The Javett-UP is pleased to present a free 48-HOUR screening of director Sifiso Khanyile’s second feature documentary “A New Country” (2020) which begs the question: “Does South Africa have what it takes to reinvent itself?
In “A New Country” Khanyile uses historical and essayist documentary modes as an inquiry into South Africa’s socio-political conditions 27 years after the official demise of apartheid. Khanyile interrogates the notion of a political miracle hailed as the “rainbow nation” in a country still defined by the legacy of economic apartheid earning it a top spot for the most economically unequal countries in the world.
“A New Country” draws from heartbreakingly insightful and remarkably frank interviews with a full spectrum of South Africans, from informal workers to pop culture figures to artists, politicians, and academics. The film follows the South African narrative from the early days of liberation to a contemporary society that is increasingly fractured and in which the culture of resistance and protest is as strong and vital as it was during the height of legislated apartheid.
Sifiso Khanyile is a producer and director for Anaphora Films. He has worked as a writer, archive researcher and content producer for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). In 2008 Khanyile directed “Spiderman and Romeo,” a ground breaking short documentary about the thrills and dangers of train surfing on the notorious Metrorail Soweto line. His first feature documentary Uprise! (2017) was nominated for the Golden Horn Award for Best Achievement in Sound in a Documentary Feature. “A New Country” received the Audience Choice Award at the Silicon Valley African Film Festival (SVAFF) and a Best Director and special mention for Best Documentary at the Encounters Documentary Film Festival.