''Dear Mandela'' is a 2012 South-African/American documentary focusing on three friends who are members of the shackdwellers movement

Abahlali baseMjondolo Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM, , in English: "the residents of the shacks") is a socialist shack dwellers' movement in South Africa which organises land occupations, builds communes

. They fight eviction by making a legal challenge against the KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Act of 2007 which ends up going to the final court of appeal, the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

. The challenge is successful but swiftly results in a violent attack on the

Kennedy Road informal settlement Kennedy Road is an informal settlement in Durban (eThekwini), in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Formed in the late 1970s or early 1980s, the settlement was mentioned by the African National Congress (ANC) after the end of apart ...

in 2009. The film-makers were themselves caught up in the attack. With the events of the film happening long after

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

stepped down as

President of South Africa The president of South Africa is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of South Africa. The president heads the executive branch of the Government of South Africa and is the commander-in-chief of the South African Nationa ...

, his promise to house all citizens is still a central question. The film was written, produced and directed by Dara Kell and Christopher Nizza. It premiered at the 2012

Brooklyn International Film Festival The Brooklyn Film Festival (BFF), prior to 2011 called the Brooklyn International Film Festival (BiFF) is an independent film festival held every June in Brooklyn, New York. Started by Marco Ursino, Susan Mackell, Abe Schrager, and Mario Pegoraro ...

Awards

* Winner - Grand Chameleon Award (Best Film) and Best Documentary,

Brooklyn Film Festival The Brooklyn Film Festival (BFF), prior to 2011 called the Brooklyn International Film Festival (BiFF) is an independent film festival held every June in Brooklyn, New York. Started by Marco Ursino, Susan Mackell, Abe Schrager, and Mario Pegoraro ...

. * Winner - Best South African Documentary,

Durban International Film Festival The Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) is an annual film festival that takes place in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Founded in 1979 by Teddy Sarkin and Ros Sarkin, it is the oldest and largest film festival in Africa an ...

. * Nominated -

Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Documentary The Africa Movie Academy Awards, Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Documentary is an annual merit by the Africa Film Academy to reward the best short and feature documentaries for the year. It has been merged and renamed severally since it was f ...

at the

8th Africa Movie Academy Awards The 8th Africa Movie Academy Awards ceremony was held on 22 April 2012 at the Expo Centre, Eko Hotel & Suites in Lagos, Nigeria to honor the best African films of 2011. The nominees were announced on 17 March 2012 at the Kairaba Beach Hotel in Banj ...

References

External links

''Dear Mandela''
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

''Dear Mandela''
on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

* {{Squatting South African documentary films Documentary films about Nelson Mandela 2012 films 2012 documentary films Squatting in South Africa Squatting in film