AMANDLA! A REVOLUTION IN FOUR-PART HARMONY

Director Lee Hirsch / 2002 / South Africa/USA

Winner of the Audience award and the Jury's Freedom of Expression prize at last year's Sundance Film Festival, Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony is a soul-stirring documentary that uses exclusive interviews and rare, never-before-seen footage to document the vital role that music played in the nearly half-century struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Nine years in the making, this inspirational film is a testimony to the power of song, and its ability to fuel the fight for freedom.

Amandla!, which means 'power' in the Xhosa language, is filed with songs that were so dynamic and persuasive that they became anthems for the Freedom movement, and as a result, were banned by the government, and the artists responsible exiled. A number of these performers, including Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela, are interviewed, as well as other freedom fighters, who provide powerful accounts of the years of hard-fought struggle.

'This impassioned chronicle of the role of music, as a means of protest and survival through more than 40 years of struggle against apartheid, is exhaustively informative and powerfully emotional" — Variety

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