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A double award winner at last year's Sundance Film Festival but noticeably snubbed by Oscar this past week, Amandla! is a documentary about the history of Apartheid in South Africa. The film mostly focuses on the protest songs that were created in response to the enactment of the Apartheid laws in the late 1940s. Like the folk tunes brought to the Americas by the Irish and the Scots (as seen recently in Songcatcher), these angry a cappellas were handed down from generation to generation as important tales. Since most Apartheid victims were illiterate, the songs are the only link back their shocking and appalling roots.
The morale-boosting tunes, like "Beware Verwoerd (The Black Man is Coming)," aren't really harmonious in the way one might expect them to be. If you're not into this kind of music, Amandla! is likely to be an extremely grating experience (I found the songs to be moving, but painfully repetitive after 15 minutes). For those unfamiliar with the details of Apartheid, however, it should at least be educational. There's plenty of disturbing archival footage, as well as interviews with activists, musicians and relatives of those killed because of the color of their skin. Aside from the potential musical stumbling block, the film's only other drawback is a somewhat irritating shift in time that may leave some viewers confused.
1:48 - PG-13 for some images of violence, and for momentary language
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