Sophiatown

A loving and vivid documentary summarizing the legendary golden age of South African music. In the 1950s, Sophiatown was a fabled "mixed" neighborhood of Johannesburg, where several races lived and played together, a sort of African Harlem where gangsters in sharp suits mingled with young intellectuals like Nelson Mandela and influenced the culture of an entire generation. Sophiatown also launched Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba to international stardom, and was the last place of resistance to creeping apartheid laws before being forcibly destroyed by the government. Pascale Lamche's award-winning film presents this amazing story in full, and gathers the legendary jazz giants of the scene to recreate some of the best known songs of the time.