Classified People

Synopsis

In apartheid South Africa, Robert found himself classified “colored” by an administrative tribunal while his wife and children were classified “white”. Decades later Robert is happily remarried to a black woman named Doris, and together they recount the absurdity of the racial laws which tore his family apart. Shot clandestinely in 16mm, Classified People by Yolande Zauberman (M, Would You Have Sex With An Arab?, The Beauty of Gaza) is a lesson in radical documentary filmmaking and a deeply intimate depiction of the ways in which state-sanctioned segregation infiltrates the most private lives of those affected by it.

Director Biography

A multi-disciplinary artist, Yolande Zauberman is a singular voice in French documentary. Her cinema, always intimate, sheds light on shadowy areas, breaks down taboos and frees speech.

She began her career working with Amos Gitaï, and in 1987 made her first documentary, CLASSIFIED PEOPLE. The film received wide exposure at international festivals, was released in cinemas and nominated for a César for best documentary short in 1989, the same year that her second film, CASTE CRIMINELLE, was selected for the Cannes Film Festival.