SA film hero succumbs to Covid-19
FILM-MAKER Laurence Dworkin, well known for his zeal in the production of anti-apartheid documentary films, has died after becoming infected with Covid-19.
The 65-year-old passed away at the Mediclinic Cape Town on Sunday. Born in Joburg, his extraordinary vision prompted him to co-establish Video News Services (VNS) with this author and Brian Tilley in 1986.
VNS, which later established Afravision in London, was an ANC underground video collective which had as its core role to expose apartheid atrocities at the height of the state of emergency in the 1980s.
A saddened Ismail Covadia recalled the salient moment in the 1980s when he gave Dworkin £43 000 in a paperback. “Apartheid under the state of emergency had become so brutal that we wanted trustworthy young people inside the country to visually inform the international community about the atrocities taking place in South Africa such as Laurence,” said Covadia.
I (the writer) remember receiving a call from Thabo Mbeki in exile. “Raps do you trust this guy,” he asked. After hesitating for a few moments I confirmed that I trusted Laurence. The distinctive call for VNS at that historic moment was to decrease the degree of visibility of the ANC underground activities, and Dworkin was fitting the bill.
As a series director, Dworkin worked on the five-part series of the history of the ANC, uLibambe Lingashoni, which was researched by former MP Nkenke Nat Kekana.
“I had just come from detention and I was thrust into the depth of setting and researching a documentary series about the history of the ANC, and Laurence made the co-ordination easy for me. I am shocked to hear about his passing at this time,” Kekana said.
VNS’s style of video documentaries owed much to the skill and craft of Dworkin’s documentary and film-making journey which included the role in the production of the anti-apartheid films such as Savage War on Peace and The Giant Had Risen.
Under his leadership, the awardwinning film Mapantsula directed by Oliver Schmidt was able to use VNS as its production house. Savage War on Peace gave a mind-blowing account of the police brutality under the state of emergency, which Dworkin played a key role in.
VNS also became a vital resource to the New York-based anti-apartheid production house Global Vision, which produced and distributed South Africa Now, while together with UK’s Afravision, offered vital video content which provided the live images about apartheid atrocities of the 1980s. Through his humane sway, Dworkin was able to provide the strategic direction of VNS.
Dworkin conducted the last interview of former ANC leader Oliver Tambo for VNS in Lusaka.
Dworkin went on to make important environmental films. The video archive VNS built remains the most in-depth of that vital Struggle period.
At the time of his death, Dworkin undertook to write the history of VNS from an academic perspective. The video archives have become an important reference point for research and documentary film-making.