Introduction to this special 2 hour documentary (2 parts) about the wrenching stories brought to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the dismantling of apartheid. "The truth has a way of coming back to haunt you," says Archibishop Desmond Tutu. "It doesn't go away quietly."
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Chairman, South Africa's TRC
With the dismantling of the yoke of apartheid in 1994, South Africa had to come to terms with its oppressive past: recrimination, trials and punishment or…something else, a different type of justice. Restorative justice and forgiveness were offered as a possibility if perpetrators of human rights crimes would come forward and tell the truth about their crimes. This documentary reports some of the stories told at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings. It also includes interviews with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, apartheid victims, former officers of state security, freedom fighters, journalists, and eyewitnesses revealing the difficulties of mending a nation bitterly divided by race, economic inequality and oppression.
Moyers interviews Justice,Albi Sachs, victim of Apartheid government clandestine bomb
Hailed worldwide as a model for airing gross violations of human rights without resorting to Nuremburg-style trials, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was seen by many in South Africa as a means of healing the wounds of history. “We needed to acknowledge that we had a horrendous past,” said the TRC chairman, Desmond Tutu. “We needed to look the beast in the eye, so that the past wouldn’t hold us hostage anymore.”
Credits:Editor: Vanessa Procopio; Cinematography: Robert Shepard; Field Producer: Mandy Jacobson
Breaking News
This was a profoundly painful production. To come face to face with the evils committed during apartheid -- the human capacity and imagination for inflicting violence and pain -- was overwhelming at times. Endless screening of horrifying photographs and images, listening to the stories of torture and suffering has an effect on journalists, producers, and editors as it had an effect on all of those who worked and translated for the TRC. In recent years, a critical discourse has evolved around the arguments for documenting violent human rights crimes -- are we promoting a pornography of violence? Similar questions are being raised about the emphasis on remembering vs forgetting, on truth commissions vs. justice in the courts. There are no easy or simple answers to these queries. Hopefully this documentary will remain part of that discourse for a very long time.
Producer's Notes
It was an extraordinary privilege to be entrusted with the stories of these victims of apartheid's crimes and bring them back to an American audience. The U.S. mainstream media essentially ignored this huge story -- of South Africa's Truth & Reconciliation Commission. We arrived in 1998 -- near the end run of the hearings -- after so many other countries had sent producers and news crews. We were able to tell some of this vast story by having access to South African Broadcasting's wall to wall coverage of the hearings. Almost half of this two hour feature documentary is comprised of that footage.
Also, this was the first documentary that I produced with the help of web research. (1997-98) The TRC posted transcripts and South African news coverage of the hearings on their website! That seemed so radical at the time.
Awards
Columbia Dupont Gold Baton
George Foster Peabody
Emmy nomination
Reviews
"wrenching television. In interviews with the black victims of white repression, Mr. Moyers inquires into the limits of forgiveness and the lure of forgetfulness, while his encounters with the former tormenters leave bitter questions of individual responsibility and punishment."
— The New York Times
This sort of television is also an art, more expansive and compelling than any article of book.
— John Leonard, New York Magazine
Facing the Truth...really is must-see TV. This supremely fair-minded two-hour documentary about South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings...will open the eyes and stir the conscience. It is the best kind of investigative television journalism.
— Christian Science Monitor
The wrenching stories -- many told with tears, some with dry-eyed stoicism -- are at the heart of this program...Some of the interviews are so stunning that American audiences at advance screenings of the documentary file out silently afterward...
— Washington Post
3 Responses to “Facing the Truth”
This was such a compelling project. A pornography of violence? No, that is hyperbole: violence is the crime, not reporting and witnessing it. Who can call the evidence pornographic but those who are aroused by it erotically instead of ethically. Justice in the courts versus forgiveness via confession, for me I’d rather see the bastards incarcerated to contemplate their crimes, but if that cannot be let them at least point out where the bodies lie and shed some tears, crocodile or salt.
This is an extremely important historical documentary about an era which for new generations of students should have renewed relevance. When I asked my 20-year olds last year what they knew about Apartheid, there was silence, it is apparently not a subject taught in European high schools. Next time, I will ask them to see the documentary.
I would like to buy. copy of the South African Truth & Reconciliation documentary. I did not see it in your “store.” Can you help?
Cheri
This was such a compelling project. A pornography of violence? No, that is hyperbole: violence is the crime, not reporting and witnessing it. Who can call the evidence pornographic but those who are aroused by it erotically instead of ethically. Justice in the courts versus forgiveness via confession, for me I’d rather see the bastards incarcerated to contemplate their crimes, but if that cannot be let them at least point out where the bodies lie and shed some tears, crocodile or salt.
This is an extremely important historical documentary about an era which for new generations of students should have renewed relevance. When I asked my 20-year olds last year what they knew about Apartheid, there was silence, it is apparently not a subject taught in European high schools. Next time, I will ask them to see the documentary.
I would like to buy. copy of the South African Truth & Reconciliation documentary. I did not see it in your “store.” Can you help?
Cheri