The Soweto Uprising, led by a younger generation, inspires an international response; apartheid opponent Steve Biko is murdered; the United Nations issues a mandatory arms embargo against South Africa.

The dramatic tale of how the anti-apartheid struggle grew from a handful of South African exiles in the ‘60s into a global movement.

Story Three:
The New Generation
[1960 - 1977]

It is youth, both inside and outside, who next join the growing movement against apartheid. Buoyed by new support in western countries, Oliver Tambo returns to the United Nations to try to convince the world body to sanction South Africa. His efforts gain new public support as the brutal suppression of a youth uprising in the South African township of Soweto and the murder of freedom fighter Steve Biko turn South Africa from a country into a cause, a worldwide emblem of injustice. A significant victory is won when the United Nations issues a mandatory arms embargo: the first in history. But South Africa's strongest trading partners in the West still will not sanction it economically. and as Tambo heads to Zambia to minister to the ANC's growing guerrilla army, a bloodbath seems inevitable. But even as the most powerful western governments refuse to heed Tambo's calls for cultural and economic boycotts, the citizens of those western nations will help turn the tide.

by Connie Field, Usa, 2009 (58 minutes)

Featuring (seven films) :

Story One: Road To Resistance [1948 - 1964], (58 mins)
www.clarityfilms.org/joburg/story1.html

Story Two: Hell Of A Job [1960 - 1977], (58 mins)
www.clarityfilms.org/joburg/story2.html

Story Three: The New Generation [1960 - 1977], (58 mins)
www.clarityfilms.org/joburg/story2.html

Story Four: Fair Play [1958 - 1981], (90 mins)
www.clarityfilms.org/joburg/story3.html

Story Five: From Selma To Soweto [1977 - 1986], (89 mins)
www.clarityfilms.org/joburg/story4.html

Story Six: The Bottom Line [1965 - 1988], (86 mins)
www.clarityfilms.org/joburg/story5.html

Story Seven: Free At Last [1979 - 1990], (75 mins)
www.clarityfilms.org/joburg/story6.html

Runtime: 510 mins.

Series Story Descriptions
Part 1
Road to Resistance (58 mins.)
As the U.N. adopts the Declaration of Human Rights, South Africa heads in the opposite direction and implements apartheid. A mass movement is born, then crushed, and Nelson Mandela is jailed for life.

Hell of a Job (58 mins.)
The future of the movement is on the shoulders of Oliver Tambo, who escapes into exile and begins a 30-year journey to engage the world in the struggle to bring democracy to South Africa.

The New Generation (58 mins.)
Youth in South Africa and around theouth in South Africa and around the world are next to join the growing movement against apartheid, and the brutal suppression of a youth uprising in Soweto galvanizes public support for sanctions against South Africa.

Part 2
Fair Play (95 mins.)
Athletes and activists around the world hit white South Africa where it hurts: on the playing field. The sports boycott pushes apartheid South Africa out of international sporting competitions, isolating it in an area of passionate importance.

From Selma to Soweto (90 mins)
African Americans alter U.S. foreign policy for the first time in history, successfully pressuring the U.S. to impose sanctions and politically isolate Pretoria.

Part 3
The Bottom Line (83 mins)
International grassroots campaigns against Polaroid, Shell, Barclay's, General Motors and others doing business in South Africa economically isolate the apartheid regime and become the first successful effort to use economic pressure to help bring down a government.

Free At Last (75 mins)
An uprising in South Africa becomesthe final blow in the cumulativeworld effort to topple apartheid. Nelson Mandela becomes a household name as the campaign to free him ignites a=worldwide crusade.


HAVE YOU HEARD FROM JOHANNESBURG is a powerful seven-part documentary series by two-time Academy Award nominee Connie Field that shines light on the global citizens movements that took on South Africa's apartheid regime. It reveals how everyday people helped challenge and end one of the greatest injustices the world has ever known.
HAVE YOU HEARD FROM JOHANNESBURG begins with the story of freedom fighters in South Africa who are systemically killed, jailed or exiled for resisting their political oppression. Embattled South Africans call on the global community to take action, laying the groundwork for a decades-long international campaign. People around the world take up the anti-apartheid cause, challenging their governments, powerful corporations and other institutions to face up to the immorality of their collaboration with apartheid. HAVE YOU HEARD FROM JOHANNESBURG follows three generations of the struggle inside South Africa and battles waged in sports arenas and cathedrals, in embassies and corporate boardrooms, at rock concerts and in gas stations around the globe. Pulling together the many threads of international anti-apartheid action for the first time in any medium, HAVE YOU HEARD FROM JOHANNESBURG is an inspiring example for citizens and movements around the world.

One of the greatest weapons in the struggle against apartheid was the international sports boycott. Featuring a youthful Dennis Brutus at his brilliant best, Sam Ramsamy, Peter Hain, sports personalities and administrators, this meticulously researched documentary, with rare footage and revealing back story, unpacks the process of how the boycott took shape and effect. Step by difficult step, a dedicated and growing group of activists orchestrated the isolation of South Africa from the sports arenas, culminating in South Africa's exclusion first from the Olympics, and then, finally, where it hurt most, from international rugby.

Producer/Director: CONNIE FIELD

Series Editor: GREGORY SCHARPEN
Principal Cinematography: TOM HURWITZ
Principal Historical Consultants: DR. GAIL GERHART, DR. ROBERT EDGAR, DR. CLAYBORNE CARSON, E.S. REDDY

Principal Funders: THE FORD FOUNDATION, THE JOHN D. AND CATHERINE T. MACARTHUR FOUNDATION, THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES


For more information about the series, visit http://www.clarityfilms.org. To get involved in the global engagement campaign around the series, please visit http://activevoice.net/haveyouheard.html.

Tags :
anti-apartheid movement apartheid South Africa social justice human rights racism documentary Oliver Tambo Nelson Mandela history