My Mandela Your Mandela Our Mandela: The Magic of Madiba | Documentary Idea

by Wayne Turner
(Cape Town, South Africa)

This documentary follows the journey of four people of different races over the last 30 years from the height of apartheid to the death of Nelson Mandela. Each person recounts the story of their first awareness of racism personally and in society from the perspective of their position in apartheid society.

5 main questions will be answered by each person:

1. When did you first become aware of racial discrimination?
2. How did it affect you?
3. What did you do about it?
4. When did you first become aware of Nelson Mandela?
5. What did he mean to you before and after becoming the father of South AFrica?

The first person is Wayne the apartheid police officer (that's me) who enforced the laws through compulsory national service.

The second person is Rob, a white man who dodged the draft of national service and was given assylum in another country and returned after democracy.

The third person is Joe, a coloured man man who lived in Cape Town throughout the apartheid years.

The fourth person is Zweli a younger black man who was a student during the apartheid years. Black people experienced apartheid more harshly than coloured people during those years because they were of mixed race.

Each person has their story of how it affected them, even the police officer. The story builds as they each become aware of the differences in society and the pivotal point when they are personally affected by apartheid. The focus will change as each persons world changes by the effects of the discriminatory system. What they do about their new conscience and where it takes them will become apparent.

There is a slight shift of gear as the focus changes to their first awareness of who Nelson Mandela is and what he has done and the rammifications of his political views as they affect the country. Here we will look at how Mandela's influence reaches beyond the prison cell until he is released , democracy arrives and he becomes president.

Finally we look at the man Mandela and his "Madiba Magic" that saves a nation from bloodshed with the doccie terminating in the way the nation is united in grief for a man who become the father of our nation and all the races. Each of the four people gives their perspective on his life and effect on their lives personally.

The core of the film is to show Mandela from both sides of the apartheid fence. How he divided a segregated nation through the radical political struggle and then how he united people once freedom had been achieved

We have the gear (no hiring necessary), each of the interviewees and the passion to make it. We'll probably need a small budget to cover things like B-roll from film archives showing the apartheid years. There are two of us who can handle sound, camera and interviews. My naivety has probably missed a few things.

My experience is part-time making a few short films doing camera work. I've been in radio for 15 years and have done over 5500 interviews. I also teach photography and present one or two TV programmes on a community TV channel.

Any ideas or warnings would be valued.