During apartheid, a documentary film movement emerged, capturing ordinary people taking on the oppressive government and the exploitative capitalist industry. People were shown at work and in their communities organizing strikes, protesting against repression, and being subjected to violence. This grassroots film movement, which has been described as a cinema of resistance, served as a tool to educate viewers, document violence and inequality, and mobilize support against the apartheid regime. Two decades after the end of apartheid, a similar set of resistance films has begun to emerge – with the difference that these films are holding the democratically elected government accountable. These documentaries give voice to the disenfranchised masses for whom the multiracial democracy has not brought substantial change. The African National Congress-led government has sanctioned actions echoing those that occurred under apartheid, including forced removals and the massacre of protestors.Two films, Dear Mandela (Kell and Nizza, 2012) and Miners Shot Down (Desai, 2014), capture this and are indicative of a new wave of resistance documentaries.

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Although there has been a surge of interest in South African cinema studies since the end of apartheid, relatively little has been written on documentary film and apartheid era resistance. During the apartheid era, documentary film was used to capture both the atrocities of apartheid and resistance to it. These films not only created a historical record of events in South Africa, but they also became important political tools in mobilizing support against the apartheid regime. In the post‐apartheid era, the anti‐apartheid movement remains a popular theme in documentary film, serving as a site for reflecting on and reclaiming history. This article provides an overview of apartheid and resistance in documentary films produced both during and after apartheid, and suggests how these films can broaden our understanding of South African history and be used as guideposts for addressing some of the challenges that face South Africa today.

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detail. Greater attention could also have been paid to political ideas from Malawi's longue durée, which are only alluded to in the book, and the extent to which they inform the discourse of the staff of Malawi's CSOs, relative to the new liberal governmentality Gabay describes. Gabay's book is complemented in these respects by Harri Englund's  ethnography Prisoners of Freedom, a book that draws similar conclusions about the implications of the structural position of Malawian CSOs for their work, whilst asking more questions of the subjectivities of their employees. I would advise readers interested in this area to consult Englund's book alongside Exploring An African Civil Society.