This is National Wake

This is National Wake traces the wild rise of a multiracial South African punk band, dubbed “the band that defied apartheid," whose members risked everything to taste freedom. This debut feature offers a profound meditation on how history is lived through art and in our minds.

In 1979, South Africa’s fascist regime kept blacks and whites separate and unequal. But three young men —a white guitarist from Johannesburg’s Jewish side, and black Shangaan sibling musicians from Soweto — dared to launch National Wake. In a time and place where it was illegal for them to play or live together, their band and its fans fought back with music, smashing every law to rebel — and filmed themselves doing so in astonishing Super 8.

This is National Wake is a dreamlike immersion into a utopian journey, whose lasting lessons about imagining an anti-racist world resound as loudly today as this historic band’s rollicking sound.