Benjamin Kahlmeyer
2011 | South Africa, Germany
Welcome to the “shack side”—Extension 11, one of the many districts in the township of Mamelodi in Pretoria, South Africa: no running water, no paved roads, no electricity. With the 2010 World Cup as a backdrop, this is the setting for the story of the Mtsweni family—led by father Steven and his 17-year-old daughter Moskito—as they maintain the small kiosk that sustains them, shouldering poverty, illness, and the general daily challenges to survival to survival as common here as they are in any number of other countries. Meanwhile in Mamelodi is an intimateheartfelt, difficult, and ultimately uplifting portrait of one family’s dreams and disappointments, complete with teenage problems, business stress, and larger questions of hope and despair in modern South Africa—and vuvuzelas.
Co-presented by Museum for African Art