A film inspired by a Stellenbosch University-driven project, to capture the forgotten history of the EOAN opera group, has been selected as the only documentary from Africa to compete for an international award at the International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA) in Amsterdam this year.
IDFA is one of the world's leading documentary film festivals and is dedicated to the exhibition and promotion of groundbreaking creative documentaries .
An Inconsolable Memory, produced by filmmaker Aryan Kaganof, will compete with a number of other international documentaries for the VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary. It will also be the first time that the documentary is screened internationally.
I am absolutely delighted to get the opportunity to showcase this documentary to an international audience, said Kaganof.
The filmmaker has also been chosen, along with two others from Africa to participate in the World Documentary Exchange (WDE). The WDE is a marketing programme that aims to support filmmakers in search for distribution channels for their film as well as deepen their knowledge of the documentary market . With this opportunity, the filmmaker will amongst others have the chance to engage with sales agents and TV buyers from the European markets.
The EOAN group was established in 1933 and functioned as a cultural organisation for so-called coloured persons from District Six. The organisation presented opera, drama and ballet productions and became particularly famous between the 1950's and 1970's for the opera shows it staged in South African and overseas. Today the group is based at the Joseph Stone Theatre in Athlone.
The EOAN group was South Africa's first grassroots opera company. It played a leading role in the development and performance of opera in South Africa and Cape Town in particular. The book about their history, Eoan - Our Story, is the first to tell the group's history, and this film not only complements the written history, but gives a unique perspective on the stories collected for the book, says Dr Hilde Roos and Mr Wayne Muller, co-editors of the book, which was released in January by Fourthwall Books.
The film presenter was Ms Ruth Fourie, the widow of Eoan baritone Lionel Fourie, and the production manager was Roos, a post-doctoral fellow from the Music Department at SU.
The University's connection to the Eoan group was established in 2008 when it took ownership of more than 105 document containers and 705 folders pertaining to Eoan via a permanent lending agreement reached by the Eoan Board and the institution. Ms Santie de Jongh, an archivist at the Documentation Centre for Music (DOMUS), was then tasked with sifting through the materials and establishing an Eoan Archive that is today housed in the DOMUS. Roos, who was still a PhD student focusing on opera history at that time, decided to create a chronological reconstruction of the history of the group in order to investigate whether it would be possible to compile a book.
About 45 interviews were conducted with Eoan members and families over a period of five years and transcribed.
A committee, which consisted of members from SU and Eoan, was responsible for working through all the information and providing guidance to arrive at the end product. The members were Roos, Muller, Fourie, De Jongh, Prof Stephanus Muller, a professor in the Music Department at SU and the head of the DOMUS; prof Christine Lucia, an eminent music scholar and Extraordinary Professor in music at SU; Mr Ronnie Samaai, the brother of the Eoan tenor Gerald Samaai; and Eoan bass Phillip Swales.
The EOAN project constitutes a first in South African music studies: the oral history methodology, the community-centred decision making that informs the book, the collaborative research and the creative reflection on that process through documentary film, said Muller.
The book itself is unique with chapters divided according to themes and the spoken language of respondents kept as is. It also touches on the often controversial history of the group which led to it making political compromises during the apartheid years in order to continue operating. These included separate performances for white and non-white audiences as well as the use of funds received from the Department of Coloured Affairs.
At the time that the book was released, Eoan opera singer, Martin Johnson (73) said: I am really excited that this book, which focuses on the Eoan group's history, is being published. I am over the moon to tell you the truth.
Most people do not realise the worth of works produced by great artists when the artists are still alive and often they have died poor as a result of this. We were the first opera group on the African continent. It's like I tell my grandchildren, one day you are going to hear about us, how we were the first opera singers on the African continent.
According to Kaganof, he let the filmed material from members like Johnson lead him in the final creation process.
The material that was collected during the filming of interviews with the elderly members of the Eoan group was what drove the direction of the documentary in the end. I wanted to tell the story of the Eoan group via the memories of the members that were shared with us on camera. However, as we know, memories are not always coherent, are often ambiguous, at times inconsequential, and contradictory. I tried to capture that feeling via the different types of film material I used (for instance cell phone footage), explained Kaganof.
The film also used the story of the Eoan group to try to understand what it means to be classified coloured, the compromises that people that were categorised in this way had to make to maintain their humanity during apartheid and in Eoan's case, the compromises that they had t
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
23/10/2025
The new solution is industry's first multi-channel receiver available for L3Harris's resilient tactical high-frequency data waveforms....
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile as its preferred communications provider and said all of its reporters will be equipped with SuperM...
23/10/2025
RASTATT, Germany Broadcast and media workflow technology vendor Lawo has tapped Mike Wright as VP of sales, North America....
23/10/2025
MONTREAL European cultural broadcaster ARTE has selected Grass Valley LDX 135 cameras and Creative Grading solution as part of its move from SDI/1080i to a nati...
23/10/2025
CINCINNATI The E.W. Scripps Company has named Daniel Parsons as its new chief information security officer, effective Oct. 20....
23/10/2025
ALAMEDA, Calif. Northern Michigan broadcaster WWTV recently completed a major IP-based upgrade that connects its new Traverse City studio with its control room ...
23/10/2025
A deadline is looming for a new carriage deal between Verizon's Fios TV and Nexstar, with both Verizon and the pay TV-backed American Television Alliance bl...
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile has as its preferred communications provider and announced that all Fox Weather reporters are being...
23/10/2025
PBS will use generative AI from Amazon Web Services to provide enhanced search results to viewers on the PBS App and PBS LearningMedia platforms, the network an...
23/10/2025
Back to All News
The Resurrected' Marks First Chinese-Language Series to L...
23/10/2025
RT is today publishing a statistical summary from the Register of External Activities for the second quarter of 2025.
The RT Register of External Activities ...
23/10/2025
Series three of the award winning, hit comedy entertainment series The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In is back on your screens, celebrating the very best of all t...
23/10/2025
Performances by Michael Flatley, Andy Irvine, Cuckoo's Nest, Foster and Allen and more
Friday 24 October, 8pm on RT One and RT Player
Fleadh Cheoil re...
23/10/2025
The nights grow longer and the shadows get bolder with Vampire The Masquerade: B...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
A film inspired by a Stellenbosch University-driven project, to capture the forgotten history of the EOAN opera group, has been selected as the only documentary from Africa to compete for an international award at the International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA) in Amsterdam this year. 
