AllMovie

While the South African system of apartheid -- a regime of institutional racism that kept political, social, and economic power away from the nation's black majority in favor of a small handful of white leaders -- was abandoned in 1990, the physical and emotional scars of those who lived under apartheid's violent tyranny remain, and this documentary examines the lingering effects of South Africa's minority rule. Tide Marks: Legacies of Apartheid focuses primarily on four people who survived apartheid -- activists Shirley Gunn and Maureen Mazibuko, who fought the system and have the scars to show for it, and Brian Mphahlele and Colin de Souza, who are still struggling against the dire poverty that continues to plague many black South Africans. Tide Marks: Legacies of Apartheid was screened as part of the 2004 San Francisco Black Film Festival.