FIREWORX Media and Amnesty International are due to screen the award-winning documentary 'Dear Mandela' across South Africa this year.
It is expected to be seen in schools, community halls, universities, churches and informal settlements.
Dear Mandela, a winner of the Best South African documentary at the 2011 Durban International Film Festival, follows the journey of three friends living in the Kennedy Road settlement, a Durban shantytown, who refuse to be moved when the South African government begins evicting shack dwellers from their homes.
The film documents their journey to South Africa's highest court as they invoke Nelson Mandela's example and become leaders in an inspiring social movement.
The characters - Mazwi, an enlightened schoolboy, Zama, an Aids orphan, and Mnikelo, a mischievous shopkeeper - discover that the new "Slums Act" violates the rights enshrined in the country's constitution.
Dear Mandela offers a fresh perspective on the youth's role in a South Africa coming of age.
"Filmmakers Dorah Kell and Christopher Nizza sensitively capture how everyday life in an informal settlement intersects with the threat of eradication," says Marie Huchzermeyer, an academic at the school of architecture and planning at the University of the Witwatersrand.
"The film touches us with the doubts, fears, reflection and courage of members of Abahlali base Mjondolo, the shack dwellers' movement, in Durban in their resolve to defend a new democracy against its custodians' resort to apartheid-era legislation against informal settlements.
"In the depth of the backlash that the Kennedy Road community endured, this documentary leaves us with questions that few have dared to ask about the new South Africa."
The film was described by festival judges as "a movie about courage, beautifully shot, socially relevant".
Forced removals exposed
FIREWORX Media and Amnesty International are due to screen the award-winning documentary 'Dear Mandela' across South Africa this year.
It is expected to be seen in schools, community halls, universities, churches and informal settlements.
Dear Mandela, a winner of the Best South African documentary at the 2011 Durban International Film Festival, follows the journey of three friends living in the Kennedy Road settlement, a Durban shantytown, who refuse to be moved when the South African government begins evicting shack dwellers from their homes.
The film documents their journey to South Africa's highest court as they invoke Nelson Mandela's example and become leaders in an inspiring social movement.
The characters - Mazwi, an enlightened schoolboy, Zama, an Aids orphan, and Mnikelo, a mischievous shopkeeper - discover that the new "Slums Act" violates the rights enshrined in the country's constitution.
Dear Mandela offers a fresh perspective on the youth's role in a South Africa coming of age.
"Filmmakers Dorah Kell and Christopher Nizza sensitively capture how everyday life in an informal settlement intersects with the threat of eradication," says Marie Huchzermeyer, an academic at the school of architecture and planning at the University of the Witwatersrand.
"The film touches us with the doubts, fears, reflection and courage of members of Abahlali base Mjondolo, the shack dwellers' movement, in Durban in their resolve to defend a new democracy against its custodians' resort to apartheid-era legislation against informal settlements.
"In the depth of the backlash that the Kennedy Road community endured, this documentary leaves us with questions that few have dared to ask about the new South Africa."
The film was described by festival judges as "a movie about courage, beautifully shot, socially relevant".
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