Congratulations to “Milisuthando” for Feature on “Variety”

On May 5, Variety featured Milisuthando Bongela’s self-titled documentary on Black middle-class women in post-apartheid South Africa, as part of the 2022 Hot Docs Forum. The film, for which RPJ provides production legal services, is produced by Marion Isaacs for The Good Black Project, in co-production with Sonia Barrera and Viviana Gómez and executive produced by Jessica Devaney and Anya Rous of Multitude Films.

“Milisuthando” was selected as one of 20 projects, representing 19 countries and 26 filmmakers, that pitch to a range of potential funders worldwide, from acquisitions executives and distributors to film festival programmers and foundations.

The five-part film is a personal essay and reflection on the “moment of first encounter” between previously segregated white and Black South Africans. Bongela draws from home footage from the early 90s, footage of her childhood home, archival apartheid propaganda and interviews with her friends and contemporaries to document experiences of integration in the newly democratic South Africa.

“There’s this acknowledgement of a fundamental connection, and then the question of: If we are connected, then what do we do with these pasts? How do we negotiate them in the day to day?” Marion Isaacs said. “It’s a resistance to the idea of going around these issues, and a firm belief in actually having the conversation, talking through the difficult stuff, looking inside.”

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival ran from April 28 to May 8.