PHOTOGRAPHERS WIN PULITZERS IN THE BANG BANG CLUB
Newspaper photographers are taken for granted, often equated with paparazzi. Not so in The Bang Bang Club, directed by Steven Silver. The African National Congress has declared a boycott of all work for the White establishment, which in turn offers the jobs to Zulus, some of whom have formed the rival Inkatha Freedom Party. In 1990, Greg Marinovich (played by Ryan Philippe) drives to a scuffle between ANC and Zulu groups in Soweto, takes photos that later win him a Pulitzer, and then defies conventional wisdom by walking into the heart of a Zulu encampment to ascertain their side of the story. After encountering Zulus suspicious of his presence, they chase after him until he ducks into a home where some Zulu leaders are present. They befriend him, explain their need for the jobs, and Marinovich keeps snapping pictures while some of the more colorfully active Zulus perform. When he returns to Johannesburg to sell his treasure trove of photos to The Star, he soon is accepted in the company of other combat photographers Kevin Carter (played by Taylor Kitsch), Ken Ooosterbroek (played by Frank Rautenbach), and João Silva (played by Neels Van Jaarsveld). However, the foursome do not constitute an exclusive club, for the nickname Bang Bang Club is assigned by other journalists. During the rest of the film, based on the book of the same title authored by Marinovich and Silva released in 2000, they risk their lives to take photographs while bullets fly at impromptu battlefields, though government tanks often show up to support the Zulus. Filmviewers learn about the personalities of the photographers as well as their boss, Robin Comley (played by Malin Akerman), who chooses which photos to run despite censorship guidelines. Silva, in particular, has a drug problem, is fired from The Star, yet goes to the Sudan to win a Pulitzer for a photo of a vulture patiently waiting at a respectful distance behind a child who is collapsing from hunger. A film with so much action is difficult to end, but the suicide of Carter and nonfatal injury of Marinovich in 1994 slow down the pace. Credits at the end indicate the fate of the remaining photographers. Although the film takes much poetic license to tell the Zulu side of the story, The Bang Bang Club has been nominated by the Political Film Society for best film exposé of 2011. MH