MTV in South Africa commissioned a youth race documentary entitled The People vs the Rainbow Nation that will be broadcast on Thursday night looking at whether the Rainbow Nation that Archbishop Desmond Tutu described in 1994 has become a myth.
The 50-minute documentary from Lebogang Rasethaba and produced by Allison Swank of Arcade Content will be broadcast on Thursday 21 April on MTV (DStv 130) at 21:15 and on MTV Base (DStv 322) on 27 April at 12:00.
Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa) commissioned The People vs the Rainbow Nation in response to the American documentary White People that the youth channel felt would be more relevant and timeous for its local audience.
While race discussions dominates, the documentary also includes views on education, economic Apartheid, white privilege, colonialism, sexism, governance, patriarchy and classism in South African society.
The People vs the Rainbow Nation interviews youth activists and students at various campuses including Tuks, Wits, Stellenbosch and the University of Cape Town to get their opinions about the new youth struggle in South Africa which recently gave rise to upheaval and violence on tertiary campuses along with social media "hashtags" ranging from #RhodesMustFall to #FeesMustFall.
"The People vs the Rainbow Nation follows the contrasting lives of students of different ethnicities from four different South African universities in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Stellenbosch and Pretoria, asking if equal rights have meant equality, and whether the promise of the Rainbow Nation is still alive and kicking, or if the dream is tarnished beyond repair," says Dillon Khan, the head of MTV Africa.
"We wanted to make a film that we wished someone had made when we were young to help us make sense of the construct of society, how to engage the systems of power at play and where we as individuals fit in in all of this," says Lebogang Rasethaba.
