Sydney South Africa Film Festival
Documentary Movie – Billy Monk: Shot In The Dark
(Reviewed by John Glennie)
A 40-minute documentary about Billy Monk, a 1960s Cape Town legend whose black and white photographs of dockside nightlife reveal an underground South Africa, untouched by the division of apartheid. His own tragic story is equally as colourful.
He had a chequered life – imprisoned for 2 years, a time which would change his life forever. He took up boxing and became a bouncer in an underground nightclub. He always had an interest in photography so started taking black and white photos of patrons. He had an eye for detail and a natural talent for taking the right photo at the right time.
He always said he would be famous for his photos one day, but unfortunately he never saw that fame which came soon after his death. The nightclub broke all the apartheid laws by including all mixes of race (black, Chinese, Indian) and gender – what we now know as LGBTQI.
After an absence, working in a diamond mine, Monk returned to Cape Town and, after an inane disagreement over moving furniture, he was fatally shot at the age of 45.
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