PRODUCTION UPDATE: from shack to Constitutional Court

May 15:

It’s 5 in the morning and we’ve just returned from the Constitutional Court in Jo’burg. Two days ago, 80 shack dwellers (and us) traveled overnight by bus to Jo’burg. After seven hours of singing, praying and not much sleeping, we arrived at the Constitutional Court – the highest court in South Africa. The shack dwellers were there to ask the Constitutional Court judges to declare the ‘Slums Act’ unconstitutional. The Slums Act is the provincial government’s most powerful weapon in its quest to ‘clear the slums’ by 2010, and among other things, gives the government permission to evict shack dwellers to ‘transit camps’ (government-built shacks on the urban periphery), and demolish new shacks.

It was awe-inspiring to hear the most respected judges in the land grilling the advocates about whether the government should take into account the needs of the poorest when deciding whether to evict people from their shacks. The courtroom was packed with shack dwellers old and young wearing red t-shirts that read: ‘from shack to Constitutional Court’. Surely their presence must have moved the judges? The judges seemed very divided, and so it may be many months before a decision is handed down. Nonetheless, the mood was joyful – simply being allowed to have their case heard has been a dream come true for them. Outside the Constitutional Court, in the shadow of Mandela’s old jail cell, the shack dwellers joined hands and prayed for a successful outcome.

High points:

- Super-advocate Wim Trengove arguing the case. Overhead outside the courtroom: “How did you get Wim Trengove on board?” He is a celebrity advocate here in South Africa: he argued successfully for the abolition of the death penalty, represented Nelson Mandela in his divorce action against his wife, Winnie, and prosecuted Jacob Zuma for alleged fraud.

- Justice Yacoob asking: ‘Is a shack a home?” Wim Trengove’s answer: “Yes, undoubtedly.” – The advocate representing the government leaving early (somewhat bashfully), while Wim Trengove was still arguing the case

- getting home and discovering that we shot 144 gigabytes of footage in one day! The hearing lasted the whole day, so we filmed it all. We have the only video footage of the entire hearing, since the court doesn’t record it themselves.

Production Update

After a year of research and fundraising, we are returning to South Africa to begin Principal Photography on ‘Dear Mandela’ – the feature-length version.  Our cinematographer Matt Peterson and our producer Tina Brown will be joining us.  We will be on location for six weeks.

We’ll be filming the presidential elections on the 22nd February, through the shack dwellers’ eyes.  After a decade of President Thabo Mbeki’s rule, the populist, pro-poor Jacob Zuma is expected to take the helm.  We will also be filming on Freedom Day on the 27th April – the fifteenth anniversary of the very first democratic elections in 1994.  The shack dwellers call it ‘UnFreedom’ Day.  Shack dwellers are traveling from across the country to march, talk, pray, sing, and plan how to make the promises of their leaders a reality.  After filming in Durban and Cape Town, we’ll be back in New York to begin editing and planning the next shoot.

In April, our website is going live!  We’ll be blogging from South Africa, and posting sneak previews of what we’re filming.  Visit www.dearmandela.com in April for production updates, info on screenings and ways to get involved.

‘Dear Mandela’ wins ‘Outstanding Filmmaker Award’

SHORT FILM ABOUT ABAHLALI BASEMJONDOLO WINS AWARD AT PANGEA DAY
19/05/2008

‘Dear Mandela’, a short film about Abahlali baseMjondolo, has been chosen out of 2500 entries from over 100 countries to be one of 34 films featured on the Pangea Day website, a global hub that seeks to bring the world together through the power of film. Filmmakers Dara Kell and Christopher Nizza spent a week with Abahlali baseMjondolo in December 2007. They produced a short film so that a worldwide audience could learn about the plight, and the fight, of the shackdwellers.

‘Dear Mandela’ was awarded the ‘Outstanding Filmmaker Award’ representing Africa. The award includes a $5,000 grant towards the production of the full-length documentary film, which we are presently fundraising for. We plan to return to South Africa to film for a longer period of time, to capture the scope and complexity of the situation. Here’s an excerpt from the Pangea Day press release:

PARTICIPANT MEDIA AND PANGEA DAY ANNOUNCE THE FIVE WINNING ENTRIES IN THE “OUTSTANDING FILMMAKERS AWARDS PROGRAM” The winners, one from each of the following continents – North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia (including Australia) – were announced this evening in Santa Monica, CA. “Each of the five winning films is an outstanding example of the kind of cinematic storytelling that reflects Participant’s mission to inspire and compel social change,” said Jim Berk, CEO of Participant Media. “On behalf of Participant, I’d like to congratulate all five filmmakers for their remarkable achievements and look forward to seeing the treatments that will be competing for the development grant.”

