The screening on Tuesday the 29th of October was followed by a Q&A with co-director Pearlie Joubert and human rights lawyer Mandisa Lusanda Shandu, who appears in the film.
Filmed over six years, Mother City follows the David versus Goliath battle as activists and domestic workers take on property power and politics in Cape Town – a city still disfigured by spatial apartheid 30 years into democracy.
The story begins when the government sells a school, meant for affordable housing, to a private developer. Set against the backdrop of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, this intimate and at times funny narrative documentary charts Nkosikhona (Face) Swartbooi leading a defiant war against government and property developers – on the streets, in the supreme court and in parliament.
The screening on Tuesday the 29th of October was followed by a Q&A with co-director Pearlie Joubert and human rights lawyer Mandisa Lusanda Shandu, who appears in the film.
This screening was Open Captioned and the Q&A was Signed – a British Sign Language interpreter was visible on stage throughout the event.
In this joint curation between Bertha DocHouse and Sheffield DocFest, audiences are invited to discover the gems, highlights and new voices in non-fiction cinema which premiered in the past festival edition.