Mark Kaplan Email & Phone Number

Specialise in Documentaries, dealing in human rights, environment, sport. Also, teach film and write feature scripts.

I have been a documentary filmmaker and teacher of documentary film, for the past 28 years. This has been an extremely eventful and spiritually enriching journey that actually began at UCT where I was the Executive Director of the first Community Video training project in the country. CVRA, as it was known, (CVET today), was the first project to offer video based documentary training and facilities to the disadvantaged and this resulted in my being detained and held in solitary confinement, released without charges and ultimately deported to Zimbabwe, in August 1982.I returned to South Africa after 10 years absence with the express purpose of using film and video to highlight human rights issues. In thye interim, I had received formal training in Video and Film Production at MIT, (Massachussetts Institute For Technology), where I completed a Master of Science in Visual Studies (1983-85). I was really fortunate to get into this program, run by a doyen of American Documentary Cinema, Richard Leacock. The course was a mix of intensely practical applications in film and video work as well as film theory and other related disciplines.During my time in America I also collaborated with another very prominent ethnographic filmmaker John Marshall.

Two half-hour programme profiling Terror Fanteni, the current Bafana Bafana striker. The film follows him from Crossroads to Haifa, Israel where he currently is playing for Maccabi Haifa.The Highgate Hotel Massacre 2009 DirectorHalf hour documentary on a group of survivor's of an attack designed to derail the 1994 elections. For 13 years they thought their attackers were black, now they know that it was a Third Force, white soldiers who they may welll have grown up with. Exactly who the perpetrators were and who issued the orders remains elusive. Selected for Tri; Documentary on a massacre that occurred in 1985 on the anniversary of Sharpeville. In similar vein, those killed were mostly shot in the back. In this instance though, although it has not before come to light, many of the injured were cold bloodedly shot while they were lying injured on the ground. Many went missing and there are whispers of a mass grave on a nearby farm. This investigative film seeks out the witnesses to these events and tries to establish the veracity of their claims from a variety of sources.The Invincibles 2009 DirectorTells the story of the British and Irish Lions controversial rugby tour to Apartheid South Africa. Utilising previously unseen 8mm footage shot by three of the Lions players, the documentary is an insightful behind the scenes portrayal that is humourous and compelling. It also features some of the most sublime rugby ever played as well as some of the most shocking and brutal scenes ever witnessed on a rugby field. Voted 5th best South African Documentary, Encounters South African and International Film festival, 2009.

operating as a "production arm" of Capricorn Video Unit1992 Coordinator of the Film and Allied Workers' Organisation (FAWO) Video Training Workshop for beginners.1993 Trustee of Community Video Education Trust.

Cape Town1985 Employed by UNESCO to devise & teach a video training scheme for staff of the Institute of Mass Communications

Master Of Science; M.I.T, Visual Studies

B.A. Honours, History

Bachelor Of Arts; S.A