S.A. film protest target

Press, 10 November 1986, Page 8

S.A. film protest target

PA Auckland A South African film which has proved a box office hit in Auckland has angered anti-apartheid protesters.

“The Gods Must Be Crazy,” in its twentysecond week at the Customhouse cinema in Auckland, has been the subject of a protest pamphlet distributed to filmgoers and passers-by outside the cinema.

The pamphlet said the

film, set in Namibia, gave a racist, patronising and misleading picture of the Ikung San (Bushmen), belittled black liberation movements such as the South West Africa People’s Organisation, and portrayed black-white relations in a racist way.

The manager of the Customhouse, Mr Tom Freeman, said he had received no complaint about the film.

“It is very popular. It is

packed out each weekend. We have had at least 10 school parties in, and the only comment we get is how nice it is to see a family comedy without violence or bad language.”

The film had been showing at the Savoy Theatre in Christchurch for six weeks, but had not been the subject of any criticism, nor had patrons been given any protest pamphlets, a spokesman for the theatre said.