Good Hope is a timely and topical, feature-length documentary exploring questions of racial injustice and inequality, while offering powerful messages of hope. These are not fanciful dreams or empty promises – solutions to many of the greatest problems faced by everyone are baked into the narrative. Watch the film: www.goodhopedoc.com
The film identifies some of the shining lights of the younger generation, men and women who think deeply about the key challenges facing South Africa and are finding ways of tackling them. Most of our thirty-six contributors are only one generation away from poverty and a lack of opportunities – yet they have all become high-achievers, with a strong moral purpose. Proof positive of what can be done with energy and the right mindset.
The project began with a question: Why is there such an entrenched, ‘doom and gloom’ narrative around South Africa, in the face of so much potential? Many, complex and compelling answers emerge throughout the film.
South Africa has often been on a knife edge between disaster and a brighter future. At the core of our story is inequality: racial, economic and educational. This is a time when everyone is (or should be) asking themselves, how can we create a fairer, more equal world for all? Good Hope uses the power of film to take a step in the right direction.
Many of the obstacles South Africa faces (and which are explored here) are universal: inequality, racial tensions, the rise of populism, xenophobia, gender imbalances, corruption, unemployment and poor education.
What makes this film unique, however, is its focus on the young – the post-apartheid generation, who have a completely different perspective to their predecessors. They are also the first generation to have the opportunity to fulfil Nelson Mandela’s vision of a “Rainbow Nation”. However much that vision has been eroded though corruption and time, something of its spirit remains at the core of the culture.
The thirty-six, dynamic South Africans featured in the film include Captain of the Springboks Siya Kolisi, entrepreneurs Lisa Klein (Discovery), Gill Oved (Creative Counsel), Lynette Ntuli and Yusuf Randera Rees (Awethu Project), educationalists Judy Sikuza (Mandela Rhodes Foundation), Jevron Epstein (Generation Schools) and Unathi September (Inspire Foundation Africa), Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng (Commission for Gender Equality), author and broadcaster Lerato Tshabalala, playwright Mike van Graan, current affairs editors Khadija Patel (Mail & Guardian) and Adriaan Basson (News 24), social commentator Justice Malala, civil society activist Janet Jobson (Deputy CEO of the DGMT), author and activist Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, economist Nic Spaull, former Public Protector, Professor Thuli Madonsela, and founder of the One South Africa Movement, Mmusi Maimane, to name but a few. Their collective efforts are a colossal source of inspiration.
We all need hope.
