Over the next two weeks, we’re spotlighting the wonderful film programming led by Jake Perlin at L’Alliance New York since he joined the cultural center’s ranks in the Fall of 2024. Together, we’ve selected two choice films he’s presented; one, from “Version Restaurée,” his new series dedicated to restored Francophone productions; the other, from “The Ballad of Patrick Dewaere,” his recent tribute to the late great French actor.

Documentarian Yolande Zauberman’s recently-restored Classified People was shot clandestinely in apartheid South Africa. Combining interviews with non-white citizens affected by the nation’s “race classification” policies and striking 16mm landscape photography, Zauberman’s debut film offers a blunt assessment of an appalling episode in recent history.

Zauberman set out to South Africa to capture the nation four decades into the introduction of apartheid law. Her film led her to Robert, a Black South African man who was classified “Coloured” by an administrative tribunal while his wife and children were considered “white.” Interviewed in his 90s — now married to a Black woman named Doris — Robert shares his absurd and infuriating experiences dealing with classification boards before the camera.

“Filmed clandestinely in 1987, Zauberman’s extraordinary documentary exposes South Africa’s insidious apartheid policy of “race classification” by focusing on the love affair of Robert and Doris, and unresolvable, moral fissure with Robert’s children and the country. Using exquisite 16mm imagery to depict a grotesque reality, the film is a critical reminder of a recent and shameful history. I am grateful that Greg de Cuir, Jr. and Lili Hinstin included the film in the Black Light retrospective in Locarno, 2019, where they introduced it to me.” JAKE PERLIN

 

Zauberman’s interviews with Robert and Doris are anchored in a certain cheeriness that betrays the horror of their national situation. Their commitment to one another, as well as Robert’s proud decision to “remain” Coloured despite being offered the chance to “re-classify” as white, embody a culture of resistance that eventually put an end to racial segregation following Nelson Mandela’s release from prison.

Yolande Zauberman is a French filmmaker whose work often deals with polemical topics. After Classified People, Zauberman directed the documentary Caste Criminelle, a film about Indians whose resistance to British rule resulted in their criminalization. Since then, she has directed a series of films contending with Jewish identity. Her most recent film, The Belle from Gaza, follows the life of a Palestinian trans woman in Tel-Aviv.

Text written by Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer. Special thanks to Jake Perlin and Chloe Dheu at L’Alliance New York, as well as Yaël Halbron at Revenante Films and the team at Préludes who restored Classified People in 4K from the original 16mm negative in collaboration with Micro Climat Studios. Revenante Films is a new festivals and sales agency dedicated to restored and underseen cinematic works of the past underserved by traditional distributions channels. Preludes.fr also makes their films available for free and on VOD in France.