My mom took me to see Cry Freedom in the theatre when it came out. I was 12 years old. Not exactly standard pre-teen film fare...But this was the same year she took me to see Ladysmith Black Mambazo in concert. Both of those events had a lasting impact on me.

 Cry Freedom is the true story of Steve Biko, the incredible activist who led the South African Black Consciousness Movement. The story is told through his eventual friendship with a white newspaper journalist, Donald Woods, who wrote the documentary book that became the movie.

Biko remains one of the most spectacular, yet largely forgotten figures in a social struggle that is admired by the world. As a man, Biko individually overcame some of the worst institutional oppression humanity has ever produced. His struggle for human freedom, on the most inherent levels, invited the Apartheid Regime to dole out the most sadistic forms of state sanctions on Biko and his family.

Steve Biko was eventually tortured, like millions of others and then killed through active neglect in custody. These scenes in the book and movie, that attempt to show how Steve dies, are the ultimate lesson for anyone who approaches these broader topics to always question the phrase "died in police/state custody" when it involves a person who has spoken out politically. 

Donald Woods, a cliché mild-mannered newspaper editor followed the unwritten rules against addressing racial inequality in the South African press. Woods lived an almost surreal life of respledent luxury and wealth that included servants. But he was transformed through his interactions with Biko. Eventually Woods uses his public voice to tell Steve's story and then went further to look at Apartheid in general. Simply reporting all of these facts and expressing his opinion nearly cost Woods, along with his wife and children, their very lives.

 Richard Attenborough who also gave us Gandhi in 1982 brought Cry Freedom to the screen. Attenborough uses the same cinematic approach in his view of South Africa as he utilized in the epic with Ben Kinglsley, taking the viewer from the telescope to the microscope. The vast landscapes and scenes showing exterior daily lives in neighborhoods are brought into focus though intimate views of conversations and the minutia of living.

Attenborough cast an upcoming actor for the role of Biko, Denzel Washington, who won his first Oscar Nomination (as a supporting actor) for Cry Freedom. Brilliantly filling the role of Donald Woods with a perfect blend of outrage, fear, suspense and little twists of humor is Kevin Kline. Not to be overlooked is the heartbreakingly sincere performace of Juanita Waterman as Biko's wife, Ntsiki.

 There was some critique of Cry Freedom that too much of it focused on Woods and that the film was intended for white audiences.  Indeed, although Woods' book was written from his own perspective of the events, he also took great pains and many chapters to write the perspective and history of his much admired friend Steve. So those who read the book do have some weight to their criticism of the film, if only that it doesn’t follow completely an outstanding book.

Yet Cry Freedom does do justice to an extremely difficult topic at a time when the issue was still deeply under-reported. After seeing the movie I became truly aware of the struggle in South Africa. I also gained two important role models in my life with Biko and Woods.

When I read the open call there was some emphasis on a film's impact, thus my choice of Cry Freedom. Honestly there have been few movies I have ever seen that elicit such emotion from the depths of me. Cry Freedom makes tears flow from this cynic's hardened ducts. Tears of outrage at the realities: Tears of sadness at the facts: Tears of joy that the work of Biko and Woods contributed greatly to ending the terror, oppression and evil that was South African Apartheid.

To me Cry Freedom has been much more than a movie. Introducing me to these real men has given me heroes and inspiration that continue to drive my work.

 film still

 Steve Biko