African Jim (U) + discussion

HOME is screening African Jim on Sunday 25 October, with a discussion to follow. It's a 100-minute film, directed by Donald Swanson and released in South Africa in 1949, and it's being shown in Theatre 2 at Tony Wilson Place, M15 4FN. The dialogue is in Xhosa, Zulu and English.

If you're not familiar with it, African Jim — also released as Jim Comes to Jo'burg — holds a particular place in Black South African cinema. It was the first South African film made for Black audiences and given a wide national release with the support of the ANC. Along the way, it introduced the jazz singer and activist Dolly Rathebe to the big screen, appearing alongside The African Inkspots. The story itself is a light-hearted tale of urban migration, and it's a film that has lived on in cultural memory.

This particular screening comes from a 4K restoration by R3store Studios, funded by the National Gallery of Canada as part of Cinema Rediscovered on Tour, a Watershed project. It's a piece of cinema history that's rarely seen, and the restoration means it's back in a state that does it justice. The film remains difficult to watch, though; the notes accompanying it point to outdated language and limited context, so it's not a straightforward watch.

That's where the discussion comes in. The screening is followed by a conversation, so there's space to talk through the film and the context it sits in rather than just leaving it there. It starts at 16:00 on Sunday 25 October at HOME, in Theatre 2.