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Film Description
A film that looks at the pivotal role music played in South Africa's successful struggle to rid itself of apartheid, and how it was also used as an effective underground form of communication that really did give 'power to the people'. Includes interviews, archival footage and filmed performances.
For almost fifty years, from 1948 to 1994, black citizens in South Africa were stripped of every basic human right while governments of the world pretended not to see.... more >
For almost fifty years, from 1948 to 1994, black citizens in South Africa were stripped of every basic human right while governments of the world pretended not to see. Today, while there are still problems, blacks and whites live together in a free South Africa. Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, a documentary by Lee Hirsch, pays tribute to the role played by protest songs in the non-violent revolution that brought an end to apartheid nine years ago. Hirsch, a young filmmaker from New York, spent nine years in South Africa gathering newsreel footage, video clips, old photos, and interviews with musicians and political activists to show how protest songs expressed the fight against oppression. Winner of the Audience Award and the Freedom of Expression Award at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, Amandla shows fifty years of South African history that includes footage of the Sharpeville massacre, the Soweto uprising, and the triumphant election of Nelson Mandela to the Presidency in 1994.
It is truly moving to watch 20,000 people sing in unison a song that asks over and over, "What have we done?" It is worth the price of admission just to hear Sophie Mgcina singing "Madam Please," a song written for black domestic workers that includes the lines "Madam, please, before you ask me if your children are fine/ Ask me when I lost all mine." Amandla builds to a joyous climax with President Nelson Mandela singing Masekela's "Bring Him Back Home" before thousands of cheering admirers. It has been only nine years since freedom came to South Africa but many have only a distant memory of the years of oppression. As with films about the Holocaust, Amandla helps us remember. At the end, you may be short of Kleenex, but filled with renewed hope for the human race.
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