Memory, time and place in The Ballad of Rosalind Ballingall

Abstract

The Ballad ofRosalind Ballingall is a recollection of the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the twenty-year-old University of Cape Town drama student into the Knysna forests in 1969. In search of answers to this unsolved case, the film follows Rosalind's footsteps, from the bohemian city streets of Cape Town in the sixties to the Knysna forests, drawing on the collective memory of the Knysna community and students who were at university with Rosalind at the time. In search of Rosalind, the film journeys into the ruins of old South Africa, tracing the emerging consciousness of the hippie era that evolved during that period, partially in response to the oppressive socio-political climate of the country at the time.