This event is co-presented with Shooting People.

A captivating view of the indomitable spirit if one of the world’s most fascinating figures, this full-length documentary follows Nelson Mandela from his early days and tribal education to his election as South Africa’s first black president. Providing insights into his early life, the film takes us through Mandela’s childhood, adolescence, career in law and first marriage. “Mandela” is an absorbing look at the courageous life, tribulations and fortitude of Mandela the leader, while never forgetting the engaging and charismatic spirit of Mandela the man, as seen through exclusive interviews and narration from Mandela himself.

This event is part of the International Documentary Association (IDA) presented traveling Pare Lorentz Film Festival in celebration of the modern evolution of the documentary film. This program is supported by the New York Community Trust.

Ingrid Kopp is director of Shooting People in the US – an international networking community for independent filmmakers. She began her career in the Documentaries department at Channel 4 Television in the UK.  While there she worked across original commissions and documentary acquisitions and ran a series of workshops for emerging filmmakers.  She moved to New York in 2004 to work as an associate producer for a number of independent production companies before taking her current post at Shooting People. She writes about film, technology and social media for various publications and teaches digital bootcamp workshops for filmmakers. She also works as a documentary programming consultant. Ingrid is endlessly fascinated by old technology and wrote her Masters thesis on late nineteenth century electricity.

Dara Kell – Co-Director, Dear Mandela is a South African filmmaker and editor, and is the recipient of Participant Media’s ‘Outstanding Filmmaker’ award, representing Africa. Her editing credits include The Reckoning, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009 and was broadcast on P.O.V., the Academy Award-nominated Jesus Camp,Courting Justice and Mercurial Son: The Blues of Lurrie Bell. She was a field producer in South Africa for Amnesty International’s Human Rights, Human Needs. The film tells the story of a doctor’s battle with the South African Department of Health to secure antiretroviral medication for child survivors of rape. She facilitates filmmaking workshops with grassroots organizations both in the US and South Africa to empower communities to tell their own stories. Dear Mandela is her first feature-length documentary.