AfriDocs - Sub-Saharan Africa Broadcast Presents:
Stories of Genocide, Reconciliation & Hope
This month AfriDocs focuses on the anniversaries of genocides and reconciliation processes that are commemorated in April. AfriDocs presents a range of award-winning films that document some of the most painful episodes of genocide, but also the various journeys of reconciliation from across Africa and the globe.
From the Truth and Reconciliation process in South Africa and a startling cinematic approach to genocide in Indonesia, to various personal stories of reconciliation in Rwanda and Mozambique, stories of both genocide and reconciliation are on your screen this April.
In the disturbing yet powerful Academy Award Nominated and BAFTA Award winning, The Act of Killing, filmmakers expose the horrifying mass executions of accused communists in Indonesia and those who are celebrated in their country for perpetrating the crime. The New York Times writes in their review: “a dogged, inventive, profoundly upsetting and dismayingly funny documentary about the Indonesian massacres that began in 1965 and claimed, by some estimates, as many as 2.5 million lives over the next year.”
To commemorate the 15th of April, the anniversary of the start of Truth and Reconciliation Commission, South Africa’s long road to reconciliation is explored through a diversity of films and approaches.
Rewind is an innovative documentary that is a mix of segments from the hearings, interviews, news archive footage, and extracts from the April 2008 Market Theatre performance of Philip Miller's Rewind: a cantata for voice, tape, and testimony. The Unfolding of Sky is the story by Antjie Krog, the poet and journalist, and her personal first-hand reports on the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
AfriDocs screens every THURSDAY at 19:55 Central African time (GMT + 2) on [ED] DStv Channel 190 & GOtv Channel 65 across sub-Saharan Africa. Repeats on Fridays and Sundays. For all film and scheduling information, visit www.Afridocs.net or www.facebook.com/AfriDocs.
21 April
The Act of Killing | Joshua Oppenheimer | 2014 | Indonesia | 115 min
This powerful documentary challenges former Indonesian death-squad leaders to reenact their mass-killings in which ever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers. The film was described by the New York Times as “dogged, inventive, profoundly upsetting and dismayingly funny documentary about the Indonesian massacres that began in 1965 and claimed, by some estimates, as many as 2.5 million lives over the next year.”
Best Documentary, European Films Award, 2013
Grand Prize, Sheffield Documentary Festival, 2013
28 April 2016
Dear Mandela | Dara Kell & Christopher Nizza | 2011 | South Africa| 93 min
When their shantytowns are threatened with mass eviction, three ‘young lions’ of South Africa’s new generation rise from the shacks and take their government to the highest court in the land, putting the promises of democracy to the test.
Best South African Documentary, Durban International Film Festival, 2011
Baraka | Omelga Mthiyane, Riaan Hendricks | South Africa | 2008 | 24 min
Two days after South Africa experienced violent attacks against it’s black foreign nationals, thousands of people were displaced into temporary shelters across the country. After the attacks, the Western Cape community of Masiphumelele went to the nearby Soetwater refugee camp to publicly apologise, inviting their foreign nationals back home. The film follows the returning foreign shop owners to the overcrowded community of Masiphumelele. As the shopkeepers rebuild their destroyed shops, the community struggles to resolve the root causes of the conflict.
AfriDocs screens every THURSDAY at 19:55 Central African time (GMT + 2) on [ED] DStv Channel 190 & GOtv Channel 65 across sub-Saharan Africa. Repeats on Sundays – www.afridocs.net or www.facebook.com/AfriDocs
You can also follow AfriDocs on twitter: @Afri_Docs
