77 minutes / Color
English / English subtitles
Closed Captioned
Release: 2017
Copyright: 2016
The loyalty people have for the party of liberation operates at a deep psychological level. But in recent years, the ANC's popularity is at an all time low, not least amongst people who were once its most loyal supporters. The nation's sense of unease is only made worse by the high profile corruption cases surrounding President Jacob Zuma and his friends, and compounded by patronage and the ANC's unwillingness to cut him loose. Now that a new political party has entered the ring, the Economic Freedom Fighters, and the ANC finds itself challenged by the energetic young 'Fighters'.
THE GIANT IS FALLING takes a sweeping look at the big political events of recent years that signify the end of an era in South Africa. With declining popularity at the polls and the real possibility of losing the comfortable majority the party has enjoyed for two decades, the big debate in South Africa is whether or not the party can recover its reputation as the most respected liberation movement in the world?
Locating the moment when things fell apart as the Marikana Massacre, the film charts the various ways people have collectively responded to the ANC's failure to deliver on its promises. Bookmarked by the 2016 Local Elections, THE GIANT IS FALLING asks why South Africa, a middle-income country, rich in mineral wealth has failed to address inequality in twenty-two years of democracy and why the gap between rich and poor is growing. From the break with the trade unions, to the #FeesMustFall student movement, to the more recent crushing electoral losses at the polls for the ANC, this film provides an unflinching look at the festering sore of inequality that is making the current situation untenable. The question is when the status quo breaks, what will replace it?
"Desai’s documentary is expertly sourced with key politicians and insiders giving insight and perspective to the economic and political layers of post-Apartheid South Africa." —Delali Adogla-Bessa, Dandano Magazine
"[Combines] news and archival footage with interviews with important players and analysts." —Dr. Cara Moyer-Duncan, Emerson College, in the journal African Studies Review
Select Accolades
An in-depth exploration into the recent internal conflicts of the ANC in South Africa, leading to Jacob Zuma's election as president.
Jihan El-Tahri | 2010 | 138 minutes | Color | English
Zackie Achmat, a leading AIDS activist in South Africa, refused to take anti-retroviral medicines until they were made available by the government in public hospitals and clinics.
Brian Tilley | 2002 | 72 minutes | Color | English
How could 34 South African mineworkers be killed during a non-violent strike for better wages... not under apartheid, but today?
Rehad Desai | 2014 | 86 minutes | Color | English | English subtitles
