‘Miners Shot Down’ wins International Emmy

Rehad Desai’s documentary film, which charts the chronology of events leading up to the now infamous Marikana Massacre in August 2012, has won an International Emmy for Best Documentary.

The documentary, which remains clouded in controversy, continues to not be shown by local broadcasters in spite of the numerous awards it has won.

Miners Shot Down is filmed from the perspective of the miners involved in the strike and paints a drastically different picture of the events that unfolded on that fateful day when compared to those that authorities have disseminated. State funded productions such as Marikana – The Musical, have been heavily criticized for what many critics believe was a state-centric and biased production.

Speaking to 10and5, Desai notes that: “This process soon led me to understand the need to produce a counter narrative to that of the police that was and still is claiming self-defence.”

There were 40 nominees across 10 categories and 19 countries, including Angola, Austria, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States.

Released last year, Miners Shot Down has received worldwide acclaim and gone on to win multiple awards including:

• The Cinema for Peace Award-Winner 2015
• The Václav Havel Jury Award at the One World Human Rights Film Festival
• Camera Justitia Jury Award at the Movies That Matter Human Rights Film Festival
• The Aung San Suu Kyi Jury Award at Hrhdiff, Myanmar
• The Audience Award at the African Film Festival, Cologne
• The Audience Prize at The Black Movie Film Festival, Geneva
• The Best Reality Documentary Award at The Ugu Film Festival, South Africa
• Jury 1st Prize For Documentary, Fespaco, Burkina Faso
• Best Documentary Feature South African Film And Television Awards
• Human Rights Jury Award, Amnesty International, Durban International Film Festival