Glimpse

Thirty minutes of images of South Africa, its nature, people and cities, without comment, edited to the hypnotic music of the Cape Town-based musician Campbell Burns. Short and long shots, slowed down and accelerated, close-ups and vistas; collectively, they give a kaleidoscopic impression of this country, more than a decade after the official end of Apartheid. This film is like a Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1983) of contemporary South Africa. There are nature shots (cloud formations, recorded in time-lapse and accelerated, and waterfalls in slow motion), followed by images inside a goldmine, where men travel through dark tunnels. Next, the camera shoots up again to the modern city, where a crowd flocks across a marketplace at a tremendous pace. Now and then, the image is decelerated, to portray someone in the crowd - from mass to individual. From adults in an amusement arcade to a girl in the street looking into the camera, the word "Love" on her T-shirt. And from one individual to the next, showing all races and classes: from a begging white man to a rich black man, a kissing couple, white and black, and all the other colours of South Africa. Many people look directly into the camera, making it no longer an unnoticed passer-by, but part of its subject, a portrait of an era full of contrasts. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)