Joe Blog

The Resonance Archive Festival returns from 25 to 29 November 2026, in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Qonce, under the theme Counter-narratives of Commemoration. Through film, performance and conversation, the festival asks who writes those versions of the past, whose stories they leave out, and what becomes possible when those stories are told on their own terms. At the centre of the festival are rare South African films that have been tracked down in forgotten archives and digitised so audiences can see them again, some for the first time.
SEE THE FULL PROGRAMME FOR THE BIOSCOPE HERE.
HOW LONG (1976)
Dir. Gibson Kente * 1h10min
Starring Mary Twala, Darlington Michaels, Ndaba Mhlongo, Peter Sephuma, Armstrong Ngcobondwane
In a township under apartheid, Khulu, a beloved grandmother, fights to hold her family together. When a petty, power-hungry policeman tears them apart, she is left alone and exposed to an indifferent system. Yet the film also finds room for humour and music. Shot in King William’s Town, now Qonce, Kente was arrested on the last day of filming, and the film was banned after a single screening in Soweto. It returned to cinemas in 2025.