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Notice: Due to budget reductions, effective August 15, 2025, the MSU Libraries will no longer ship materials to addresses within a 50-mile radius of the MSU Main Library.  Faculty, staff, and students that live within 50 miles of the Main Library will need to pick up materials requested at the Main Library Circulation Desk, at the lockers in the north vestibule of the Main Library, or at the Gast Business Library. On-campus office delivery to faculty and staff will still be available.If you have any questions or feedback about this change, please contact Terri Miller, Associate Dean of Research and Operations, at ticklet@msu.edu or 517-884-0841.
Notice: Due to budget reductions, effective August 15, 2025, the MSU Libraries will no longer ship materials to addresses within a 50-mile radius of the MSU Main Library.  Faculty, staff, and students that live within 50 miles of the Main Library will need to pick up materials requested at the Main Library Circulation Desk, at the lockers in the north vestibule of the Main Library, or at the Gast Business Library. On-campus office delivery to faculty and staff will still be available.If you have any questions or feedback about this change, please contact Terri Miller, Associate Dean of Research and Operations, at ticklet@msu.edu or 517-884-0841.
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Africana Contact

Africana Collection
366 W. Circle Dr.
East Lansing , MI 48824
United States

Eric Ponder
Africana Librarian

Peter Davis

Film producer and director Peter Davis became deeply involved in the anti-apartheid movement. He founded Villon Films in 1970. Davis has written, produced, and directed more than 70 documentaries. His work has been shown on major television networks including CBC, CTV, BBC, CBS, NBC, Swedish Television, German Television, and NHK Japan.

Davis was born and raised in England. He completed his masters studies at Oxford University before emigrating to Sweden and then North America. His early career included positions as scriptwriter for the National Film Board of Canada; director-cameraman for BBC, CBC, Swedish TV, Danish TV, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and WNET; as well as producer for Swedish TV, London’s Rediffusion Television, BBC, CBS, CBC, CTV, Polytel (West Germany), WNET, the United Nations, UNICEF, and C.A.R.E.

The Peter Davis Collection at Indiana University includes not only films, but also corresponding outtakes, photographs, audio cassettes, and manuscripts. The South African material spans the period of the most intensive struggle for human rights in that country, and also includes historical footage dating from the beginning of the century. Among the documentaries held there are Remember Mandela!, In Darkest Hollywood, White Laager and Generations of Resistance. Both Peter Davis and Villon Films have won numerous awards, including: In Darkest Hollywood, First Prize, Big Muddy Film Festival, 1994; Winnie Mandela: Under Apartheid, Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival, 1986; Urkunde, InternationalenDemokratischen Frauenfoderation, 1986; League of Mediterranean Women’s plaque, 1987; and Side by Side, Women against AIDS in Zimbabwe, Jury Award, WHO, 1995. His films include South Africa: the White Laager (1977), a history of Afrikaner nationalism; Generations of Resistance (1980), an account of African rebellion against white rule to the student uprising of 1976; The Selling of the Pentagon (1971); Winnie Mandela and Remember Mandela (1988); and In Darkest Hollywood: Cinema and Apartheid (1994). Davis also wrote a major book, In Darkest Hollywood: Exploring the Jungles of Cinema's South Africa (Athens : Ohio University Press, 1996). He continues to produce and distribute African and socio-political documentary and fiction films from Vancouver, Vancouver, Canada. He visited MSU and gave illustrated lectures on his works.