Dear Mandela, a South African documentary about Abahlali baseMjondolo, has won the Golden Chameleon (yes – that’s the top nod) at this year’s Brooklyn Film Festival, Sleeping Giant and Fireworx Media have announced.
The Golden Chameleon now joins the Golden Butterfly (Movies That Matter Film Festival’s top prize) in a growing list of accolades for the film, including Best South African Documentary at the Durban International Film Festival and a nomination for Best Documentary at the African Academy Awards.
The film, directed by Dara Kell and Christopher Nizza, follows three leaders of the Abahlali baseMjondolo movement fighting against evictions of slum dwellers (legalized by the KwaZulu Natal’s slums act) by invoking the right to housing enshrined in South Africa’s landmark 1996 Constitution.
Calling the documentary ‘a film about unfreedom,’ Jared Sacks of the Mail & Guardian has a great review of the film here, including comments on the broadcast and reaction in South Africa.
http://vimeo.com/26538549k
Kudos to the film, and to the activists of Abahlali baseMjondolo.
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