Trevor Moses on ‘Riding the High Wind’

Born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1967, Trevor Moses grew up during the Rhodesian Bush War. But it was a trip to the cinema at age seven, where he was dragged into a screening of Murder on the Orient Express, that ignited a lifelong passion for film.

This passion fueled a remarkable 33-year career as a film archivist at the South African National Film, Video and Sound Archives in Pretoria, where Trevor worked until 2022. During his time there, he assisted on hundreds of projects, contributing to the Oscar-winning documentary, Searching For Sugar Man.

Now, Trevor elaborates on his expertise and experience in his debut book, ‘Riding The High Wind’. Set for publication next year, this comprehensive biographical and autobiographical book journeys through the history of Africa’s oldest film industry (1895-2017), interwoven with his own three decades dedicated to preserving that legacy. A labour of love, the 400-page book features sixty rare archival stills.

Spling caught up with Trevor to find out about his extraordinary career, the challenges of film preservation, and some of the compelling films and stories that inspired ‘Riding The High Wind’.

Jamie Uys in Ken Annakin’s The Hellions (1961): the first South African and African western.

What motivated your decision to write a comprehensive, yet opinionated, history of the South African film industry?

My book is told from the unique perspective of someone who has been in our film industry for many years and has worked on countless films in pre and post production, rather than from the perspective of a film theorist or a casual observer.

If you had to select three South African films that best represent the country’s cinematic evolution, which would they be?

I’m going to mention ten that stand out for me…

Lord Oom Piet (Uys, 1962)
Die Kandidaat (Rautenbach, 1968)
Katrina (Rautenbach, 1969)
Jannie Totsiens (Rautenbach, 1970)
Shangani Patrol (Millin, 1970)
The Winners (Nofal, 1972)
The Wild Geese (McLaglen, 1978)
Breaker Morant (Beresford, 1980)
Kill and Kill Again (Hall, 1981)
Darfur (Boll, 2009)

What do you consider the single most significant event in the history of South African film before the post-1994 democratic era, and why?

When apartheid censorship started to lose its’ grip on society and films in general towards the late 1980s… this freed up the filmmakers.

John Saxon and Tippi Hedren in Percival Rubens’ Mr Kingstreet’s War aka Heroes Die Hard (1971).

What patterns or shifts in genre, theme or production scale have you observed across
the century, particularly when comparing the output from the 1970s to that of the 2010s?

Quantity has unfortunately replaced quality: films all seem cut from the same cloth or stamped from the same mold.

Which film’s banning under Apartheid censorship do you believe had the biggest cultural or political impact within the country?

Very few South African films were banned by the Apartheid censor board – such as Three Bullets For A Long Gun, How Long, Die Square, Springbok, Shot Down, The Shadowed Mind, The Stick and Place of Weeping. None of them were seen as particularly relevant.

However, the banning of international films such as In The Heat of the Night, The Defiant Ones, The Omen, The Exorcist (and its two sequels), Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, Soldier Blue for sometimes stupid reasons or no reasons at all, made South African censorship a laughing stock overseas. Oh yes, television was also banned.

David O’Hara and Maggie Benedict in Uwe Boll’s Darfur aka Attack on Darfur (2009).

What is the most urgent challenge currently facing the Archives in terms of preserving and making accessible South Africa’s cinematic heritage?

The fact that the DSAC does not care about preserving South African heritage at all. One sees the constant renaming of everything in sight and it makes me fear for the future.

What do the lost film gaps in the archive mean for the current generation of filmmakers and historians trying to understand the full scope of South African cinema?

The lost silents and later features will be a stumbling block for this forever unless an archive or private collection has one or more of these in their collection.

In your selection process of memorable scenes for the book, were you primarily looking for scenes that were technically brilliant, emotionally resonant, or historically significant?

My book isn’t structured that way: every year from 1895 to 2017 is discussed and all the significant events in each year are mentioned. So it is sort of like a text book, biography, reference book and autobiography all rolled into one.

You’ve led a long career within the South African film industry. Can you share some of your highlights, as well as any regrets, when you look back?

Some of my career highlights, include: working with Malik Bendelljoul on Searching for Sugar Man. Working with Nic Hofmeyr on Main Reef Road. Screening films throughout South Africa for more than a decade.

Being mentored by six major figures in our industry including my work mentor: a privilege. Lecturing at many colleges and universities to make students aware of our history: a privilege and also enjoyable.

Working with Leon van Nierop on the book Daar Doer in die Fliek. The book was enjoyable but the later TV series was regrettable as his producers treated me badly.

Some of my regrets, include: working with Peter Davis on In Darkest Hollywood. Working with the makers of Long Nights Journey into Day. Working in pre-production on Invictus… the film is a historically inaccurate pile of Hollywoodized crap. Working on the location and restoration of the notorious subsidy scandal films of the 1980s. The person involved threatened me with my job when I could not produce several of the films they wanted as they hadn’t been archived with us.

Antony Thomas in Emil Nofal’s Wild Season (1967).

Working with Katinka Heyns on Silwerdoekstories: she wanted me fired. Being invited to the South African premiere of District 9. I walked out halfway through when I realized what this turgid piece of s**t was actually about. Being invited to the South African premiere of Avengers: Age of Ultron, which was partly filmed in Johannesburg and watching ANC lackeys saying that “no films have been made here” when Johannesburg is the home of African cinema. And finally, working with a certain “South African film expert and writer” who did his level best to stop me writing anything.

Where should our industry be focusing if we are to compete on an international level and how do you think we can get there?

As far as I am concerned, we are already there and have been for some time, even in the apartheid years. Films such as The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980), The Winners (1972) and Kill and Kill Again (1981) were major successes overseas.

What inspired the title ‘Riding the High Wind’ for your book?

It was originally going to be called Retire Some of the Butchers – a quote from the anti-apartheid and anti-censorship publisher Harry Jones who made reference to the apartheid censor board in an editorial – but I decided on the title to honour my friend and mentor David Millin ASC who directed and wrote the 1965 adventure thriller Ride The High Wind aka African Gold (available to see on YouTube) which, in a weird sort of way, is Africa’s first zombie genre film. The film has quite a few eerie moments and the film has a dead thing killing the film’s villain at its conclusion.

Film Stills: National Film Video and Sound Archives, Pretoria. You can contact Trevor Moses for research purposes.