Ivan Hall

Ivan Hall commenced his film career with the newly renamed Kavalier Film Productions with the production of the Anglo Boer War drama / musical "The Kruger Millions" in 1967, which starred Leon Le Roux, Helga van Wyk, Carel Trichardt and Dirk de Villiers. Kruger Millions was a sequel to the earlier film "Die Kavaliers" which was directed by Elmo de Witt and was released in 1966. He then quickly attained the status of director in residence at the Kavaliers Studios situated on Aasvoelkop, Randburg and went on to direct a string of successful films across all of the different genres for Kavaliers, including "Dr Kalie" (1968) with Siegfried Mynhardt and Brian O'Shaughnessy, "Lied In My Hart" (1970) with Ge Korsten (and the former Miss South Africa, Mitsi Stander) "Vicki" (1970), the police procedural dramas "Flying Squad", "Gold Squad", (both released in 1971) "Lokval in Venesie"(1973) with Ge Korsten, "Karate Olympia" (the first African martial arts film, released in 1976) and the political thriller "Funeral For An Assassin" with Vic Morrow - which was banned in 1974 by the then all powerful South African censors for no apparent reason and then unbanned just as quickly, again for no apparent reason. Aside from his work with Kavaliers, he also directed the film "Aanslag Op Kariba" in 1973 - the sequel to Brigadiers Films' enormously successful film Kaptein Caprivi. Ivan Hall's greatest success as a filmmaker came in 1981 when his martial arts film "Kill & Kill Again", (the sequel to his earlier film "Karate Olympia") became a major international box-office success both in the USA and in the Far East. This film reached number one on the USA Variety box-office list and made an instant star out of its lead actor, James Ryan, who had also starred in "Karate Olympia". Ivan Hall went on to make the films "The Riverman" with Michael Parks, "Skollie" with George Ballot and "Trackers" with Craig Wasson and Henry Cele. Ivan Hall was honoured by the National Film, Video and Sound Archives, the Volksbladfees Directorate and the Mimosa Film Productions Directorate in June 2007 for his invaluable contributions to the South African film industry. Hall passed away on 11th October 2008 and will be greatly missed by all his colleagues and friends in the South African film industry.