Award-winning film tours to informal settlement communities
April 30 – 25 May 2015
Dear Mandela, the multi award-winning documentary film, directed by Dara Kell and Christopher Nizza, will be screened in shack settlements on a national tour.
The film, which premiered at the Durban International Film Festival in 2011, follows the journey of three friends living in Durban’s vast shantytowns who refuse to be moved from their shacks after the South African government begins to evict of shack dwellers in an endeavor to ‘eradicate the slums’. From their humble homes, the three take their pleas to the highest court in the land as they invoke Nelson Mandela’s example and become leaders in a growing social movement, known as Abahlali baseMjondolo. The film is at once inspiring, devastating and funny, offering a new perspective on the role that young people can play in political change and is a fascinating portrait of South Africa coming of age.
Winner of multiple awards, including Best South African Documentary at the Durban International Film Festival and a nomination for Best Documentary at the African Academy Awards, Dear Mandela has screened in 35 countries and been translated into 10 languages.
The national tour was launched at the Constitutional Court on Thursday, 30 April, with remarks by Deputy Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Dikgang Moseneke and a post-screening panel discussion and Q&A session with Justice Zak Yacoob, Abahlali baseMjondolo Founding President, S’bu Zikode and Youth Leader, Mazwi Nzimande.
It will now also be screened in communities in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg facing similar challenges as those faced by the members of the Abahlali movement. Each screening of the tour will be followed by a Q&A and debate with S’bu Zikode and Mazwi Nzimande. Both activists have been directly affected by the wave of state repression. As documented in the film, S’bu’s family home at the Kennedy Road Informal Settlement was destroyed by ANC party loyalists in September 2009 and they were forced into hiding after repeated public death threats against him. For the audience, the campaign presents an opportunity for these communities to engage with, and learn from, the issues raised and struggles depicted in the film.
The tour will also include accompanying workshops for community leaders, run by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI).
The screening tour brings together community members and activists from all over South Africa to discuss forced evictions here, and around the world, connecting those at risk of forced eviction around the globe, and strengthening social movements working toward the right to adequate housing and dignity for all” says Dara Kell.
Screenings are as follows:
Thursday, April 30: Launch at the Constitutional Court, Johannesburg, 18:00
Saturday, May 2: Workshop and Screening – Masakane Primary School (TBC) Zandspruit, Johannesburg
Sunday, May 3 Workshop and Screening – Evaton Community Centre, Evaton, Johannesburg
Saturday, May 9: Screening 15:00 – Silver City Community Hall, Mangosuthu High Way, Umlazi Township, Durban
Sunday, May 10: Screening 10:00 – Hindu Surat Foundation, 137 Dr Goonham Street, Durban CBD
Saturday, 23 May: Screening 15:00 – Tamboville Community Hall, Zamokuhle Settlement, Pietermaritzburg
Wednesday, May 13: Screening 17:00 – Geography G10, Rhodes University, Grahamstown
Saturday, May 16: Workshop 09:00 and Screening 14:00 – Green Point Hall, Khayelitsha, Cape Town
Sunday, May 17: Workshop 09:00 and Screening 14:00 – Community Hall, Sweet Home Farm, Phillipi, Cape Town
TBC, Screening – Northwest University, Mahikeng
TBC, Screening – Diepsloot Community, Johannesburg
For more information and times, follow the tour on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. (@dearmandela)
All screening information at: http://dearmandelastories.
More about the film
Watch the trailer in English: https://vimeo.com/
What the critics said:
VARIETY: “Stirring…evocatively shot, lucidly edited.”
“GRIPPING, eye-opening…a call to action as much as it is an indictment of a government that has lost its way” – Charl Blignaut, City Press
“ENTHRALLING” – Mahala Magazine
“Leaves us with questions few have dared to ask about the new South Africa” – Marie Huchzermeyer, author of Cities With ‘Slums’