The Martha’s Vineyard Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History presents a documentary film, “Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela,” on Tuesday, August 19 at the Oak Bluffs Library. “An important documentary,” wrote the New York Times of the film that has won Best Documentary at the Pan African Film Festival and the Santa Cruz Film Festival, and the Henry Hampton Award for Excellence at the Roxbury Film Festival.
Special guest Thomas Allen Harris, filmmaker/producer/director of Chimpanzee Productions, will attend the event, which features two showings: 1 and 3 pm.
“The film is an intimate tale about the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa from the perspective of Harris, an African American stepson of one of the Disciples,” according to a press release. “As part of the first wave of South African freedom fighters, Harris’s stepfather, Pule Benjamin Leinaeng and his comrades left their homeland in 1960 and went into self-exile, to broadcast to the world, the brutality of apartheid and to raise support for the African National Congress (ANC) and its leaders Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo. In 1960, the South African government outlawed the ANC, forcing its leaders underground.”
Admission is a $5 suggested donation. For more information, call 508-693-8714.
