It may surprise you that this month of June is replete with historical facts that are raw materials for many documentary films online.
From South to West Africa, monumental events that reshaped history, culture and politics have made filmmakers curious enough to document archives as well as footage that have profound meanings to movie buffs.
Here are four documentary movies you should see this weekend and well, they may not be so pop-corn friendly.
Soweto Uprising in Africa
June 16, 1976 was a major turning point in South African history- it was marked by protests carried out by Soweto school children. It was the end of submissiveness on the part of the black population of South Africa and the beginning of a new militancy in the struggle against apartheid.
South Africa would never be the same again. From that day, South Africa’s youth changed the narrative as they marched to the forefront of resistance to apartheid, alongside an increasingly powerful trade union movement, until the unbanning of political organisations in South Africa in February 1990.
Juneteenth
A group of Freed African-Americans in Richmond, Virginia 1865.
From Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
Juneteenth documentary movie honours the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. By the way, you’d find more than five of these documentaries online. On June 17, 2021, it officially became a federal holiday.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House two months earlier in Virginia, but slavery had remained relatively unaffected in Texas—until U.S. General Gordon Granger stood on Texas soil and read General Orders No. 3: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”
The Supreme Price
Postal Picture for the documentary film, ‘The Supreme Price’
This documentary film recounts the story of Hafsat Abiola, daughter of human rights heroine Kudirat Abiola, and Nigeria’s 1993 President-elect M.K.O. Abiola. Soon after the 1993 election, Abiola’s victory was annulled. Later, he was arrested. While he was imprisoned, his wife Kudirat took over leadership of the pro-democracy movement and won international attention for the struggle against human rights violations perpetrated by military dictatorship. She was assassinated in 1996. In this video, the Abiola family’s story unfolds as Hafsat continues to face the challenge of transforming corrupt governance into a democracy capable of serving Nigeria’s most marginalised population: women.
The Legacy of Kudirat Abiola
Late Kudirat Abiola
The blood-stained history of Nigeria’s political space is revealed in the documentary titled “The Legacy of Kudirat Abiola.” A famed human right and pro-democracy activist, Kudirat Abiola and her driver were shot at point-blank range by unknown assailants near her home in Lagos. She was assassinated whilst her husband, Moshood Abiola, was being detained by the Nigerian Government. He was the winning candidate in elections that had taken place in Nigeria in 1993 and was arrested shortly after they were summarily annulled by the ruling junta.
