Details
Recorded Q&A
Miners Shot Down: Q&A With Director Rehad DesaiAugust 2012, Marikana. Thirty-four miners are shot dead by police and scores more left injured at the end of a six day strike. Playing out like a political thriller, Miners Shot Down pieces together what happened in those six days.
Workers from one of South Africa’s biggest mines begin a strike against their employer, British company Lonmin. 34 miners are shot dead by police and scores more left injured after a six day strike. Playing out like a political thriller, Director Rehad Desai pieces together what happened in those six days through TV archive, police footage, interviews with politicians, the miners and the lawyers representing them. Miners Shot Down reveals a devastating picture of the mechanism of power in South Africa. The final sequence is an uncompromising and chilling depiction of the extremities of police brutality.
Miners Shot Down makes for uncomfortable but essential viewing as it carefully destroys the case set out by Lonmin, the police and the government. What emerges is collusion between the police, the state and corporate interests that leads to spiralling violence and the country’s first post-apartheid massacre. South Africa will never be the same again.