Jack Lewis is a Cape Town-based producer and director. His documentaries, made by his production company Idol Pictures, have been broadcast locally and shown at numerous international film festivals. He has made several films on HIV/AIDS, including Beat It! Your Guide to Better Living with HIV/AIDS (produced and directed, 22 parts x 25 mins each, 1999/2000 for eTV). Die Duiwel Maak My Hart So Seer: Children Speak (1993, 55 min. for SABC 3. Dir. Zackie Achmat, Prod. Jack Lewis) won first prize at the International Forum for Child Welfare in the Programmes for Public Screening category and an award for direction at the NTVA awards. Jack Lewis’ work has covered sexuality and gender issues, youth education, housing, programmes on land grants for the Department of Land Affairs, and language programmes for The National Language Project. He completed his first feature film, Proteus, with John Grayson in 2002. His other works include Sando to Samantha, AKA the Art of Dikvel (1998), A Luta Continua (The Struggle Continues – 2001), Brothers in Arms (2007) and TAC, Taking HAART (2011).

Jack Lewis was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1955. He obtained a PhD from the University of Cape Town and was active in the struggle against apartheid, which earned him a 5-year “banning order.” He taught political economy at the University of Western Cape for 9 years before founding Idol Pictures in 1993 and the Out in Africa South African Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in 1994. In 1998 he initiated Community Media Trust where he produced and directed the HIV/AIDS TV talk show Beat It! (1999-2010) as well as numerous documentaries. He is currently completing a feature documentary titled 200 Dollars on the impact of globalization on the clothing industry in South Africa.