Family Matters - South Africa

Various people at different stages of life and age.

The Simmons and Mathiyah families share their stories of living in the Bo Kaap of Cape Town and the Shayandima settlement in the North Eastern part of South Africa respectively. West and East and hundreds of kilometers apart, both families speak of traditions and religion as well as living together under one roof. The films speak nearby the two families; one Jewish descendents from Senna, and the other, descendants of enslaved persons from Indonesia."

The Simons Family

For Shahied and Amina, the Malay Choir music tradition has been in their families for multiple generations. Linked to this tradition, Shahied formed and continues to lead his own Cape “Minstrel” troupe, the District 6 Entertainers, which participates in the historic annual parade that occurs on the second of January.

The Mathivha Family

As the Lemba lost their book (Torah) in their migration, Lemba culture places big emphasis on oral tradition. Similarly, oral tradition is emphasized within the Mathivha family — especially for Thakhani who has chosen to home school his son so that he can pass down the types of Jewish studies and nuanced oral tradition he deems important to carry from generation to generation.

Creator Statement

“I try not to go into a project with too many expectations. This was essentially my first real video project, and so my only hope was to learn a bunch on the job, and to try create something somewhat honest that the participants felt was fair. We forget that documentaries are also constructed, and so it’s always important to me that the people I work with feel fairly represented in the edit. Often folks forget that there are real people behind documentaries, with real lives and they don’t really owe anyone access to that.” - Zara Julius

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