An Act of Defiance
August 19, 2021
AN ACT OF DEFIANCE
A gutsy lawyer risks career and family to defend Nelson Mandela and his inner circle, in AN ACT OF DEFIANCE, a historical thriller set in South Africa’s incendiary segregation era.
Mandela and nine other defendants, including Jewish anti-Apartheid fighters, faced a possible death sentence after their arrest during a summer 1963 raid. Sympathetic white Afrikaner lawyer Bram Fischer defends the activists against charges of conspiracy to commit sabotage and treason. As he fights to expose South Africa’s corrupt, unjust system, Fischer attempts to hide his own ties to the resistance.
This riveting drama expertly combines nail-biting political and courtroom intrigue to explore South Africa’s seminal struggle against racism, and the little-known Jewish figures who sought to end entrenched discrimination in their country.
Film Details: Running Time 123 minutes
Directors:Jean van de Velde
Year: 2018
Language: English and Afrikaans (with Subtitles)
Watch it First on Amazon Prime or Apple TV ($4.99)
An Act of Defiance: Guest Speaker: Stephen Clingman
Stephen Clingman is Distinguished Professor of English and former Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Institute. He received his BA Hons. from the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), and his D. Phil. from the University of Oxford. He has taught at the University of Massachusetts since 1989, and was Chair of the English Department from 1994-2000.
His research and teaching fields include South African literature and politics, postcolonial fiction, transnational fiction, and twentieth-century and contemporary British fiction. Besides his literary critical work, he has also published a biography and memoir, and has written reviews for the New York Times and Boston Globe
For details, click here.
WFJFF BONUS TRACKS
MANDELA: A LIFE’S JOURNEY BY ARTIST JOHN MEYER
To honour #MandelaDay celebrations on Sunday 18 July, RMB’s collaboration with artist John Meyer and Everard Read/Circa gallery has facilitated a virtual tour of Meyer’s poignantly magnificent exhibition, Mandela: A life’s journey. (approx 11 min)
Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture 2019
Professor Stephen Clingman, Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts and Bram Fischer's biographer spoke at our memorial lecture. His lecture was titled 'Bram Fischer in our Times'. This lecture was live streamed to Johannesburg for the first time. (approx 90 min)
BOOKS
Bram Fischer: Afrikaner Revolutionary (1998), a biography of the white Afrikaner who led Nelson Mandela's legal defense at the Rivonia Trial
Birthmark, a memoir (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2015; Amherst: U of Massachusetts Press, 2016).
AWARDS AND ACCOLADES
1999 Alan Paton Award for Bram Fischer: Afrikaner Revolutionary; South Africa’s premier prize for non-fiction.
2012 Distinguished Faculty Lecturer and Chancellor’s Medal, University of Massachusetts
2014 Jackie M. Pritzen Lecture, Five College Consortium 2016 Birthmark longlisted for Alan Paton Award