South Africa

Lionel Ngakane was born in Pretoria in 1920. Very early on, he joined the ANC Youth League. From 1948-1950 he was one of the journalists who initiated and worked on the groundbreaking intellectual black magazine, Drum. Ngakane went to Britain in 1950 to become a film director, but ended up working as an actor. He appeared in films, including The Mark of the Hawk in 1957 (with Eartha Kitt), on television - Quatermass and the Pit (1958) and the spy series Danger Man (Deadline, 1962) with Patrick McGoohan - as well as on stage, as in Errol John's Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, and Wole Soyinka's play The Lion and the Jewel at the Royal Court Theatre in 1966. However, Ngakane was determined to direct, and in 1962 he bought a 16mm camera and filmed and directed the feature length documentary Vukani / Awake, about the struggle for South Africa's liberation. It was the first film in South Africa to be made by a Black African. His second film, the short drama Jemima & Johnny (1966), was awarded 1st prize at the Venice film festival. It was the first Black British film to win an award at an international film festival. Ngakane returned to South Africa in 1994 and has worked hard to raise the international profile of African filmmaking in general and South African filmmakers in particular. Lionel Ngakane passed away in South Africa in 2003.

Filmography

Vukani / Awake (1962)
Jemima & Johnny (1966)