François Verster

François Verster (born 1969) is a South African film director and documentary maker.

He has a wide background in writing, music, academia and film. After completing an MA degree with distinction under literature Nobel Prize laureate JM Coetzee at the University of Cape Town, he worked with Barenholtz Productions in New York and as crew member on various independent features. Verster’s acclaimed debut as documentary director/producer was Pavement Aristocrats: The Bergies of Cape Town.

In 1998, Verster formed Undercurrent Film & Television, a Cape Town-based company that aims to produce quality documentary programmes for local as well as international markets.

Verster's movies have an "undercurrent" theme of social injustice and people picking up the pieces of their lives. He is not an "in and out" filmmaker but builds up a relationship with his protagonists, allowing his audience a very intimate and empathetic look into their hearts and homes. Despite severe budget constraints, Verster documents their lives, often over a number of years, and is involved with his protagonists past and wellbeing as much as with their future.

Pavement Aristocrats is a funny and deeply sympathetic look at some of Cape Town's bergies.

The Story of « Mbube » and A Lion's Trail track the story of the song "Wimoweh/The Lion Sleeps Tonight" back to its Zulu composer Solomon Linda and follows the song's rocky history from South Africa to Brooklyn and back asking why Linda died penniless and his children live in poverty while American artists made millions off the song. The movie was screened by PBS and helped Linda's family to find the support to take Disney, which used the song in the movie the Lion King, to court. In February 2006, Abilene Music, which holds the copyright for "Wimoweh/The Lion Sleeps Tonight", settled the case with the Solomon Linda family out of court for an undisclosed sum. In September 2006 A Lion's Trail received the Emmy Award for most outstanding cultural and artistic programming. It is a modern African story of a David and Goliath fight and at the same time a joyful celebration of Solomon Linda's and South African music.

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