South Africa / 2018 / 70mins / Documentary / English

Celebrated South African filmmaker, Xoliswa Sithole, takes us on a historical journey through time in this award-winning documentary that connects female resistance movements in South Africa. The starting point of the documentary is August 9, 1956, which marks the day that 20,000 women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria in protest against the dehumanizing apartheid law that required all Africans to carry a pass. “You have touched a woman, you have struck a rock,” they chanted, a mantra which has continued to stand as testimony to the resilience of many remarkable South African female activists, including Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph and Albertina Sisulu.

Xoliswa Sithole

Xoliswa Sithole is a BAFTA and Peabody award winning producer and filmmaker, born in Apartheid-era South Africa and raised in Zimbabwe. A member of the British Film and Television Academy, she is also the first South African to be awarded a British Academy Television Award. She began her career as an actress, before moving on to working as a director and producer, garnering critical praise and multiple prestigious awards. Sithole has acted in such films as Cry Freedom, Mandela, Fools, and Chikin Biznis. She has produced and researched several documentaries such as South Africa from Triumph to Transition and Nelson Mandela for CNN Prime Time, and the hit 13-part South African television series Real Lives. She has also produced and starred in Shouting Silent (2002), a documentary about female AIDS orphans. Her 2018 documentary, Standing on Their Shoulders is a historical journey through time that connects female resistance movements in South Africa. Learn More