South Africa / 1988 / 77mins / Documentary / English

Have You Seen Drum Recently?, with the help of photographs, music, and sometimes an interview, manages to conjure up a vivid and unique social documentary that captures the vibrancy, beauty and brilliance of the urban lack lifestyle of the 1950’s. Significant and linking elements in this film are the sparkling and swinging music, like big band, jazz, kwela, and penny whistle, and the interviews, with artists that sang the music of the time.

The whole film is pervaded with the atmosphere of happy days for the black community, not in the least because of the high expectations they still had in those days.

Jurgen Schadeberg

Jürgen Schadeberg was born 1931 in Berlin, Germany. In 1950, he moved to South Africa to rejoin his family and joined Drum magazine as official photographer and layout artist. Schadeberg became a teacher and mentor to some of the most creative South African photographers of his time. Schadeberg photographed many historic and pivotal events in the 1950s. In 1959, Schadeberg left Drum to become a freelancer. He was forced to leave South Africa in 1964 and went to London. Here he taught and curated photographic exhibitions, notably for the Whitechapel Art Gallery. He then moved to Spain where he concentrated on a career as an artist. In 1972, he returned to Africa where he accepted a position as photographer for Christian Aid in Botswana and Tanzania. In 1973, he traveled from Senegal and Mali to Kenya and Zaire to take photographs. In 1984, Schadeberg returned to South Africa. He continues to work as a photo-journalist as well as making documentaries about the black community.
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