David C. Oosthuizen - Revision history

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Fogterop: Created page with " '''David C. Oosthuizen''' (1938-2005) was a documentary filmmaker == Biography == David Charles Oosthuizen was born on 16 May 1938. From approximately 1965 onwards he work..."

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Created page with " '''David C. Oosthuizen''' (1938-2005) was a documentary filmmaker == Biography == David Charles Oosthuizen was born on 16 May 1938. From approximately 1965 onwards he work..."

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'''David C. Oosthuizen''' (1938-2005) was a documentary filmmaker

== Biography ==

David Charles Oosthuizen was born on 16 May 1938. From approximately 1965 onwards he worked for the [[Department of Information]] in its various guises, sometimes on what were deemed “secret” projects. However, most of his documentaries were straightforward propaganda shorts, made to sell the [[National Party]] government’s ”separate development” policies to local and international audiences. A number of them, made for a series called ''Ditaba'', dealt with individual “homelands”, while others, like ''Kutlwanong: a Place of Hearing'' (1969), ''The Parliament, Republic of South Africa'' (1974) and ''A Place Called Soweto'' (1982) had a little more personality.

In 1974 he accompanied the then Prime Minister, [[John Vorster]], on a visit to the Ivory Coast and in 1976 he travelled with him to Israel, both journeys resulting in documentary shorts. On 25 April 1977 the [[Ministry of Information]] invited a group of journalists to visit Robben Island in order to illustrate that the persistent rumours of poor living conditions and mistreatment were not true. The occasion was filmed by an unknown government cameraman, subsequently identified as Oosthuizen. The footage was first used in [[Clifford Bestall]]’s 1999 documentary ''[[The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela]]''.

Oosthuizen was employed by the [[Ministry of Information]] until August 1977, but earlier that year he had become a director of a firm called [[Visiorama]], together with J. van Zyl Alberts, managing director of the newspaper The Citizen and the magazine To The Point, and [[Matthys Heyns]], managing director of [[Heyns Films]]. The following year Dr. [[Eschel Rhoodie]], the Secretary of Information, revealed that like the print publications, [[Visiorama]] was a front company for the department, which continued to employ it to make propaganda shorts until the early eighties. It’s been suggested that every now and then Oosthuizen was required to make a short mildly critical of the government for UPITN, primarily to keep up appearances of impartiality. He died on 25 July 2005.

== Sources ==

Rand Daily Mail (various issues)

James Sanders – South Africa and the international media 1972-1979: a struggle for representation (2000)

Archival card index of the Western Cape Provincial Library Service

== Return to ==

Return to [[ESAT Personalities O]]

Return to [[South_African_Theatre/Personalities|South African Theatre Personalities]]

Return to [[The ESAT Entries]]

Return to [[Main Page]]

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 David Charles Oosthuizen was born on 16 May 1938.  From approximately 1965 onwards he worked for the [[Department of Information]] in its various guises, sometimes on what were deemed “secret” projects.  However, most of his documentaries were straightforward propaganda shorts, made to sell the [[National Party]] government’s  ”separate development”  policies to local and international audiences.  A number of them, made for a series called ''Ditaba'', dealt with individual “homelands”, while others, like ''Kutlwanong: a Place of Hearing'' (1969), ''The Parliament, Republic of South Africa'' (1974) and ''A Place Called Soweto'' (1982) had a little more personality.
-In 1974 he accompanied the then Prime Minister, [[John Vorster]], on a visit to the Ivory Coast and in 1976 he travelled with him to Israel, both journeys resulting in documentary shorts.  On 25 April 1977 the [[Ministry of Information]] invited a group of journalists to visit Robben Island in order to illustrate that the persistent rumours of poor living conditions and mistreatment were not true.  The occasion was filmed by a then  unknown government cameraman, subsequently identified as Oosthuizen.  The footage was first used in [[Clifford Bestall]]’s 1999 documentary ''[[The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela]]''.
+In 1974 he accompanied the then Prime Minister, John Vorster, on a visit to the Ivory Coast and in 1976 he travelled with him to Israel, both journeys resulting in documentary shorts.  On 25 April 1977 the [[Ministry of Information]] invited a group of journalists to visit Robben Island in order to illustrate that the persistent rumours of poor living conditions and mistreatment were not true.  The occasion was filmed by a then  unknown government cameraman, subsequently identified as Oosthuizen.  The footage was first used in [[Clifford Bestall]]’s 1999 documentary ''[[The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela]]''.
 Oosthuizen was employed by the [[Ministry of Information]] until August 1977, but earlier that year he had become a director of a firm called [[Visiorama]], together with J. van Zyl Alberts, managing director of the newspaper The Citizen and the magazine To The Point, and [[Matthys Heyns]], managing director of [[Heyns Films]].  The following year Dr. [[Eschel Rhoodie]], the Secretary of Information, revealed that like the print publications, [[Visiorama]] was a front company for the department, which continued to employ it to make propaganda shorts until the early eighties.  It’s been suggested that every now and then Oosthuizen was required to make a short mildly critical of the government for UPITN, primarily to keep up appearances of impartiality.  He died on 25 July 2005.

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 == Sources ==
-Rand Daily Mail (various issues)
+[[Rand Daily Mail]] (various issues)
 James Sanders – South Africa and the international media 1972-1979: a struggle for representation (2000)