A documentary currently in the making will take a fresh look at the shooting of a classic film made in KwaZulu-Natal in the Sixties. And the producers are appealing for help. Stephen Coan reports.
Plans are afoot for the shooting of a feature length documentary Zulu and the Zulus in KwaZulu-Natal next year.
The documentary is a long nurtured project by filmmaker Henry Coleman, a South African now based in London. The film focuses on the making of the classic film Zulu shot in 1963 against the spectacular backdrop of the Drakensberg Amphitheatre in the Royal Natal National Park. The film spectacularly recreated the defence of Rorke's Drift that took place during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 when a small number of British troops held out against a superior Zulu force following the overwhelming Zulu victory at Isandlwana.
On its release in 1964 Zulu was a huge hit while repeated screenings on British television over the years have spurred ongoing generations of tourists to visit KwaZulu-Natal. “It is a regular favourite on British television and hardly off the screen,” said Coleman. “A couple of years ago it was screened 22 times in a month on one channel.”
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