PREMIERE.COM REVIEW (posted 2/14/03)

It's said that music can soothe the savage breast. According to Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony, it also may have helped bring about the downfall of apartheid in South Africa.

In his first feature-length documentary, Lee Hirsch brings the recent past to life with interviews of famed South African musicians like Hugh Masekela, archival footage, reenactments, and musical numbers. He tells the decades-long story of apartheid, from its inception in 1948 to the presidential election of Nelson Mandela in 1994, through the music of the freedom fighters. Because singing and recording were banned under apartheid, the black South Africans used song as a galvanizing force of nonviolent protest as well as a form of cohesion. As the battle over apartheid intensified, so too did the power of the music and dance to undermine and intimidate the white government.

Amandla! (the word means "power" in Xhosa) is a colorful and infectiously rhythmic film from its first shot. But while it is outwardly joyful and vibrant, the music in Amandla! is more profound than one may first appreciate. The interviews are particularly poignant, including one with Thandi Modise, who had been imprisoned while pregnant and staved off suicidal thoughts by singing. One lighter moment involves two singers who gaily break into a protest song from the '50s. They cheerfully explain that white people used to compliment them on their singing, oblivious to the song's lyrics: "We will kill you. You will die slowly."

The film has few weaknesses. The reenactments feel a bit forced, in the manner of an E! True Hollywood Story, and the interviews of white policemen paint them as more dopey than menacing, thus detracting from the force of what the freedom fighters accomplished. The power of the music and interviews, however, makes up for these small drawbacks, and the overall effect is informative, compelling, and music to the ears.

— Laine Ewen