ABOUT THE PROJECT
LOGLINE
Through intimate testimony and song, former South African political prisoners reveal how music sustained resistance, unity, and identity within apartheid’s brutal prison system, uncovering silenced histories, especially those of Robben Island and women.
SYNOPSIS
Set against the history of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle, WE ARE NOT AFRAID explores music’s critical role as resistance for political prisoners incarcerated over three decades (19601990), particularly at Robben Island, the notorious prison where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 years, and the Johannesburg Women’s Jail at the Old Fort. At the heart of the film are deeply intimate, and at times unexpected and humorous personal reflections from former political prisoners, both men and women, who endured imprisonment for their beliefs in racial equality and freedom, and recall how and why they sang or composed music as resistance while in prison. Interweaving first-person interviews with new archival footage from the apartheid era, a rich and textured soundtrack and musical performance, the film reveals how music—including indigenous African genres, migrant work songs, freedom songs, Western classical music, reggae, and rock—provided resistance, critique, community, therapy, memory, and identity. In prison, music often transcended political, linguistic, and ethnic differences, uniting oppressed people against a common enemy. The women’s narratives and songs, in particular, expose a hidden history of state violence: the gendered brutality of incarceration and the struggle against both racial and gender oppression; stories long overshadowed by male-centered narratives of liberation. Through these remarkably resilient individuals, their testimonies, and enduring songs, WE ARE NOT AFRAID raises timeless questions: how does cultural expression become resistance and a force for social change? And what role does music play when the most fundamental rights to human dignity and freedom of movement are under attack? At the intersection of resilience, power, violence, gender, race, memory, and human rights, this film bears witness to the enduring power of song and music in the tightly controlled and limiting space of prison when silence, fear and repression were the regime’s primary goals.
PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature
DIRECTOR Janie Cole and Shameela Seedat
PRODUCER Janie Cole, Nancy Galdy
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Lindy Wilson
Cinematographer Theodore Bogosian, Michael Carter, Janie Cole
EDITOR Tonia Moller, Tamsyn Reynolds
WEBSITE musicbeyondborders.net