‘Yesterday’ illustrates conversation on AIDS in Tanzania
By Mamus Ngeseyan
Leleti Khumalo’s graceful and soul-wrenching performance in Yesterday (2004) made a strong impression on the students and faculty who attended its showing in the Womyn’s Center on Tuesday, Feb. 2. The event was open to both male and female students.
Members of the Pan African Society at Earlham, in conjunction with the Womyn’s Center, showed the film in hopes that it would shed realistic insight on the ongoing scourge of HIV and AIDS within Africa. The movie showing also allowed students to become acquainted with what Dr. Theresa Kaijage would elaborate on during convocation Wednesday afternoon.
Written by Darrell Roodt, a South African film screenwriter and producer, Yesterday was the first feature-length film ever made in isiZulu, the native language of the Zulu people of South Africa. The film was nominated for an Oscar in 2005 and for an Emmy in 2006. It also received a Gracie Allen Award for Outstanding Drama in 2006 and a Human Rights Film Award in 2004 from the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation.
The main character of the movie, symbolically named Yesterday, discovers she is HIV positive. After this discovery Yesterday manages to undergo an ascent in mental courage despite her ailing physical strength.
According to members of the 61st Venice Film Festival, “Yesterday” presents different issues regarding human rights, with a particular focus on human dignity and economic and social rights. These rights include access to water, education and health care, as well as freedom from gender discrimination.
For senior Hallie Cranos, co-convenor of the Womyn’s Center, the movie screening was a sign of positive things to come.
“It was a beautiful story and movie,” Cranos said. “I’m really excited that we were able to use the Womyn’s Center and want it to be an inclusive space. We want all women on campus to feel it is their space.”
James Logan, Director of African and African American Studies and Associate Professor of Religion said the film was “the best of the human spirit in the midst of tragedy.”
The film was obtained through Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) with the help of junior Alma Raymer. According to its website, AID seeks to empower young people to “address global challenges …[through] sustainable solutions at the campus, community and national levels… by facilitating educational dialogue through conferences, workshops, film screenings, video conferences and op-eds.”
Anyone interested in seeing the movie before it is returned to AID should contact sophomore Sharon Martins at scmarti08@earlham.edu.
A benefit dinner for WAMATA, Kaijage’s HIV/AIDS support group organization, will take place tonight at 5 p.m. Kaijage will speak and the Brimleys will perform at the dinner.
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