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When the film biz jetset lands at O.R Tambo airport for this week’s 6th Joburg Film Festival they’d be amazed by a little-known story of how the airport’s namesake was the mastermind behind a plan to recruit ordinary British working-class volunteers to travel to South Africa and detonate pamphlet bombs in the 1970s during the height of Apartheid.

The fascinating story has been made into a thrilling documentary by director Gordon Main, “London Recruits,” featuring interviews with those who went, interspersed with Super 8 archive footage and dramatic reenactments. It is the festival opener.

Based on the 2012 book, the U.K.’s Barefoot Rascals teamed up with producer Robyn Slovo, daughter of Joe Slovo, who was a major figure in South Africa’s anti-Apartheid struggle, as well as Jacintha de Nobrega’s Arclight Productions in South Africa.

The result is an edge-of-your-seat documentary thriller set in the early 1970s,...

Gordon Main’s apartheid-era documentary “London Recruits” has been tapped as the opening film at the sixth Joburg Film Festival, which takes place Feb. 27 – March 3 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The film sheds light on a pivotal moment in South Africa‘s history, when the struggle against the apartheid government in South Africa developed a new secret weapon. Oliver Tambo hatched a plan to infiltrate young British activists into the country, posing as tourists. Their mission, in the face of brutal lockdown by the racist regime, was to help inspire ordinary South Africans to join a liberation movement that would never give up till freedom was won.

The film is produced by Jacintha de Nobrega (“Deep End”), Robyn Slovo, Geoff Arbourne, Colin Charles (“The Surveyor”), James Barrett (“A Change in the Weather”) and Felix Gill (“78/52″). As Variety previously reported, XYZ Films is repping the doc’s North American sales.

Earlier this week,...

Durban — Fresh off the success of their inaugural partnership in 2017, the Durban FilmMart and CaribbeanTales – a group of companies dedicated to the production, distribution and promotion of content from the Caribbean region and its diaspora – have re-upped their agreement for CineFAM – Africa 2.0, a training and mentorship program during this year’s Durban FilmMart that looks to build capacity and create leadership opportunities for South African women of color working in TV.

Coming at a time of increased scrutiny of racial and gender inequality in film and TV industries around the world, CineFAM – Africa provides six South African producers with an intensive training course while offering “the knowledge and the tools and the opportunity” to bring their developing projects to market, according to CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution VP Nicole Brooks. “We really wanted to emphasize film and television content by…diverse women,” she said, calling the incubator “a launching pad” for its participants.