Come Back, Africa in Houston Mar 9, 2012 7:00 PM

Lionel Rogosin’s Come Back, Africa is a historical wonder and an honest glimpse into the harsh reality of life under the now-abolished South African apartheid government. (Rogosin's On the Bowery screened at the MFAH last year.)

After witnessing firsthand the terrors of fascism as a soldier in World War II, Rogosin vowed to fight against it wherever and whenever he saw its threats reemerging. Rogosin traveled to South Africa and secretly filmed Come Back, Africa, which revealed the cruelty and injustice with which black South Africans were treated. Restored by the Cineteca di Bologna and the Rogosin Heritage Foundation, this 1959 film on apartheid can finally be celebrated as a masterpiece of cinema and of political protest.

“A heroic film . . . a film of terrible beauty, of the ongoing life it captured and of the spirit embodied by Rogosin and his fellow artists.” —Martin Scorsese