Ethnographic film/video production and oral documentation: the case of Piet Draghoender in 'Kat River: the end of hope'

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Periodical article

Title:	Ethnographic film/video production and oral documentation: the case of Piet Draghoender in 'Kat River: the end of hope'
Authors:	Tomaselli, K.G. Sienaert, E.
Year:	1989
Periodical:	Research in African Literatures
Volume:	20
Issue:	2
Pages:	242-264
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	Khoikhoi rural society cinema
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/4618231
Abstract:	The video 'Kat River: the end of hope' (1984) tells the history of a 'coloured' (Khoi) peasant farming settlement at Kat River in the Ciskei region of the eastern Cape, South Africa. The video ends with a spontaneous outpouring of frustration by Piet Draghoender (b. 1906), owner of the farm Bergmans Hoek. This lament gives expression to the deepest values of Kat River people. It is a remarkable document whose style - bilateral, mimic, formulary - reveals M. Jousse's (1978) three permanent and universal laws. The crew was particularly concerned with documenting (both visually and orally) the relationship between the community and the crew, and the video was made mainly within the codes of oppositional documentary. App. A explains this kind of documentary and presents definitions of ethnography and ethnographic film. App. B contains Piet Draghoender's speech, in Afrikaans, with an English translation. Bibliogr., notes, ref.