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Antoine Fuqua’s Mandela Documentary ‘Troublemaker’ Premieres at Sundance, Seeks Distribution

Recovered tapes from Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom sessions anchor a first-person account of revolt and leadership.

Overview

  • The film bowed in Park City at the Sundance Film Festival and is currently on the market for distribution.
  • Fuqua builds the narration from early-1990s recordings captured by ghostwriter Richard Stengel during work on Mandela’s autobiography.
  • Archival footage is interwoven with Thabang Lehobye’s protest-art-inspired animation to visualize events without contemporaneous video.
  • Anti-apartheid veteran Mac Maharaj appears in new interviews, recalls smuggling memoir pages from prison in 1967, and calls the tapes crucial firsthand testimony.
  • Reviews highlight unflinching depictions of apartheid’s violence and frame the documentary as a timely reflection on resistance and the making of a leader.