video | 77 min | 2005
A new feature length documentary about black twentysomethings in the United States and South Africa More than 8 years in the making, this sequel revisits the parallel lives of sixteen remarkable and representative young people from New York and Soweto, first introduced during South Africa’s historic transition from apartheid to democracy in the documentary Who’s Gonna Take The Weight? Adding the dimension of time, this sequel deepens the convergent discourse between Black South African youth and their U.S. counterparts. A zone of particular intensity in the first production was the issue of race… Where Are They Now? revisits this issue and introduces the voices of White twentysomethings in the U.S. and South Africa. This sequel also features location coverage from Durban South Africa, shot during the U.N. World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in September 2001.
Following the form and style of the earlier production, this film again injects the sensibility of youth aesthetics into the documentary format, balancing hip-hop riffs with in-depth verité coverage.
As in the first installment, music is an integral element of the style and substance of Where Are They Now? The clarion call of hip-hop “phenom” Talib Kweli provides a musical motif in the sequel. But, whereas in the first program the South Africans preferred African American hip hop to their own sounds, now with the phenomenal rise of kwaito music in Soweto, that trend seems to be reversing itself. The film looks behind the headlines to highlight the critical issues at home and abroad from young adult perspectives. Edgy and urban, Where Are They Now? integrates the sensibilities of twentysomethings into a visual tapestry of South African and African American young people.
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