
2011 · drama · history · political
Directed by Steven Silver1h 46m2011
In the early to mid '90s, when the South African system of apartheid was in its death throes, four photographers - Greg Marinovich, Kevin Carter, Ken Oosterbroek and João Silva - bonded by their friendship and a sense of purpose, worked together to chronicle the violence and upheaval leading up to the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela as president. Their work is risky and dangerous, potentially fatally so, as they thrust themselves into the middle of chaotic clashes between forces backed by the government (including Inkatha Zulu warriors) and those in support of Mandela's African National Congress.
Our read: The Bang Bang Club (2011) reads as a heavy, kinetic, grounded drama · history · political entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, ambivalent in outlook.
Heavy, kinetic, measured drama / history, grounded in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, cold.
Everyone on the couch spins once and gets one craft to watch for. After the credits, compare what you caught.
Your lens for tonight
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Everyone on the couch gets one craft to watch for. Spin the wheel to get yours. Sound on: the narrator reads your mission.
Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.
“You want raw apartheid-era photojournalism drama about moral lines behind the lens.”
Skip it tonight — Skip if township violence, addiction misery, and photojournalist guilt will wreck you.
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