Production Resumes on Apartheid Documentary
Five Star Films receives major funding for Breaking the Rules, a feature documentary exploring the role of white activists in South Africa's freedom struggle.
Award-winning, Maryland-based, Five Star Films, is back in production on Breaking the Rules, an exploration of the often hidden contribution of white anti-apartheid activists during South Africa's freedom struggle. The production, which was initiated in 2004, has received a major grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies to support filming all main characters on locations in South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia.
"We still need funds for post-production," says Producer/Director, Carolyn Projansky, "but we're confident we'll find support from individuals, foundations and broadcasters because interest in the story is high."
Narrated by key activists from very different cultural and political backgrounds, Breaking the Rules is a 90-minute feature documentary that explores the motivations and actions of whites that joined the black struggle to bring down the apartheid state. The film's contemporary framework reveals and investigates South Africa's ongoing struggle with issues such as race, racial identity, reconciliation and social justice.
Activists confirmed for participation in the film include the late opposition MP Helen Suzman, ANC activist and now Constitutional Court Justice Albie Sachs, dissident Afrikaner journalist Max du Preez and former student activist, Kate Philip. Their candid and moving accounts of what it meant to defy the often terrifying apparatus of the apartheid state will offer a rarely seen perspective on South Africa's troubled history.
The late Helen Suzman, a member of the South African parliament for 36 years, was filmed extensively during the first stage of production from 2004-06. Projansky obtained the last video interview before her death on 1 January this year.
Since receiving the Atlantic Philanthropies grant, Five Star Films has done location shoots with Albie Sachs, a former activist who lost an arm and the sight in one eye in a state-sponsored car bomb attack in Mozambique in 1988. Additional shoots are planned with Sachs in Maputo and Cape Town. Max du Preez will be filmed re-living the experience of reporting on the 1976 Soweto riots and at Vlakplaas, the headquarters of the notorious government-sponsored C10 paramilitary "death squad", which du Preez exposed. Kate Philip's story will illustrate the impact of the massive student-led anti-apartheid protests of the 1980s.
The end product of the Breaking the Rules project will include a 90-minute documentary film for international distribution, an interactive website, collaborations with educational groups, a viewers guide, and a permanent archive of raw footage, which will be donated to the South African History Archives.
"We're very excited about getting back into production," says Projansky. "This project not only documents the nonracial history of the anti-apartheid struggle, we hope it will add richness to the general understanding of the personal risks, dangers and sacrifices experienced by those individuals who were fighting for racial justice."
The anticipated release date for Breaking the Rules is late 2010.
For further information, Contact Carolyn Projansky in the US at 301-320-4460, or by email: Carolyn@fivestarfilmsinc.com, or visit breakingtherulesmovie.com.
Follow Projansky on Twitter @CarolynBTRmovie.
A 2-minute preview of the film is available on YouTube |
