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A Snake Gives Birth to a Snake
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Filmmaker Name:
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Michael Lessac
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Film Length:
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101 min
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Film Year:
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2014
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Duration:
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91-119 min
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Decade:
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2010s
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Color:
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color
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Can we forgive the past to survive the future?
This was the question Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu asked of the South African people after a brutal half-century of Apartheid. For a moment in time, the country said yes. From 1996 to 1999, victims and perpetrators told their stories face-to-face before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The world watched in amazement as the truth of a nation was placed on the table, averting an expected bloodbath. Then the headlines faded, as did the idea.
A Snake Gives Birth to a Snake follows a group of South African actors, an American director, and a legendary composer as they try to resurrect that experiment in healing before it disappears. They do so in the belief that, if people divided by distrust could listen to each other once, it could happen again.
They take a theatre production around the world, to countries emerging from genocide, violence and atrocity, from post-genocide Rwanda and the war-torn Balkans, to Northern Ireland after the Troubles.
Before long, the play becomes a mirror where audience and performer find themselves confronting their past through each other's eyes. Masks are dropped. Identity is threatened. Hope emerges, even as fear of losing hope creeps in. As they challenge audiences to wrestle with their fears and hatreds, the actors begin to question the fragile reconciliation that's held them together
SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Honorable Mention, Best Feature Documentary, Woodstock Film Festival, USA, 2014
Best Editing on a Feature Documentary, Woodstock Film Festival, USA, 2014
Winner, The Fund for Santa Barbara Social Justice Competition, Santa Barbara Int'l Film Festival, USA, 2015
Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance, New York, NY, 2016
Respect Human Rights Film Festival, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 2016
FIPA (the Festival International de Programmes Audivisuals), Biarritz, France, 2015
Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Santa Barbara, CA, 2015
Salem Film Fest, Salem, MA, 2015
Atlanta Film Festival, Atlanta, GE, 2015
Global Peace Film Festival, Orlando, FL, 2015
Africa In Motion Film Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2015
Durban International Film Festival, Durban, South Africa, 2014
A Snake Gives Birth to a Snake
Directed by
Michael Lessac
Executive Producer
Jonathan Gray
Co-Executive Producer
John Grossman
Producer
Jacqueline Bertrand Lessac
Consulting Producer
Josh Alexander
Cast
Quanita Adams
Nick Boraine
Andrew Buckland
Sibulele Gcilitshana
Bongani Gumede
Robert Koen
Jeroen Kranenburg
Fana Mokoena
Thembi Mitshali
Jenny Stead
Music by
Hugh Masekela
Cinematography by
Henry Jacobson
Anastas N. Michos
Film Editing by
Joel Plotch
Dialogue Editor
Dan Korintus
Voiceover Recordist
Perry Levy
Sound Mixer
Tom Paul
Consulting Editor
David Zieff
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