The Apartheid Killer
This true-crime documentary, exposing the ghosts of South Africa's past, was nominated for an International Documentary Association Award.
Synopsis
In the late 1980s, private security guard Louis van Schoor fatally shot at least 39 people in the South African city of East London. All of his victims were Black. The youngest was just 12 years old.
Van Schoor was arrested in 1991. With many of his shootings signed off by local police as “justifiable homicides,” he served just 12 years in prison after being convicted of only seven of the murders.
Free from prison, he is finally ready to speak, even as, 30 years on, his victims are still fighting for closure and justice.
Accolades
• Best TV Feature Documentary nominee, International Documentary Association
• Over a million views on YouTube
• Nominated at AIB & longlisted for a Grierson Award
"One of the reasons why he was willing to talk to me is because I'm a white South African; because he feels safe with me.”
Co-director Isa-Lee Jacobson, speaking about van Schoor
South Africa | 2024 | 75m
Did you know?
The Apartheid Killer is co-directed by South African Isa-Lee Jacobson and Charlie Northcott.
Jacobson had spent 20 years investigating van Schoor and made the documentary Daddy’s Girl about van Schoor’s daughter.
Northcott previously made the International Emmy-nominated documentaries Black Axe and Sweet Sweet Codeine, as well as the Peabody-winning Anatomy of a Killing.
Van Schoor passed away in 2024 at 73. Northcott wrote his obituary for the BBC.
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