Breaking the Rules

Short Synopsis

Breaking the Rules is a feature documentary film and community engagement initiative that explores the story of the white South Africans who opposed apartheid and fought in their country’s historic struggle for racial justice and freedom. Our goal is to inspire viewers to work for greater racial tolerance and understanding, and to realize the power of individual moral courage to change the world.

Description/Treatment

Breaking the Rules is a 90-minute feature documentary film that tells the largely untold story of white South Africans who fought apartheid. Working in opposition to families, friends and government they became allies, not enemies, in the country's historic struggle for racial justice.

The film spans nearly fifty years of South African history, beginning and ending in the present day. Viewers experience the dangerous and tumultuous years of the anti-apartheid struggle from a new and unusual perspective -- as it was lived by dissident white South Africans. Their recollections and insights take us from the rigid confines of a brutal, minority-ruled society in the 1940s …into the vibrant cities and townships of the new South Africa in the 1990s. From the insular world of an all-white Parliament in the 1950s … to black townships exploding in frustration and violence in the 1970s. From small, isolated cells of political prisoners … to mass street demonstrations in the 1980s.

Our journey is narrated by four main characters. They came from diverse political and cultural backgrounds and expressed their opposition to apartheid in different ways. But all four stood against families, friends, communities and government in choosing to fight the apartheid state and help rebuild South Africa as a “nonracial” nation.

Helen Suzman – human rights crusader and longtime opposition Member of Parliament, Suzman was for many years the only voice of opposition to apartheid in the legislature.

Max du Preez -- renegade Afrikaans journalist who exposed the government’s death squads and founded an anti-apartheid newspaper written in Afrikaans.

Kate Philip – student leader in the 1980s, when the anti-apartheid struggle entered its crucial final phase and daughter of a prominent dissident publisher.

Ronnie Kasrils – Communist Party activist and founding member of the MK, the armed wing of the ANC. Kasrils spent 27 years in political exile and held cabinet posts in the Mandela and Mbeki governments.

The first-hand experiences of these four, featured individuals take us deep inside daily life in apartheid South Africa as we try to answer questions such as, “Why did these people, stand against their own government when the majority of whites did not?” “What actions did they take and how did they contribute to the success of the black resistance movement?” The answers to these questions reveal the motivations, conflicts, and personal sacrifices our characters and many other likeminded individuals made in order to free their own consciences and liberate their country. Creating a current day framework for the story, we further ask, “How are the efforts of white anti-apartheid activists regarded in today’s ‘new’ South Africa?”

The film offers a deeper understanding of the state of race relations in South Africa today as revealed by, for example, filming in the recording studio of a popular morning drive-time radio program. As they battle rush hour traffic, callers debate the merits of racially based empowerment programs and the tensions inherent in the dichotomy of white economic and black political power.

Throughout Breaking the Rules, excerpts from in-depth interviews with the main characters are interwoven with evocative visual imagery shot on location with them at key sites of historical interest. Rare archival material and subtle re-enactments are used where archival material is unavailable. In addition to the four intertwined stories that create the film’s primary narrative thread, other significant voices are heard throughout the film via newly shot interviews.

Among those featured prominently as commentators are former South African presidents Nelson Mandela (already shot) and F.W. deKlerk, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, and Barney Pityana, co-founder with Steve Biko of the Black Consciousness Movement—along with other activists, artists, former political prisoners, religious and political leaders and international supporters of the struggle.

A unique feature of Breaking the Rules is the use of excerpts from the work of some of South Africa’s leading white dissident performers, musicians and writers who expressed opposition to apartheid through their art.

The filmmakers hope that Breaking the Rules will be a catalyst for international dialogue, debate and education on issues such as post-conflict racial/ethnic/religious reconciliation, human rights and the role of the individual in building societies based on social justice and respect for diversity. Educational curricula, a dedicated and interactive website, a museum exhibit, and discussions and workshops developed in conjunction with the film will encourage public conversation and dialogue about these important issues and support communities and societies around the world that struggle to confront these issues.

We hope that Breaking the Rules inspires each of us to imagine the possibilities for greater racial tolerance, understanding and the power of individuals to change the world.