Sausage Film Company has the expertise in the preservation and promotion of legacy through audio-visual documentation. Sausage Films productions are collaborative, educative and innovative. Sausage Films has created new high quality, fresh and innovative multi-media resources and are the fore-runner in addressing the gap in quality Afrocentric music and heritage documentaries.
Founded in 2020 Sausage Films is named after the Story of South African Jazz (SOSAJ), an award-winning book series by Struan Douglas, and co-founded with heritage practitioner and military veteran Vusi Macingwane Mchunu, the company is propelled into the spotlight through the creation of iMbizo yamaKhono - a multi-media gathering of the arts. A digital innovation response to the effects of Covid and Lockdown, the gathering is like a Tiny Desk and Ted Talks combined. Season 3, Africa Year was released online in 2022, together with outcomes based booklets and Season 4 is expected to be released in December 2025.
Built on a fuondation of 25 years of African Music Research and strong archives of rare materials, Sausage Films restores cultural memory lost in South Africa. Key protaganists whose stories have not yet been told is being resurrected. Currently 36 years of exile history through the legacy of Johnny Dyani, Jazz Against Apartheid, is being repatriated to the Eastern Cape through skills transfer in the community centres. Sausage Films first full-length feature documentary, The Busi Mhlongo Story is estimated for release in 2027.
Sausage Films is an open source co-creative of freelance writers, actors, producers, musicians, artists, heritage practitioners, film-makers and creative thinkers. We are working towards collective resources and archives of South African freedom philosophy and indigenous culture. And addressing the dire need for positive South African protagonists to be actively included in education. Our target market is all ages from youth to creative careers, music enthusiasts and documentary lovers.
Sausage Films draws on the IZAZI ZAKITHI philosophy of Professor Herbert Vilakazi to present an authentic knowledge, philosophy, vision and world view of the African way of life.
Using the intersection of documentary and skills tranfer, Sausage Films enhances growth points of community development and social cohesion. Using the quickly evolving internet as platforms for sales, marketing, distribution and expansion in content creation, projects make a positive impact from research to completion.
To date Sausage Films has completed and released iMbizo yamaKhono (gathering of the arts) Season One “Assimilation” Season Two “Assimilation”. Season Three “Afrika Year.” Season four is in production for release in 2025 and includes 5 x 10 – 14 minute education videos a on key protagonists in the jazz, freedom, cultural heritage. Season Four is titled “Ubuntu.”
Sausage Films is rights holder the Busi Mhlongo final album Amakholwa and lead applicant on the URBAN ZULU : The Busi Mhlongo Story. A Music Documentary in the style of Buena Vista Social Club and Searching for Sugarman. URBAN ZULU is an intimate account of the life, talent and struggles of the late great South African vocalist Busi Mhlongo. The documentary is more than a musical and biographical journey, it is an against all odds story of a trail blazing woman, overcoming racism and patriarchy, changing the game for Africa’s future.
