Carfo

Carfo, or the Christelike Afrikaanse Rolprent Fotografiese Organisasie (i.e. "Christian Afrikaans Film Photographic Organisation") was a film production and distribution company active in the 1950s and 1960s.

Origins and history

In 1939 a group of Afrikaners organised themselves in what was known as the Volksrolprentbond (approx. "people's film league") with the aim of combatting the English and Hollywood dominance in film production. This later disbanded and then reappeared in 1940 as the Reddingsdaadbond-Amateurrolprentorganisasie or Raro (approx. the ), with the support of the Reddingsdaadbond.

Eventually, however, it was a group of Afrikaans clergymen from the Dutch Reformed Church, and a few former members of the defunct Raro, who founded the Christelike Afrikaanse Rolprent en Fotografiese Organisasie (Carfo) in 1947.

Carfo was registered as a non-profit company in September 1947, with Rudolf Raath as managing director.

=Contribution to South African theatre, film, media and performance

Over the period of its existence Carfo made fourteen feature films, many filmed versions of literary works, and a number of shorter educational and documentary films. Like the films made by Raro, their work was founded on Christian principles and displayed what one author (Wheeler, 1988) typifies as "a Christian local realist tendency" in its themes, form and style.

The films made were:

Sources

Philippus Ferdinand Wheeler. 1988. Lokale realisme in speelprente van Raro en Carfo: 'n inhoudsontleding. Unpublished MA thesis, University of the Orange Free State[1]

Christa Steyn. 2015. Die argivering van die Afrikaanse film (1916 – 2014). Unpublished MA thesis, University of the Orange Free State[2]