South Africa Videos - The Documentary Network

Grandt Mason

Documentary.net staff — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 05:28:54 +0000

Ryan shot this video over a few visits to Grandt Mason's atelier in the Cape Town suburb Woodstock. He welcomed him into his workshop and revealed a world he had no idea existed. He intended to capture the production of a pair of hand-made shoes. Little did he know that in the process the vegan designer would use leather for the first time. Or that he would meet Boy, a local general in the Hard Livings - the most notorious gang in Cape Town.

The Hanoi Connection: How rhino horn gets from South Africa to China

Documentary.net staff — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 07:33:38 +0000

Since 2007 rhino poaching in South Africa has increased by 3000%. This undercover report reveals evidence of the involvement of high-ranking government-affiliated individuals in a shocking international trade. Widely used in traditional Chinese medicine and an increasingly sough-after status symbol, rhino horn products can be easily bought all over South East Asia. But DNA tests on those products reveal that up to 90% of them are fakes. So what is behind the alarming poaching rates of the African rhino? Following a trail from South Africa, through Vietnam to Laos, conservation activist Karl Ammann uncovers the complicity of high-ranking officials in the illegal trade. Caught on hidden camera, a horn trader confesses: "My clients are mainly provincial leaders, local governors". With prices for real rhino horn reaching $60,000 per kilo and international agencies unable to tackle the problem, is there anything we can do to protect these endangered animals?

The Last Rhino

Documentary.net staff — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:18:46 +0000

The rhinoceros is one of Africa's iconic animals, but greed and corruption, myth and superstition have brought the rhino to the brink of extinction. For millenia its best protection, the rhino's horn has become its worst enemy. Rhino horn is now worth more than gold and demand for it is at an all-time high. South Africa, which has the largest reserves of the wild animal, is a prime hunting ground for poachers. In 2010, South Africa lost 333 rhino to poaching and this number is expected to double in 2012. In a personal journey, Jonah Hull encounters greed, ignorance and corruption - highlighting how South Africa became the epicentre of rhino poaching. What caused the global epidemic and how does it threaten the survival of a species?

Hillbrow: Between Heaven and Hell

Documentary.net staff — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:00:52 +0000

Award-winning filmmaker Clifford Bestall goes back to the place where he grew up to explore this microcosm of chaos, crime and corruption in urban South Africa and discovers a place where human spirit, hope and enterprise triumph. George 'the brick' is an aging boxer, a hard-lived survivor. Around him and his gym are the characters that make Hillbrow the high-rise melting pot of South Africa. - Busi and Mimie are female boxers, punching their way out of their troubled backgrounds beyond the South African borders. - Les is a local nightclub entrepreneur with an eye for an opportunity. - And Bernice is a frail old Jewish lady - one of the very few whites still living in Hillbrow. This film draws them into its fold as their stories unfurl, revealing a rich seam of today's urban South African experience.