RESONANCE ARCHIVE FESTIVAL: Double-Bill Screening

Anaphora Films in association with The South Festival of Memory, present the inaugural instalment of ‘Resonance Archive Festival’, taking place in Johannesburg from August 27 – 31, 2025 bringing together filmmakers, artists, academics, historians and cultural practitioners to reflect on the past, question the present and shape future memory. 

SEE THE FULL FESTIVAL PROGRAM FOR THE BIOSCOPE HERE.

Siliva The Zulu & The 37th Bride.

Siliva the Zulu, 1927

Dir: Attilio Gatti

In 1927, Lido Cipriani, an anthropologist from the University of Florence, and Captain Attilio Gatti, a specialist in wildlife filming, led an expedition to then Zululand in South Africa. There they made Siliva, a romantic look at Zulu life. The film is a mix of ritual and folklore. Although the dramatic silent feature is distorted and outdated, as it is as a presentation of Zulu life early in the twentieth century, it nevertheless contains authentic elements. It should be viewed both as an example of Western concepts of 'the tribal' and as one of the first serious attempts to record Zulu life and culture.

37th Bride, 1953

Dir:Donald Swanson

Starring: Miriam Makeba, Alfred Fish

Runtime: 28 minutes

A young teacher (Miriam Makeba) at a mission school is unknowingly betrothed to an influential chief. This news brings shock and uncertainty to her Western standard of life. Powerless against her father’s will, it’s up to her chosen love interest and the missionary community to free her from the binds of a forced marriage.