About

I left South Africa when it was still an apartheid state; worked initially in London for the Namibian liberation movement SWAPO; then started making films for the BBC.   Britain seemed like paradise when I first got here.   The women’s movement was roaring; anti-colonial and anti-racist movements were blazing; and I seized the chance to reflect some of this on BBC television.

Freelancing took me to Angola, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Algeria, Malawi, China, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and elsewhere.

I’ve made films about the Wonderful Windsors, menstrual taboos, a South African soccer team called Orlando Pirates, opera in Istanbul, hysterectomy, Abstract Expressionism, the Battle of Cable Street, and many other engrossing and challenging subjects.

Professionally I’ve written for NGOs like Plan International and Amnesty International.

I have a first-class Honours degree in French and English from what was the University of Natal, Durban, and a diploma in French language and literature from the University of Aix-en-Provence.

A short film from Rear Window.   It’s called A Concert in Greenwich: First Nations Among the Brits, but that doesn’t really convey the very touching circumstances the film documents: viola maestra Rivka Golani regards the Blackfoot of Canada as fellow survivors of genocide, and persuades other musicians and composers to make work that celebrates their survival.