Rivonia trial film shown at varsities
THE riveting, true story of Nelson Mandela’s co-defendants at the Rivonia trial, the lawyers who saved them from the gallows and the brave men and women who supported them, is being screened at South Africa’s higher education institutions.
Former UK High Court Judge Nick Stadlen’s documentary, Life is Wonderful: Mandela’s Unsung Heroes, was screened yesterday at the University of the Western Cape’s Centre for Humanities Research.
Screenings will take place throughout the country in the run-up to Youth Day, which commemorates the Soweto student uprising.
Former journalist John Battersby said Stadlen would show the film at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, and then at the University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape.
He said Stadlen, who had written for British newspapers about South Africa, had become transfixed after reading an article in the Cape Times on anti-apartheid activist and Rivonia triallist, Denis Goldberg.
“About five years ago he read the article, and got entrenched in the story of the trial. He searched for those (Rivonia triallists) who were still alive, like Goldberg, Andrew Mlangeni and the other activists who were in exile, and showed the multiracial core of the struggle movement.
“Many do not know the story of one of the (triallists’) attorneys, Bram Fischer, an Afrikaner, a Communist Party member who was arrested a year after the trial and who Mandela said had been instrumental in saving them from the gallows.”The film features Goldberg, Mlangeni and Ahmed “Kathy” Kathrada, as they relive “the trial that changed SA” in October 1963.
It includes commentary from Joel Joffe, the attorney of the main defendant, who was a member of the legendary Fischer-led defence team, and George Bizos, one of the advocates who represented the defendants.
Battersby said Goldberg had had an opportunity to see the finished film at its recent premiere at the V&A Waterfront.“Filming took three years to complete, had hundreds of hours of footage, and editing was finally completed last year. This year being the centenary of Mandela’s birth made this story that much more relevant,” Battersby said.
Stadlen had approached the national Education Department to have the film screened at schools, and had tried to have it shown on an SABC channel for the general public.