but once again I have to admit I found myself toiling to get through a documentary about an obscure subject matter... only to find myself still as ambivalent about the issue as I was before starting the film.

This time it's Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, which outlines the role that homegrown music had during the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Obscure? You bet! Incredibly interesting? Not in the slightest!

Amandla! (translation: Power!) largely consists of interviews with various organizers who lived through apartheid, reminiscing about the battles they fought and the songs they sang. The songs are recreated in the present and/or shown via archive footage. They unilaterally are translated via subtitles with lyrics like "White man, watch out for the black man!" and "The white man, he makes us live in these shanty towns!"

See filmcritic.com for full review.

Author : Christopher Null