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.

Credits

production company

United Nations

producer

Deborah May

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=23 May 2022 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}

United States, 1981

Please note