Heinz du Preez

Heinz du Preez (**/**/**** - 02/10/1993) was involved in various aspects of South Africa’s film scene. He was sometimes referred to as Heins du Preez and even Heyns du Preez.

Biography

Hendrik Stephanus Johannes (Heinz) du Preez studied and obtained a B.Sc. degree at the Teachers Training College (then Normaal Kollege or NKP) in Pretoria. He taught for a few years and then became a founding member of CARFO, die Christelike Afrikaanse Rolprent en Fotografiese Organisasie. During those years he also worked as sound recordist on two of the earliest Afrikaans feature films, namely Donker Spore (Thomas Blok/1944) and Pinkie se Erfenis (Pierre de Wet/1945). In 1950 he started the Afrikaanse Radio Tegniese Vereniging and, together with B.K. Schoeman, drew up the first Afrikaans vocabulary of technical and radio terms. He also contributed articles to an Afrikaans magazine for juveniles (possibly Patrys?). At one stage he was Chairman of the Northern Transvaal branch of the Suid-Afrikaanse Radioliga and sometime Editor of its Newsletter, Teenspanning.

When, in 1949, John Grierson came out to South Africa to investigate the possibility of establishing a National Film Board along the lines of the National Film Board of Canada, du Preez submitted a report on behalf of CARFO, in which he dealt with the cultural, spiritual and social experiences of the Afrikaans section of the population. Though the government of the time dismissed most of Grierson’s proposals, a National Film Board of South Africa eventually got off the ground in 1964 and in February 1974 du Preez was recruited from his job as regional representative of Philips Telecommunications in Pretoria to become the organisation’s last General Manager. While there he directed at least one of its educational documentaries entitled Die Sanger van Suikerbosrant: Andries Gerhardus Visser (1978). Back in 1954 he had already produced a film on school patrols for the National Road Safety Organisation. He died on 2 October 1993.