DORPIE
Documentary, 75min, South Africa/Germany, 2022.
A film by Julia Jaki
With Lana O’Neill
Camera: Eaton De Jongh, Julia Jaki
Editor: Khalid Shamis, SAGE
Producer: Florian Schewe/Film Five, Julia Jaki
Co-Producer: Antoinette Engel/Far Horizon Films Score: Gary Thomas
World premiere at IDFA 2022, German premiere in the DOK.horizonte competition at DOK.fest München 2023, African premiere at Encounters South African Documentary Film Festival 2023 where DORPIE received a special mention at the Encounters Aljazeera Awards 2023 in the category “Best International Feature Documentary”.
Watch the trailer.
Synopsis
The small South African town of Bredasdorp has been shaken by a series of rapes and murders of women. Femicide and violence against women reach pandemic levels in the country as a whole. Community worker Lana O’Neill runs a safe house in Bredasdorp - the only one in the whole region. Lana’s activities range widely, from picking up intoxicated women under a bridge to negotiating funding with the deputy mayor. Following Lana as she goes about her daily business, we see how a legacy of inequality, poverty and violence wreak havoc on the lives of women. The local government, meanwhile, is doing little to help Lana fund self-defence classes and we watch as the pressure of work inevitably increases on the fierce activist. DORPIE, filmed over the course of five years, is a portrait of a woman making the most of her grassroots leadership qualities, but who is struggling against the tide. Dealing with indifference, performative activism by politicians and the vicious cycle of domestic abuse Lana almost reaches her breaking-point.
Share Doc
We partnered with the organisation Share Doc so that viewers can take action and donate to the safe house in Bredasdorp. Read more about it here or donate directly to the safe house here.
Poster artwork by Thomke Meyer Illustration, Berlin.
Press coverage
Netwerk24/Hermanus Times, 30.8.23, Ystervrou ’n kampvegter vir kwesbare vroue en kinders
Netwerk24/Hermanus Times, 23.8.23, Film hits home
Die Son, 17.7.23, Dokumentêr wys waarheid
Cape Times, 30.6.23, Film lays bare struggles of a Dorpie
Weekend Argus, 24.6.23, 25 years not out for Encounters Film Festival
Cape Talk Weekend Breakfast with Sarah-Jayne Makwala King, 18.6.23
Deutsche Welle, 5.5.23, How a South African Street Worker fights against Violence against women
Filmjournalisten Blog about DOK.fest Munich premieres, 3.5.23
IDA Decolonisation, ethics, archives, 29.11.22