Film
Miners Shot Down
D: Rehad Desai, Documentary, ZA 2014, 86 min
o. v. English, subt. English
August 2012: Escalating police violence during the seventh day of a miners’ strike leads to the “Massacre of Marikana.” Thirty-four workers died and many more were injured. Rehad Desai accompanied the strike from day one and confronts audiences with footage of the events as they transpired, interviews with strike leaders and lawyers, as well as film footage from the ensuing investigative commission. An impressive document about a bitter low point in a young democratic South Africa.
Rehad Desai is the producer and award winning director of numerous documentary films. He studied history and social history at University of Zimbabwe and University of the Witwatersrand. His documentary film “Born Into Struggle” (2004) screened at many international film festivals and, amongst other awards, won the audience prize for the best South African documentary film at the Encounters Documentary Film Festival in Cape Town. “Miners Shot Down,” his most recent production, is not only playing and opening various festivals around the globe, but has won a number of awards as well, i.e. Best Film at One World Film Festival in Prague. Beyond that it has also sparked international support for the Marikana Justice Campaign.