South Africa / 2010 / 40mins / Documentary / English and Xhosa

When xenophobic attacks broke out across South Africa in May 2008, many found themselves caught off guard, shocked by violence that felt like a violation of the principles of their newly democratic nation. Over two months, 62 people were killed, hundreds wounded and over a hundred thousand displaced. In the midst of this violence, many young people, clad in the bright greens and maroons of their school uniforms, looted neighborhood shops while some of their classmates, refugees themselves, fled to safer ground. Some youth tried to find a way to help, but still more stood by, watching from their windows or on television. Where Do I Stand? captures the optimistic voices of youth trying to make sense of what they experienced and how they carve out their own places in this complex and divided nation.

Molly Blank

Molly Blank began working in South Africa as the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship for journalism in 2005. Where Do I Stand? follows up Blank’s award-winning documentary Testing Hope: Grade 12 in the New South Africa, released in 2007. The film, about four students in a township outside Cape Town preparing for and taking their Matric exams which they believe will determine their future, was featured in several publications including the Sunday Times and Drum Magazine in South Africa and National Public Radio in the U.S. It was broadcast on South African Broadcasting Company in 2010. She has contributed commentary to various publications including the Mail and Guardian and gave a TEDx talk in 2013 entitled, “How Schools Work.” She co-authored How to Fix South Africa’s Schools: Lessons From Schools That Work, with Jonathan Jansen, Vice Chancellor at the University of the Free State. She holds a Masters in Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley and a BA from Tufts University. Learn More