Island

United States, 1981

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From a description of what it is like for black prisoners in the South African gaol ‘The Island’, the unreasonableness of apartheid is shown. It was also here that Nelson Mandela was held captive for many years. The film examines the role of language (as an expression of the penal code, social convention, metaphysics) in political repression and challenges the viewer with an unconventional combination of first-person oral history accounts, music, still images and computer graphics.

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

co-director

Michael Oblowitz

David Goldberg

Duration

00:16:40:00

Production places

United States

Production dates

1981

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

015412

Language

English

Subject categories

Crime, Espionage, Justice, Police & Prisons → Prisons

Documentary

Documentary → Documentary films - United States

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Apartheid - South Africa

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Blacks - South Africa

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Political persecution

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Political prisoners - South Africa

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Race discrimination

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → South Africa - Race relations

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → South Africa - Social conditions

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Repression (Psychology)

History → Apartheid - South Africa

History → South Africa - History

Short films

Short films → Short films - United States

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Holdings

16mm film; Access Print (Section 1)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/77194--island/ |title=Island |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=30 May 2023 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}