‘Good Hope’ explores racial divide

A NEW, feature-length documentary launched on Youth Day confronts issues of racial inequality and injustice and how young voices from South Africa could provide hope for the country.

Film-maker Anthony Fabian’s Good Hope explores how a new generation is building a future for a deeply divided nation.

Though born in the US and raised in the UK, Fabian is associated with South Africa as a film-maker.

This film was made over four years, from research to post-production. He told Weekend Argus that Good Hope talks about the recent past and how it has informed the pessimism that pervades South Africa.

He previously made the 2009 feature film Skin, which told the true story of Sandra Laing, a coloured girl born to white, Afrikaner parents at the height of apartheid.

“By focusing on the younger generation of leaders, we’re providing a window into that brighter future.

“We hope that young people watching the film will see that these people are just one generation away from them,” he said.

The film identifies some of the shining lights of the younger generation who think deeply about the key challenges facing South Africa and are finding ways of tackling them.

Fabian said he wanted to convey to the youth that they, too, could become leaders if they believed in themselves and focused on the right priorities.

“We do a recap from the end of apartheid through the Mandela, Mbeki and Zuma years.

“This section ends with the election of Cyril Ramaphosa and the new hope that he brings.”

He explained that he and the documentary participants focused on social, economic and educational implications in the country.

“We explore the role of women in South African society, entrepreneurship, and ultimately we suggest education as the key to solving all the problems in society,” he said.

The last section of the film asks the interviewees to project the South Africa they want to see.

And therein lies hope.