The Art of Fallism, a South African/Norwegian documentary, that teases out the nuanced, yet deeply complex stories of those who struggle for a voice within the collective struggle for equality will have its African premiere at the 41st Durban International Film Festival which takes place online from 10 to 20 September 2020.
A debut film by Norwegian director Aslaug Aarsæther, and the second film for Icelandic/Norwegian co-director Gunnbjørg Gunnarsdóttir, with two womxn producers Cape Town-based Wisaal Abrahams of Pink Rock Media and NorwegianIngvild Aagedal Skage of Isme Film.
The film premiered at HOTDOCS in Canada earlier this year and has been nominated for ‘Best Documentary’ at the Queer Lisboa Festival which takes place in September. It will also compete in the “New Filmmakers Competition” at São Paulo International Film Festival.
The Art of Fallism emerged and evolved from the Norwegian film-makers questioning the absence of debates around equality, race, and gender and how they relate, in their own country. The film uses the 2015 #RhodesMustFall movement in South Africa, as its point of departure, while using the voice of the artist as a metaphor for the desire for understanding, capacity, and change.
The #RhodesMustFall uprising began at the University of Cape Town, as a challenge to the presence of the statue of Cecil John Rhodes. Student, Chumani Maxwele, by throwing faeces onto the statue, protests against its presence and colonial representation and by extension its insidious manifestation in education in the country. This launches a student movement to topple the statue and the colonial education system entrenched within the establishment, which reaches other tertiary institutions around South Africa.
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In understanding this struggle the students realised that education is systemically flawed by its exclusions of those who are not financially privileged to access it. Enter the #FeesMustFall movement which targeted the concept of student fees demanding an increase in funding to tertiary institutions across the country.
These events awakened a new generation of activists connected by a common cause, bringing together people from myriad backgrounds including young township men, feminists, and the trans community, all who wanted to revolutionize a racist and systematically unequal South Africa.
“While the students marched, protested and staged sit-ins, political art practices, under the banner of “Fallism,” began to push the limits of critical thought,” explains co-producer Wisaal Abrahams. “The students began to question the hyper-masculine approach to the movement, and its expression through art to the exclusion of the queer, trans, and femme artists. The Art of Fallism, engages with some of these individuals who refused to allow the movement and its off-shoots to carry on without them.”
“What is evident is that this generation of youth is fatigued by apartheid legacies,” says co-producer Ingvild Aagedal Skage. “And what the students experience individually and collectively, within the context of the movement, is a representation of the vast inequality amongst South Africans – a place where voices are not heard and honoured, and people have to resort to acts of violence or disruption to make their point”.
The final act of disruption is dramatically illustrated, a year later as transgender activists, feeling side-lined and ignored, capture an art exhibition celebrating the movement to be consciously included, but instead, they are blamed for destroying it. The movement is left hanging in uncertainty, much like the future of a free and equal South Africa.
“It is a highly complex space, where the collective goal remains the focus, yet the individual groups within this, experience exclusionary politics. The very thing they desire to dismantle,” says Wisaal Abrahams. ‘And the very thing we were incredibly challenged with when making this film.”
“As a black womxn producer it was essential for me to come on board this project, to support the process of the making of the film. As we all seek glory and recognition for our stories, we also need to understand that the colonial models on which we based this success on, haven’t considered the imbalance of power when retelling them. Our stories must have guardianship that honours this, and we believe we have been able to do this in telling these stories.”
Producers Wisaal Abrahams and Ingvild Aagedal Skage will feature in an “Engage” session at the 11th Durban FilmMart virtual edition (4 – 13 September) where they will speak candidly about their experience and the notion of de-colonial approaches to storytelling which became a strong guiding tool for their production process.
The Art of Fallism will be streamed from the DIFF online platform from 10 to 20 September. The DIFF films are free, with limited tickets available, and booking is essential.
For more info go to https://ccadiff.ukzn.ac.za/