Cry Freedom Study
Guide
To help you understand the
complex messages in this movie, please read and answer the following questions
on a separate piece of paper as we watch this movie. This study guide will be collected at the end
of the movie.
Narrative Structure
The true
events which are retold in “Cry Freedom” took place over a period of
almost three years. The film lasts less
than three hours. The film includes both
important historical events like the Soweto
Uprising and personal ones like Donald
Woods’ argument
with his wife.
Sir
Richard Attenborough has selected aspects of the story to include in the film
and
left out others. Although the events
really happened, they have been re-enacted by
actors. All this reflects the director’s
thinking about the purposes of the film.
Film
makers don’t have to follow the chronological order of events. In this film Sir
Richard Attenborough alters the
sequence of events and uses flashbacks to tell the
story.
These are
the main events included in the film:
- Raid on Crossroads Squatters Camp
1975
- Donald Woods meets Steve Biko 1975
- The Soweto Uprising begins
- Steve Biko
dies
- Donald Woods and his family escape
from
Film as Information
1. Did the film give you any
understanding of the size of the country (in comparison to
give you - (fields, woods, forests,
pastures, gently rolling hills, mountains, snowcapped
mountains, jungle, tropical forests, deserts,
arid, fertile) ?
2. Did the film give you any sense
of
division ? What about the racial divisions -
were these groupings divided up into
class groupings ? Did the film give you
any sense of the material make up of the
society(ies)
in
3. How are the police and the
justice system presented in the film?
4. What images of the Health Service
(Hospitals, Doctors) and the Education
Service (Teachers, Lecturers etc)
did the film construct? Were you led to believe
that these services depended upon
the colour of your skin ?
5. Does the film suggest to you that
it has an attitude towards
our sympathies lie ? In what way
does the film wish our sympathies to lie?
Steven Biko and Black
Consciousness
1. What objections does Donald Woods
raise at the start of the film, about the ideas
of Black Consciousness ?
2. How are the ideas of Black
Consciousness presented by the prosecution in the
courtroom scenes ?
3. Read the following: -
‘Black Consciousness... seeks to
infuse the black community with a new-found pride in
themselves, their efforts, their
value systems, their culture, their religion, and their
outlook on life.’
Steve Biko
writing in 1971 Are there any scenes in the film which reflect the
ideas in this passage ?
THE
six miles outside of
make up the workforce for the
‘white’ cities are forced to live.
overcrowded and lacks the basic
amenities found in the areas which are reserved
for white people.
On
was, by all accounts, carefree and
jovial. Their purpose was to protest against an
inferior education system. Dr. Verwoed, prime minister of
1966 summarised
the government’s policy for education when he said in 1954.
‘...Natives
will be taught from childhood to realise that
equality with Europeans is not
for them...People who believe in
equality are not desirable teachers for
Natives...What is the use of
teaching the Bantu mathematics when he cannot use it
in practice ? That idea is quite absurd.’
The Bantu
Education Act of 1953 had resulted in overcrowded classes and schools,
a shortage of textbooks and underqualified teachers. Above all students resented
the second-rate curriculum which had
been imposed on their schools.
In the
months before the
been taking root in the township
schools. Steve Biko’s philosophy of Black
Consciousness reached a wide
audience in May when he gave evidence for the
defence in the trial of nine Black
Consciousness leaders. The immediate issues
which had led to their protest was
the recent announcement from the Minister of
Education that half of their school
subjects were to be taught in Afrikaans. Afrikaans,
almost entirely Dutch in origin, was
the language of the original Dutch settlers and is
still the official language of the
ruling ‘Afrikaner’ government. To black people it is
the language of their oppressors.
1. This uprising happened more than
a year before Steve Biko’s death and Donald
Woods’ escape. The film shows us
these events almost at the end of the film, after
we have seen the Woods family
escaping.
What effect does this placing have
on:
a) Your understanding of apartheid ?
b) Your view of Steve Biko ?
c) Your view of Donald Woods ?
2. How would your response have been
different if the sequence had been placed
between the meeting of Steve Biko and Donald Woods, and the death of Steve Biko?
3. This sequence was re-enacted in
different if the film had used newsreel
images of the real events instead ?
Read these sources carefully and
answer the questions which follow:
SOURCE A.
‘I did not hear the police give any
order to disperse before they threw tear-gas
canisters into the crowd of singing
schoolchildren. The children scattered in all
directions. The pupils then
regrouped and when the police charged again, they
threw stones at the police. The
police then fired a few shots, some in the air, the
others into the ground. I saw four
schoolchildren fall to the ground’.
Rand Daily Mail reporter quoted in
‘Black Review’, 1975-6
SOURCE B.
‘If the police had enough men
available on the 16th and used sufficient force -
irrespective of the number being
killed - we could have stopped them. I’m not going
to go into if we had killed 1,000 or
10,000 that day - I’m saying if we used enough
force we could have stopped the
riots in
officers were dragging their feet.
They were not scared but they were reluctant.
..Talk was out of the question. You
must realise that we were dealing with black
people, we are dealing with a very
emotional person...when they are out of control
they are completely out of control.
The only way you can get them under
control is to use force - more force than they
can take.
if it’s necessary to shoot a hundred
to get the situation under complete control, do
so.
Brigadier Swanepoel
in The Guardian 16.6.86. He had been in charge of police in
4. Do these sources support or
contradict the views of events in
the film. Give reasons for your
answer.
5. As a
the march on June 16th. What
arguments might you have used in explaining your
decision to a friend ?
6. What reasons do you think there
are for choosing to end the film with the
uprising on
PEOPLE IN STRUGGLE
“CRY FREEDOM” shows us the effects
of apartheid in
which different people have
struggled against it.
DONALD WOODS
1) At the start of the film, how is
Donald Woods working against apartheid ? How
effective do you think his
activities are ?
a) How is Donald Woods’ view of
apartheid changed by meeting Steve Biko ?
b) What makes Donald Woods decide to
leave
on the struggle against apartheid ?
c) Donald Woods puts himself and his
family at great risk to tell the world about
Steve Biko.
d) What do you think of Donald
Woods’ response to apartheid ?
e) What else could he have done ?
f)In his position what would you
have done ?
STEVE BIKO
2) What do we learn from the film
about Steve Biko’s views on apartheid and the
struggle against it ? What do we
learn about the Black Consciousness Movement ?
How are his views different from
those of Donald Woods ?
a) Do Steve Biko’s
views change as a result of meeting Donald Woods?
b) How does Steve Biko keep up the struggle against apartheid despite the
restrictions placed upon him ?
c) Steve Biko
faced arrest, torture and death rather than give up his struggle.
d) What do you think of his response
to apartheid?
e) What else could he have done?
f) In his position, what could you
have done?
3) OTHER RESPONSES TO APARTHEID
a) What other examples are there in
the film of people fighting against apartheid?
b) In what other ways are people in
system? Are their methods more or
less effective than those we see in “Cry
Freedom”?
c) What have people outside
your friends or your family been
involved in these actions ? How effective do you
think these activities can be ?
THE ENDING
After we have seen the Woods family
escaping, a list is superimposed on the
screen. It lists the names of those
who have died in police detention in
The list includes Steve Biko.
1. Why do you think this list is
included in the film?
2. Why is it placed at the end of
the film?
3. Why is it superimposed over shots
of the African countryside?
Consider the overall effect of the
way true events have been selected, re-enacted and organized to make “Cry
Freedom”.
4. What do you think has been the
overall purpose of the film?
5. What response are we invited to
make to the things we have seen?
6. Do you think the film has been successful?