“IN THE DOCK”

- 48 minute documentary

[“IN THE DOCK” is the introspective personal journey of local South African anti-Apartheid film-maker Kevin Harris – looking back at his life-experience and the circumstances that led to the long road to “Delmas”.]

On Sunday, the 26th August 1984, local independent film-maker Kevin Harris covered a community meeting held at Father Geoff Moselane’s parish in Sharpeville.
A week later, on Monday the 3rd September, Sharpeville erupted in violence & South Africa was never the same again.
A year later - on the 16th October, 1985 – in a small farming community some seventy kilometers east of Johannesburg - the so-named “Delmas Treason Trial” got under way.
The state was not aware that Harris had filmed the meeting at father Moselane’s church on the 26th August 1984 & built its case for the prosecution on fabricated testimony that the meeting was used to incite violence & revolution.
In May 1987, Harris was introduced as a surprise-witness for the Defence and history took its course.
For those caught up in the turmoil of South Africa in the 1980s - there were many roads that led to Delmas. For the 22 accused – all black activists fighting oppression and the injustice of Apartheid – there was some inevitability.
We are all products of our environment & life-experience - the script has been written.
But for others – take Kevin Harris as an example – a thirty-four-yr-old white South African film-maker –  happens upon a crucial meeting in the remote township of Sharpeville on the 26th August 1984 – seemingly, the script is not so clear.
Where does the journey begin – how does it lead to Delmas?
Is it destiny, or just a series of co-incidences?
“IN THE DOCK” takes us back to the little village of Hillcrest in 1962 where Harris grew up – the tragic death of his father, Wig , Kearsney College, nine months in the army at Voortrekkerhoogte, Pretoria & life-experiences at Durban University Campus.
The documentary explores Harris’ dismissal from SABC TV in 1979, and his relationship with the South African Council of Churches as a key milestone on the road to “Delmas”.
 “IN THE DOCK” is the introspective personal journey of local South African anti-Apartheid film-maker Kevin Harris – looking back at his life-experience and the circumstances that put him on the long road to “Delmas”.