Thanks to Participant Media for recognizing the powerful story of Abahlali baseMjondolo. Many thanks to our wonderful crew, and to all those who filmed with us in December. We also thank Fazel Khan and Sally Giles for sharing their footage. The international recognition for ‘Dear Mandela’ is affirmation that the story of the Shackdwellers Movement is one that will inspire the action necessary to end the unacceptable conditions in South Africa.

To see the film, go to http://www.pangeaday.org/pangeadayFilms.php

Dear Mandela cited in Le Monde diplomatique

Dear Mandela is cited in an article detailing South Africa’s glaring economic imbalances in this months edition of the French publication Le Monde diplomatique. Philippe Rivière writes a compelling piece covering many aspects of the complex story of the ‘New South Africa.’ These include lack of decent housing, lack of water resources, danger of shack fires, damaging economic policies, growing discontentment with the ANC and the enormous allocation of money for 2010 World Cup related projects. The author also mentions “social movements of extraordinary vitality, such as the Anti-Privatisation Forum and Abahlali baseMjondolo, are beginning to cohere into national networks and are not afraid to speak out or take to the streets.” Readers are encouraged to watch Dear Mandela on YouTube to learn more about Abahlali. Check out the article here:

http://mondediplo.com/2008/05/13southafrica

Dear Mandela accepted into Pangea Day

We are very excited about the six-minute short version of Dear Mandela being accepted into Pangea Day, a global event with the mission of bringing the world together through the power of film. To learn more about Pangea Day click here:

http://www.pangeaday.org/

The film will be exhibited, along with 20 other short films, on the Pangea Day website beginning May 10th.

Bishop Rubin Phillip speech marking the 3rd UnFreedom Day

Bishop Rubin Phillip gave a powerful speech at Kennedy Road Community Hall on South Africa’s official Freedom Day. Abahlali baseMjondolo has declared UnFreedom Day for the 3rd year in response to the continued existence of unjust arrests and beatings, unlawful evictions and the myriad other unacceptable living conditions endured by millions of South Africa’s poor. Read the speech here:

http://www.abahlali.org/node/3489

Interview on Pambazuka News

Dara and Chris were interviewed by Pambazuka News, a great pan-African webzine focused on social justice issues. You can find the interview here:

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/46432

DEAR MANDELA

Dear Mandela, a work-in-progress, is a feature length documentary that follows four teenagers – children of the New South Africa – as they join their communities in trying to get the houses they were promised by Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first democratically elected president.

During Apartheid, many people around the world supported Mandela and the African National Congress in their fight to end minority rule. In 1994, the world watched as Africa’s newest democracy was born. President Mandela said in his inaugural speech, “Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.”

Thirteen years later, as the world’s attention shifted elsewhere, the ANC’s revolutionary dream has been deferred. Since 1994, the number of South Africans living on less than $1 a day has doubled from 2 million to 4 million. One in four South Africans live in shacks, most without access to electricity, water or sanitation. Yet economic growth is at an all-time high, and former ANC freedom fighters now drive luxury cars, prompting Nobel prizewinner Archbishop Desmond Tutu to accuse Mandela and his team of stopping the gravy train ‘just long enough to get on it’.

Dear Mandela (working title) follows these young shack dwellers as they challenge a police state bent on forcibly removing the poor from the spaces their predecessors claimed in the cities during the struggles in the 1980s. State-sponsored demolitions and forced evictions are a daily threat, and deadly shack fires can destroy all a family has in moments. In the midst of this, the shack dwellers have united to form a group called Abahlali baseMjondolo. Abahlali baseMjondolo translates into English as the Shackdwellers’ Movement. In the words of Abahlali Chairman S’bu Zikode, “The time has come for the poor to show themselves that we can be poor in life but not in mind.”

The characters in Dear Mandela feel the effects of Apartheid, but have only ever read about it in books. Mazwi, 14, lives with his family in a shack in the Joe Slovo settlement. He says, “At that time there was Apartheid between certain people and certain people. Now, there’s a new Apartheid that’s existing in South Africa, which is between the rich and the poor.

Seen through the eyes of teenagers, Dear Mandela follows the Shack Dwellers Movement as they go to the Constitutional Court to issue a demand for change and an honoring of the rights guaranteed in the nation’s landmark Constitution.

A six-minute short version of Dear Mandela can be viewed here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fZWIZX_8ub8