Tri-Continental film fest rows spotlight on mining exploitation

Mining exploitation, corruption and other poor business practices and how they affect the poor are among the main themes at this years Tri-Continental Human Rights Film Festival, being held in Johannesburg.

The festival runs for 10 days in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town and features films from various African countries including South Africa, Liberia and Mozambique. There are also movies from India and several European countries, as well as movies which span several countries.

He pretends to be an African diplomat, but a shady and corrupt one who is building a match factory but actually under the surface he's dealing in blood diamonds

Stealing Africa, which premiered on Friday, is a movie which focuses on the exploits of Glencore International and its mining operations in Zambia. The film, directed by Christoffer Guldbrandsen, forms part of the Why Poverty series which aims to get people talking about poverty through thought provoking films. The film was sponsored by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), which also screened a short film focusing on mining exploitation in Limpopo.

The LRC also sponsored a second film, Blood in the Mobile, which focuses on the bloody side of mobile technology. The film examines how cell phone companies indirectly finance civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through the mining of a vital minerals required to manufacture cell phones.

LRC attorney Sayi Nindi said films like these show the similarities between the plight of various communities in South Africa, and abroad.

(The Sekhuruwe community which we filmed) is a good example of the kind of clients that our organisation represents and the issues that they were dealing with, we have a number of cases that are similar to the Sekhuruwe community's plight, Nindi said.

Nindi said the LRCs work had proven that mostly mines operate in rural areas, where the communities have little education, capital and access to legal advice.

Mining companies are big enemies, for lack of a better word, to face... So firstly you will need the financial support to actually challenge them. We need to invest more from the legal side, we need to invest more on pro-bono legal advice, Nindi said.

Festival director Anita Khanna said the festival was particularly interested in screening this film as a result of Glencore's merger with Xtrata, which has several mining operations in South Africa. She said several films in the festival illustrated how companies were very very motivated by profit and don't seem to show much interest in what they are doing to local communities.

The Ambassador is a film which highlights how easy corruption can happen. In the movie, director Mads Br gger impersonates a Liberian Ambassador and goes to the Central African Republic in order to expose the illicit diamond trade.

He does something very very cheeky and very risky but he does this kind of thing in all his films. He pretends to be an African diplomat, but a shady and corrupt one who is building a match factory but actually under the surface he's dealing in blood diamonds, Khanna said.

Br gger is expected to speak at the screening of his movie on Monday night, Khanna said.

Films are being screened at the Cinema Neauvea in Rosebank and the Bioscope in the Maboneng District in the Joburg CBD from Friday 13 September to Sunday 22 September.

The festival will also travel to the Cinema Nouveau at Brooklyn Mall in Pretoria, from Friday 20 September to Sunday 29 September, and will be at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town over the same dates.

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