Liza Key revolutionized South Africa’s film landscape, dismantling apartheid-era censorship barriers, mentoring emerging filmmakers, and infusing stories of injustice with profound humanity, thereby expanding the horizons of South African narrative expression.
Liza Key (1954-2026)
In early September 1990, an explosion rocked the Avalon Theatre in Fordsburg—the first incident of political violence I witnessed in Johannesburg following my return after several weeks away. Fresh out of my mid-twenties, I had rejoined the Weekly Mail, where this attack targeted a film screening featured in the paper’s festival: a Canadian production titled *How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired*.
The Weekly Mail Film Festival emerged as Johannesburg’s most dynamic cultural gathering during the post-apartheid transition. Spanning banned anti-apartheid documentaries to avant-garde global cinema and rediscovered local classics like *Come Back Africa*, the festival sparked fervent energy within our newsroom and across the city—its pulse centered on its visionary director, Liza Key.
Liza embodied an effortless charisma: raven-haired, sharp-eyed with a mischievous spark, she moved through the chaos like a tempest in pearls and bold attire, leaving trails of creative intensity and magnetic allure. She passed away on 11 October at age 71 in her beloved “Parkview plaas,” alongside her partner of 25 years, the filmmaker Janice…
