Killarney Film Studios was a South Africanfilm studio established inJohannesburg byNew York native andbusiness tycoonIsidore W. Schlesinger in 1915 and is regarded as "the firstmotion picture studio inAfrica".[1] Schlesinger moved to South Africa in 1894, against his family's wishes, when he read about the discovery ofgold inWitwatersrand. In 1913, having accumulated wealth throughout various ventures, he ventured in to theentertainment industry in 1913 when he purchased the Empire Theatre inJohannesburg for £60,000 and converted what was an "insolvent" business into a flourishing one named African Consolidated Theatres, which worked on the national distribution of content likevariety shows andfilms from theCape of Good Hope to theZambezi River.[2][3][4]
The studio was founded and funded in the Johannesburg suburb of Killarney by American citizenIsidore W. Schlesinger (d. 1949).[2] Two years earlier, Schlesinger had bought up AustralianRufus Naylor's Africa's Amalgamated Theatres (est. 1911) and Edgar Hyman's Empire Theatres Company (est. 1912) to form theAfrican Theatres and Films Trusts on 10 April 1913. In this way Schlesinger obtained a monopoly over film importation anddistribution throughout Southern Africa.[5][6][7]
Schlesinger set up African Film Productions (AFP), which on 5 May 1913 screened the first of its weeklynewsreels,African Mirror. AFP continued to produce African Mirror, which included features onAfrican countries such asTanzania, and interviews with notables such asChris Barnard for South African consumption until 1984.[8][9] Schlesinger importedJoseph Albrecht fromBritain to run the African Mirror.[6]
In 1915 the Killarney Film Studios produced South Africa's firstanimated film,Artist's Dream. Directed by Harold Shaw, the artist in the film was portrayed by Dennis Santry. Schlesinger's wife, Mabel May, starred as the artist's dream girl.[10] Whether this production was inspired byThomas Edison's 1900 film of the same title is unclear, as no copies remain of the South African version.[11] Five more animated short films followed, and film titles were also often animated.
African Film Productions made 43 films between 1916 and 1922.[1] The scarcity of international films during theFirst World War boosted the development of Schlesinger's company. As befits the political context of a newly unified state (theUnion of South Africa, 1910) the earlier films aimed at the white market featured co-operation betweenBoer andBriton as a common theme. Onceapartheid started in earnest after 1948, some films took up the theme ofwhites standing together against black Africans. Apart from feature films, AFP produced "documentaries" for the state, as well asindustrial safety films. During the 1920s to 1940s the distribution of AFP films to the black African market was aided bymissionaries such as ReverendRay Phillips, who from about 1920 wanted to use the medium to impart (Western) morals to black Africans. Phillips showed films tomine workers (most notably, during the 1922 white miners' strike),[12] as well as to themiddle class black elite who attended hisBantu Men's Social Centre (established by Phillips in Johannesburg). Most of these films came from Killarney Film Studios.[12]
AFP produced "the first soundadvertisement films in South Africa forJoko Tea andPegasus products" in 1930.[1] The first films to stimulate internaltourism were produced by AFP in serial magazine form, entitledOur Land.[1]
In the 1940s aspecial effects department was set up at Killarney.[10] Reflecting the rise ofAfrikanernationalism, African Film Productions produced a plethora of popular light-hearted Afrikaans fare, such asKom Saam Vanaand (Afrikaans, Come Along Tonight).[13] The first South African andAfrikaansmusical, this film was produced byPierre de Wet in 1949.[1]
The studio also printed copies of international films, such asJ. Arthur Rank'sThe Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954).[14]
20th Century Fox bought AFP in 1959 but as a result of the world decline of the movieCleopatra which cost thefilm industry around the world very dearly, the Schlesinger family took back AFP due to non-payment. In 1967 Fox produced two films in South Africa directed byRobert D. Webb withcinematography byDavid Millin that were remakes of Fox films.Yellow Sky was remade asThe Jackals withVincent Price and the then up and comingRobert Gunner andPickup on South Street was remade asThe Cape Town Affair withClaire Trevor and the up-and-comingJames Brolin andJacqueline Bisset. In 1968 the company madeMajuba about theFirst Boer War.
In the 1970s theSanlam Corporation bought AFP from the Schlesingers and later it was resold, the name was changed to South African Screen Productions and the studio was moved to Balfour Park.[15]
Killarney Film Studios' original buildings were demolished in 1972 by John Schlesinger (Isidore W.'s son), who built Johannesburg's first mall, Killarney Mall.[1][16]
Items of historical value during the existence of the Killarney Film Studio's and the African Mirror:A painting done by artist Rob Evans, portraying aZulu playing on anAfrican drum, whilst holding a shield in one hand. It is understood that the drum portrayed in the painting is the original African drum which was used at the beginning of the African Mirror film reels. This painting was commissioned to be used for publicity purposes within the media during the last years of the African Mirror.This painting, if still in existence, is considered an item of historical value.
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