Jonathan ‘Zapiro’ Shapiro. Picture supplied
Jonathan ‘Zapiro’ Shapiro has described South Africa’s Film and Publication Board (SAFPB)’s decision to give his upcoming film a 16 years age restriction on a film about his life “silly”.
“I thought the rating was silly,” Zapiro told The Citizen.
The SAFPB gave film The Showerhead, a documentary about Zapiro’s work, a 16LNPSV rating.
In essence the rating means the panel believe the film contains occurrences of moderate and possibly strong impact sexual activity, strong offensive language, nudity, prejudice, sex and violence.
The strange thing about the rating is that Zapiro‘s cartoons have been published multiple times on various media outlets and his work has been included in the school curriculum.
The Showerhead chronicles Mzansi’s most celebrated cartoonist’s journey from his beginnings as a liberation artist and political detainee during apartheid, to his rise as a champion of freedom of expression.
The documentary is directed by Craig Tanner and produced by Anant Singh and is set to be released in select cinemas throughout the country this Friday.
ALSO READ: Cartoonist Zapiro to receive France’s top cultural award
The cartoonist said the SAFPB’s ruling reminded him of apartheid times where there was a lot of censorship.
“The wording of the panel, the reasoning reminded me of the old publication and control board. As someone in my mid-60s, I‘ve lived through that era and I’ve had drawings of mine banned and publications in which my drawings appear, also banned.
“In those days we used to apply for the reason [why it was banned] and generally the reason would be ‘furthering the aims of a banned organisation’.
“But the reasons that they banned things sometimes has to do with Christian values, sometime to do with political shielding, sometimes to do with swearing and all sorts of things,” said the cartoonist.
Zapiro is realistic in his assessment, saying he would have understood if they handed the film a 13 years-old age restriction.
“All of us involved in the movie felt that if we had to receive a 13PG rating, we could understand that; children younger than 13 might need some parental or teacher’s guidance,” said Zapiro.
“But for high school students, the whole idea of shielding them from critics, shielding them from satire, shielding them from seeing severe criticism of somebody who has been president of the country, shielding them from language they are well aware of, shielding them from supposed sexual violence… at the most extreme thing you could say the movie implied sexual violence in a metaphor that is a drawing,” he said.
ALSO READ: ‘Johaardien was not forced to resign,’ says BASA after puzzling statements
The shower fixed to the head of Zuma stems from the former president’s confession during his rape case, where he said he took a shower after having sex with Fezekile Kuzwayo, who was known as Khwezi. Kuzwayo accused the former president of raping her.
“By no means, anywhere in the movie would there any uncritical approach to sexual violence. The rape metaphor in the rape of lady justice cartoon and some of the subsequent cartoons, is clearly there as a combination of both that behaviour and of the political behaviour it was representing,” said Zapiro.
He said the cartoons depicting the raping of lady justice cartoon and others pertaining to sexual violence were drawn very carefully.
“The woman is clearly labelled in a metaphorical way. They are drawn in a way that the woman would empathise with the woman struggling patriarchy.”
The cartoonist said he and the film team found the judgement to be very vulnerable to legal approach.
The producers of the film have hired the same legal team that represented Zapiro in his lawsuits against Zuma, to fight against SAFPB’s decision.
“There was a hearing at the end of last week and we’re actually waiting for the ruling of the tribunal which hopefully will overturn that rating. There’s a chance that they could do away with the rating and it may end up as 13PG.”
ALSO READ: Zapiro gives Zuma old shower heads and other junk for his birthday
As the title indicates, the film speaks to what became a Zapiro trademark when depicting Zuma.
The film will be screened in select cinemas throughout the country, but not a single cinema in KwaZulu-Natal.
“There is not one single movie house in KwaZulu-Natal that will dare to show this movie.”
The Showerhead was first screened at the 45th Durban International Film Festival a few months ago and there was a protest during its screening.
“Almost an hour into the movie, as it really starts laying into Zuma, suddenly there was a loud male voice singing over the soundtrack. We couldn’t hear really what was going on [in the film].
“I just remember ‘uBaba something’ and ‘Zuma my president’ singing in Zulu and some English words thrown in there.”
NOW READ: Zapiro taken to task for alleged racism, rape metaphors
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
