Documentary Australia Foundation

A Common Purpose

About the film

In the late 1980's, during the most violent period of the apartheid regime, 25 men and women were rounded up in a black township bordering the town of Upington in South Africa to stand trial for the murder of a black policeman. Upington, a small white town located in the heart of Afrikaner nationalism, was besieged by a legal trial which culminated in the assassination of Namibian barrister and human rights advocate, Anton Lubowski and the exile of the young, white lawyer, Andrea Durbach who represented the 25. This is the story of how the trial irrevocably changed the course of the lives of the accused and their legal team as South Africa begins its transition to a post-apartheid state. It tells of great personal courage and persistence, of the power of belief in the rule of law and of the tragedy and triumph of resistance. The film is structured around the return to South Africa of Andrea Durbach, a Sydney resident since 1989 and currently Director of the Australian Human Rights Centre at the UNSW Faculty of Law, to meet her clients from the landmark Upington trial 18 years later and to discover how the trial and the new democratic South Africa has shaped their lives. ACommon Purpose' tells a universal story of resilience and commitment to justice, set in a country whose legal system was distorted to render injustice. And it demonstrates the arbitrary and capricious use of the death penalty, with its attendant risks of executing innocent people and often used disproportionately against the poor and powerless.

Total Project Budget

AUD $400000

Length of Production

75 minutes

Stage of Production

Outreach

How does the project meet the aims of a philanthropic foundation?

A COMMON PURPOSE is a story about how the use of law

What outcomes do you hope to achieve by making this film and how will you measure its impact?

We intend to use the completed film as a tool to promote justice, human rights and how to use the legal system to affect lasting change. Through the law, international organisations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the UNHCR are increasingly working with audio/visual means to sustain issues in the public eye. South Africa, whilst it is a country that has had an extraordinary political transition without descending into a bloody civil war, is suffering within from extreme violence and horrendous domestic and sexual abuses. These issues are increasingly being brought to the attention of the international community. Our documentary will be used to highlight how, through the law, people can fight and achieve acknowledgment and retribution. We will measure the impact through our partnerships with international human rights organisations, and through the ongoing work of Andrea Durbach who will use the documentary comprehensively in her own field.

What is your education and outreach strategy

We aim to join forces with international human rights organisations in our educational and outreach strategy. Our particular focus is human rights and the abolishment of the death penalty. Highlighting legal strategies to address entrenched injustice in indigenous communities in different parts of the world illustrates a shared issues. Andrea is the director of the Human Rights Center in Australia, based at UNSW. She is associate professor of law in the UNSW law faculty. Our educational strategy will be devised in collaboration with Andrea's ongoing work. We will seek to connect to the work of international NGO's working in this area. The documentary will be available as a feature length, a one hour with extra materials of shorter length to be used in the educational sector. The key message in our education strategy is to say "Evil Flourishes if good people do nothing" Edmund Burke (British Statesman). Andrea is an example of how "good people" can make the difference, for some, between life and death.

Who are the filmmakers responsible for the project?

Mitzi Goldman - Producer/Writer/Director
Hilary Balmond - Editor