Released in 2006, Catch A Fire is a South African Biographic movie about Patrick Chamusso, a member of the African National Congress, widely known as ANC, an anti-apartheid organization that was formed during the apartheid era. This article is about the cinematography of this movie, the headline of the article may have already given that away. I only got to watch a few scenes of the movie and by those only few minutes I was fascinated by the camerawork and art of photography in the film.
Ron Furunato and Garry Phillips were the directors of photography in this movie. They were able to capture the most true and authentic parts of South Africa and Mozambique. When I stumbled upon the movie playing on the television, the imagery and overall look of the movie made me pay more attention to details and that’s when I started noticing the undeniably interesting cinematography work. Derek Luke an American actor played Patrick Chamusso on Catch a Fire and other lead actresses and actors were Bonnie Mbuli, Tim Robbins, Terry Pheto, Tumisho Masha and Mncedisi Shabangu.
The two scenes that stood out the most are the shooting scene, where the ANC comrades were being attacked at their flat by Nic Vos’s soldiers who disguised themselves by using the “black face” (when white people or other non-blacks darken their skin or exaggerate their facial features to seem black which is a form of racism) and the funeral scene, when the comrades were matching to the graveyards. I hope to see that movie again soon and to be able to write more about it and It’s quite unfortunate that it’s not available on major movie streaming platforms.
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