You have struck a rock

‘You have touched a woman, you have struck a rock!’ was the cry in 1956 when 20,000 women occupied Union Buildings, the seat of the all-white South African government, to protest against the issuing of passes to black women. The film recreates this anti-apartheid womens’ campaign using a collage of rare photographs, newsreel footage and recent interviews with women involved.

How to watch

This work has not been digitised and is currently unavailable to view online. It may be possible for approved reseachers to view onsite at ACMI.

Learn more about accessing our collection

Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

producer

Deborah May

production company

United Nations

Duration

00:27:00:00

Production places

United States

Production dates

1981

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

015449

Language

English

Subject categories

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

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Feminism

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

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

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Women - Social conditions

Short films

Short films → Short films - United States

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Holdings

16mm film; Access Print (Section 1)

16mm film; Limited Access Print (Section 2)

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/77228--you-have-struck-a-rock/ |title=You have struck a rock |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=3 February 2023 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}

United States, 1981

Please note