Director Khalid Shamis’ documentary Imam and I was the most popular local film at South Africa’s Encounters International Documentary Film Festival 2011, and was screened internationally at the Dubai International Film Festival in the United Arab Emirates and at Africa in the Picture in the Netherlands.
“The film is about struggle hero Imam Abdullah Haron – his life, his death and his legacy. He was quite progressive as an Imam (Muslim religious leader) and as a community leader in Claremont in the Western Cape who stood up against apartheid,’ explains documentary filmmaker Khalid Shamis of his grandfather, the subject of his documentary Imam and I.
In 1969 Haron was detained and tortured for his opposition to apartheid and later died in prison with the cause of death given as “falling down the stairs’.
“My grandfather died before I was born, and I grew up with myths and stories about him and his life. I wanted to uncover the truth, to find out who he really was,’ explains Shamis.
The “very personal journey’ began in London, where Shamis was trained as a director, when he started developing the film in early 2005. He moved to Cape Town in June of that year to start his research.
“The film took me back to London, as well as New York and other places in South Africa including Durban, where people who had known him were now living. I wanted to paint a portrait of him through collecting stories of the people who knew him.’
While shooting interviews on a Panasonic DVX 100A and editing the film over the next six years, Shamis also worked as a lecturer at Wits University in Johannesburg and managed to finance about 80% of the documentary himself.
“Funding was one of the obvious challenges. I tried, somewhat naively, to get money from the Muslim community in Cape Town. They supported the film, but not financially.’
Although the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) rejected Shamis twice, for development and production funding, he managed to receive funding for post-production. Some private funders also contributed.
Personal story
The personal nature of the story was another major challenge. “It was quite a journey to investigate and interrogate myself and my family. I tried not to be too harsh, but to speak from a place of truth.’
However, he was worried about how his family would react to the film, especially his grandmother.
“They loved it, but they didn’t expect it to be so personal. The documentary created a space where traumatic things they could never talk about before could be discussed. They found it cathartic.’
Shamis was also worried about reactions from the Muslim community. “The Muslims in South Africa generally consider the Imam to represent the Muslim contribution to the struggle, but he stood alone. Today they revere him as a hero and celebrate his life and work every year, but it’s never been investigated why they didn’t support him.’
However, screenings of the film sold out in the Western Cape and Johannesburg and received positive reactions from across the country.
The film is currently shown at many community screenings and Shamis is looking to sell it to a local broadcaster. The Western Cape education department is also interested in including Imam and I in the matric curriculum. “That would be the best thing for the film, to be part of the continual rewriting of history by ourselves,’ says Shamis.
He is currently working on his next project, a documentary about his father – a Libyan who spent years as an exile in London because of his opposition to Muammar Gaddafi, and who recently went back to Libya for the first time to work closely with the new Libyan prime minister.
By Linda Loubser
Screen Africa Magazine – March 2012
