Heightening already substantial acclaim, The Man Who Drove with Mandela has just won the Documentary Teddy Prize at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), the world’s second-largest festival after Cannes.
The film was directed by Greta Schiller (who also won a Teddy in 1989 for her documentary, Tiny and Ruby: Hell-Divin’ Women), and written/researched by renowned South African writer Mark Gevisser. It tells the story of Cecil Williams – the gay man, communist and theatre director who was with Nelson Mandela when he was arrested in 1962.
The Teddy awards are the only worldwide gay/lesbian film awards at a major international festival and the first Teddys, in 1987, were awarded to Pedro Almodovar and Gus van Sant.
The documentary will be screened, in shortened form, on SABC3 on Sunday April 25 at 9pm.