‘Miners Shot Down’ at Book Cafe

Yeukai Karengezeka Arts Correspondent
Award-winning documentary titled “Miners Shot Down”, directed by South African filmmaker Rehad Desai, will premiere at the Book Cafe tomorrow.
The film is a reconstruction of the events surrounding the Marikana strike in South Africa, using unprecedented footage of the days leading up to the fatal event.
“In August 2012, mineworkers in one of South Africa’s biggest platinum mines began a wildcat strike for better wages.
Six days later, the police used live ammunition to brutally suppress the strike, killing 34 and injuring many more.

Using the point of view of the Marikana miners, “Miners Shot Down” follows the strike from day one. What emerges is collusion at the top, spiralling violence and the country’s first post-colonial massacre. “South Africa will never be the same again,” said Desai.

The film-screening will be followed by an open discussion spearheaded by Rehad Desai with renowned Zimbabwean academic and author Professor Mandi Rukuni.
It has been screened widely in South Africa, Senegal, France, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands where it won the Camera Justitia Award at “Movies that Matter Festival” 2014 in The Hague, and the “Václav Havel Jury Award” in Prague.

Desai is one of South Africa’s best-known documentary filmmakers and the chief executive officer of Uhuru Productions, a film and television production house based in Johannesburg.

A former political exile, Rehad has directed over 20 documentaries, many of which have seen international broadcast and been accepted into numerous festivals, receiving critical acclaim.

The film screening is part of Book Café week-long programme for Africa Day celebration and Harare International Carnival, presented by Pamberi Trust under the theme “Re-linking Communities through Culture”.

The spectacular week of local cultural diversity started on May 17 with a stunning line-up of performances and cultural actions to commemorate Africa Day.
The theme is born from the concept of “cultural inclusivity” in which organisers welcome and celebrate all the extraordinary cultural diversity, origins and also African and other influences that make up Zimbabwean arts today.

The Africa Day theme and cultural activities have been devised in support of Zimbabwe Culture Week under the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, and in Harare as part of the Harare International Carnival in cooperation with Zimbabwe Tourism Authority.