This Is National Wake (2023)

Together with the Amsterdam music platform Steppin' Into Tomorrow we're going to watch the story of the multiracial South African rock band National Wake, dubbed "the band that defied apartheid," whose members risked everything to taste freedom.

In 1979, South Africa’s apartheid regime kept blacks and whites separate and unequal.  But three young men — Ivan Kadey, a white guitarist from Johannesburg’s Jewish side, and Gary and Punka Khoza, two Black Shangaan brothers from Soweto —  dared to launch National Wake. In a time and place where it was illegal for these young musicians to play or live together, their band and its fans fought back with music. They smashed every law to rebel — and documented themselves with remarkable foresight and nerve in astonishing Super 8. 

This is National Wake is a dreamlike immersion into a utopian journey, whose lasting lessons about imagining an anti-racist world resound as loudly today as this historic band’s rollicking sound.