A brand new South African documentary, The State of the Arts – The Forgotten Industry, released to coincide with World Music Day on 21 June 2021, is a compelling snapshot of the struggles faced by some of the country’s entertainment and live-performing artists during the Covid-19 pandemic and the still-ongoing lockdown restrictions.
On 23 March 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that he would be imposing a 21-day total lockdown on the country’s 56 million citizens. The everyday difficulties, at first shared by all South Africans, became more than a year of uncertainty, frustration, and eventually despair, particularly for those reliant on the live music and entertainment industry for a living.
The live entertainment sector, which is responsible for over 800 000 jobs and more than R63 billion in annual revenue (or 1.5 percent of South Africa’s GDP), remains severely impacted by lockdown regulations, with more than 90 percent of artists and other stakeholders having lost their income since the initial ban on large gatherings came into effect on March 15, 2020.
With lockdown restrictions still a reality more than a year later, The State of the Arts is both a tribute to the importance of this genre of artists and an even-handed look at the substantial uncertainty, lack of support, and the no less salient loss of purpose, fulfilment, and human connection experienced by the artists and practitioners featured.
For anyone wishing to support the arts and the various stakeholders, there are initiatives like the South African Fund for Entertainment and Cash for Creatives.