Amandla movie review

This documentary starts off with music playing in the background which triggers an emotion of lost legends and really takes me back into the periods of my forefathers, although i was never of existence, an image is painted in my mind by the sound track.
This has visually portrayed a scenary of togetherness and understanding amongst the black race of that time.

Ithen go on to discover the struggle, the emotions, the anguish and pain aswell as the loss of lives in huge numbers being attacked by the afrikaaners.
The toyi-toying of the people and their powerful voices screaming 'amandla awethu' meaning power to the people just gives me a sense of security and hope. Non falling souldiers. The liberation struggle is looked into as the crouds scream 'free Mandela. I found it to be so significant how artists like Hugh Masikela and Mariam Makkeba would tell these stories through their music and although these were classified as illegal and one would be arrested if found singing such songs in pubic.
Vusi Mahlasela is a poet who speaks about the impact his songs had on the people was so wonderful and powering.

It then came to the rre digging of Vuyisile Mini's grave. It was here that i was moved the most. Having that very important and emotional event take place and i am given the privelege to watch as his skeletons are being dug out of the ground. It really made me hurt inside the way hiim and many beings were being buried with plastic. It came not as a surprise to me but rather as a shock of disbelief. However later on the my heart becomes at ease as it was amazing to see a white poetry activist and those visuals of white people boycotting the streets.

Whilst songs like 'nansi indoda emnyama Verwoed' were being sung and so Mini's skeleton head is held up high. Very joyous for others while painful to some. Having to hold the head of a man so powerful. It got to a pont where even iu wanted to cry as moving songs like 'hamba kahle mkhonto wesizwe' saying farewell to him. Vuyisile Mini was physically hung and we were spiritualy hung says one of the youth activists. I also found that many songs were messages sung directly to the afrikaaner, like Hendrik Verwoed who was told to ;basop' meaniing toi watch out because the black man was coming. Mariam Makeba makes mention of how the afrikaaners would at times sing and dance to these songs, not knowing what was being said about them.

Mariam also went on to add that in the year 1948, apartheid could not handle the country. And im sure this meant that new ways of oppressing the black nation were still to be discovered. Apart from the boombing of their houses and the gun shots aswell as the many cases of being hung to death or electricuted. The moview goes on to tell us about Forced removals out of Sophia Town into Meadowlands. Still the croud would sing about an event taking place during that time and in some way, it almost made everyhing seem alright. A song arising 'Meadowlands by Mariam Makeba got famous aswell. It talked about how the policemen would barge in breakind down anything and everything, leaving the black masses homeless. the imagery here is one which is very disturbing, having to be forced out of your own home without any warning and not knowing where to go. one can only imagine how that must have been like.

There is a part where there is a church service of remeberance of all the fallen souldiers and you can just see the anger in the individuals eyes. Yet the younger children who dont really have much of an idea what meant what. They all sing to the tune and celebrate the liberation. I cannot begin to explain the trategies of this time period when the news reporter mensions the sixty nine people killed and the one hundred that were wounded. All shot from behind as this goes to show how brutal and heartless the government was. I was verey move by the little boy who was just starting to read and right, he speaks of how when he was walking with his father at a bus stop, seeing a graffitti written 'Free Mandela or bombs' he started shouting 'Free Mandela'. At that time the father could not read

documentary making

The excitement came when the games had begun and we were to shoot our first footage at port shepstone, although i wasnt there, i trusted the boys would handle everything according to plan. We ended up not using the footage though. The experience of having to direct and produce a documentary was fun for me,

Editing was the most challenging as certain skills were needed to do the editing of the documentary. Especially as there was a deadline. If i were to do something differently it would have to be time management and maybe putting in extra extra hours after lectures and on the weekends. having feedback from real film makers felt so real. It was surprising to see the different elelments that were discovered by these film makers as we had not thought about them. for example finding other documentary issus that could be documented.

Future plans for our documentary are that i would love for me and my group to rework on them and produce a piece much better than the first one.