In preparation for his show at MoMA, we’re featuring a classic William Kentridge film, “History of the Main Complaint” completed in 1996.
His films are dark, dangerous and politically motivated. His technique is to photograph successive charcoal drawings on the same sheet of paper. Traces from previous drawings are usually still visible on the next frame, resulting in shorts that are powerfully self-aware.
History of the Main Complaint is the sixth film in the series and is based on twenty-one drawings. It was made shortly after the establishment in South Africa of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It was set up to conduct a series of public hearings into abuses of human rights perpetrated during the apartheid era. The hearings, in which individuals told their stories of personal suffering, were held in order to make reparation for abuse and in the hope of creating reconciliation between peoples. The underlying theme of this film is a (self) recognition of white responsibility. This is played out through a ‘medical’ investigation into the body of Soho Eckstein, the white property-developing magnate and greedy-capitalist protagonist of most of the preceding films, which provides the starting point for a revelation of conscience.
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