Netflix frees 'bantustan broadcasting'
Global streaming platform breaks racial boundaries for local movies
Comedian-turned-filmmaker Kagiso Lediga likens the arrival of Netflix to the second undoing of apartheid - in the broadcasting industry at least, where the US content-streaming platform is creating a major shake-up. Lediga's film Catching Feelings, a dark romantic comedy, launched on the streaming platform over a week ago as the first South African movie to premiere there. The Xhosa initiation movie Inxeba has been broadcast only on the US service - not the local version, which was launched in 2016. The customary tension with local-content gatekeepers was absent in the engagement with Netflix, Lediga said.Local commissioning editors have historically been concerned about content being "too smart" for South African audiences. "The audiences have always been smart, it's the broadcasters who are making them stupid. You just have to have faith and take risks," Lediga commented. "I think maybe it's a hangover from apartheid. It's like we still have bantustans in broadcasting. "There's th...
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