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Sunday, Apr 6, 2025
5:00 PM (63 mins)
BAMPFA
MK: Mandela’s Secret Army
(MK, l’armée secrète de Mandela)
Osvalde Lewat’s eye-opening documentary showcases the forgotten history of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress’s armed revolutionary wing, the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK). While internationally known and recast as a pacifist and statesman, Mandela was, as one subject notes, foremost “a freedom fighter, as ready to pick up arms as put down arms . . . [for him] to be portrayed as a pacifist is to appropriate our history and place it in a colonial mentality.” Archival footage showcases the brutality of the apartheid era and its crackdowns against dissidents, while interviews with surviving, now-elderly veterans of the group showcase a battle for freedom—and justice—that still continues.
FILM DETAILS
Screenwriter
- Osvalde Lewat
Cinematographer
- Julien Bossé
Language
- English
- German
- French
- with English subtitles
Print Info
- Color
- DCP
- 57 mins
Source
- African Film Festival
Preceded By
Ota Benga
Chadrack Banikina, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2023
An animated retelling of the infamous true story of a Congolese citizen exhibited at the Bronx Zoo.
FILM DETAILS
Language
- French
- with English subtitles
Print Info
- Color
- DCP
- 6 mins
source
- African Film Festival
Event Accessibility
If you have any questions about accessibility or need accommodations to attend this event, please contact us at bampfa@berkeley.edu or (510) 642-1412 (Wed–Sun, 11 AM–7 PM) as soon as you can. Advance notice helps us fulfill your request.
Learn more about accessibility services at BAMPFA.