Why ‘Don’t Give Up’ is still (unfortunately) relevant today
One of the tragic consequences of Apartheid was poverty on a mass scale. When I first made this movie almost fifteen years ago, this was evident on EVERY street corner in South Africa. You couldn’t stop at a traffic light without your heart and soul being ripped apart! Ashamed, I would give whatever change I had and drove on, trying to banish those sad encounters from my mind. But I couldn’t. We the drivers, the people of South Africa- were so dulled to their presence that we didn’t give them a second thought( other than the spare change on our dashboard).
But it got me thinking- who were these people? How did they live their lives? Where did they go after the street corner? What happened to the babies they used to beg with?
Anant Singh and I had just made YESTERDAY, about the AIDS pandemic in South Africa, and we thought this would be a great follow up the Oscar-Nominated success of that film to bring a voice to these voiceless people on the streets!
I chose to shoot it as a silent movie- a powerful metaphor for the subject matter- and, of all the films, it is my favorite! But it never found an audience.
Until now.
Appalled by the poverty that persists on every street corner in South Africa, Anant thought it would be amazing to shoot a new ending, with the lead character fifteen years later, STILL LIVING ON THE
STREETS! A powerful statement indeed!!
Moreover, the recent scourge of Covid-19, where every night on the news we see impoverished people in the townships struggling to cope with the twin horror of disease and poverty, makes the
story twice as powerful in my estimation!
The blight of poverty needs to be addressed, both in South Africa and worldwide. Stamp out poverty and we go a long way to balancing nature and preventing things like Covid-19 from taking foothold ever again!
I truly hope this film finds a new audience.
The time is now!
STARRING LELETI KHUMALO
Leleti Khumalo was born on 30 March 1970 in Kwa Mashu Township, the North of Durban. Growing up a poverty-ridden township, she became a member a youth backyard dance group called Amajika where she met Tu Nokwe, who became her mentor. Leleti enchanted audiences in South Africa and on Broadway when she appeared in Sarafina, a production based on the Soweto uprising of June 16, 1976. She was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress. Sarafina! Spent two years on Broadway before embarking on a worldwide tour. In 1987 she received an NAACP Image Award for Best Stage Actress.
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY DARRELL JAMES ROODT
From the team of the Academy Award Nominated film, YESTERDAY, comes a touching tale of a young, homeless, mother (Leleti Khumalo) and her bid to survive in the harsh environment of modern day Johannesburg. From the Academy Award nominated Director and Original Song by Grammy Award Winner Peter Gabriel. Making their feature film debut are Thobani Khubeka and Sibonelo Xulu who were discovered while performing with a Zulu cultural group in Durban. Don’t Give Up follows the life of Faith, a homeless beggar and a single mother of two young sons Lucky and Siyabonga. She begs for money from disinterested commuters on her corner.
Faith’s corner. They live in an abandoned car in an alleyway of central Johannesburg. One day while washing her sons at a tap in a bus depot, Faith is assaulted by a security guard. In her bid to escape this battering, she and her sons try to run away, but Siyabonga gets caught in the wire fence and almost has his thumb ripped off. Faith is unable to help him beyond wrapping it up in a torn piece of her skirt. She tries to increase her takings with a sign, but has to beg the cardboard for the sign from antagonistic newsvendors. She cannot write so has to find someone to write the sign for her, which takes her into the dangerous area of Hillbrow.
PRODUCED BY ANANT SINGH
Born and raised in apartheid South Africa in the eastern coastal city of Durban, Singh began his film career at age 18 when he left his studies at the University of Durban-Westville to purchase a 16mm movie rental store. From there, he moved into video distribution, forming Videovision Entertainment and then progressed into film production in 1984 Place of Weeping, the first anti-apartheid film to be made entirely in South Africa.
Anant Singh is recognised as South Africa’s pre-eminent film producer, having produced more than 80 films since 1984. He is responsible for many of the most profound anti-apartheid films made in South Africa, among which are “Place Of Weeping,”Sarafina! and Cry, the Beloved Country.
Nelson Mandela called him “a producer I respect very much…a man of tremendous ability” when he granted him the film rights to his autobiography, Long Walk To Freedom. The film titled Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, is directed by Justin Chadwick and stars Idris Elba as Mandela and Naomie Harris as Winnie Mandela. The film has received wide critical acclaim internationally, and received prestigious award recognitions, including Academy Award and BAFTA nominations and a Golden Globe Award win.
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