Long Night's Journey Into Day: mapping the Rehabilitation of South Africa's Fractured Society

Horta, Paula Alexandra, 1967-

http://hdl.handle.net/10451/11834

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Authors

Horta, Paula Alexandra, 1967-

Abstract(s)

Change has been a recurring keyword in every domain of thought and action in South Africa since the dismantlement of apartheid and the implementation of democracy following the 1994 democratic elections. Politically, legally, and symbolically, this process broke with an extensive period of oppression and violation of human rights. However, the new government believed that the most significant change in social consciousness would take place at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s public hearings. The TRC was seen as a vehicle for social repair which provided release from the legacy of fear, hatred, revenge and guilt, and redirected people’s desire for vengeance. I approach this theme by considering Frances Reid’s (2000) cinematographic treatment of the role of compassion and forgiveness in healing severed relationships and promoting a course of action capable of transfiguring social exchange and providing new grounds of human community in the documentary film Long Night’s Journey Into Day.