We Are Together
Musical Documentary Examines Plight of South
African AIDS Orphans
We Are Together
(Thins Simunye)
Rated PG for mature themes.
In Zulu and English with subtitles.
Running time: 86 minutes
Studio: Palm Pictures
Film Review by Kam Williams
Excellent (4 stars)
Grandma Zodwa Mqadi was working as an AIDS counselor in the
KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa when she decided to do
something about the fact that the epidemic had created over a
million young orphans. For she witnessed that, invariably, dying
parents would expressed a concern that their offspring be cared
for in their absence. So, she founded Agape, an orphanage
capable of housing about 30 AIDS orphans, a place appropriately
named after the Greek word meaning unconditional love.
In 2003, the fledgling charity came to the attention of Paul
Taylor who spent three months there as a volunteer. Deeply
affected by what he witnessed, he soon returned with a camera
and would devote the next several years of his life to making a
movie about Zodwa and the children she’d adopted.
The upshot of those efforts is We Are Together, Taylor’s
brilliant directorial debut and as inspirational a documentary
as you could ever hope to find. Relying on music to grieve, bond
and overcome their mutual hardships, the kids form a choir not
only to help with the healing, but to make a CD, go on tour, and
raise money to enable Grandma Zodwa to extend her services to
more orphans.
This heartrending film focuses on the misfortunes of one family
in particular, the Moyas, especially Slindile, now 17. She has
been staying at Agape since she was 8 with three younger sisters
and a younger brother. She also has a big brother, Sifiso, who
is HIV+ and still lives at home over an hour away. We learn that
he can't afford the expensive AIDS medication, so he must make
do with the Vitamin B he gets from a local hospice.
I guarantee that there won’t be a dry eye in the house by the
time these innocent, wide-eyed waifs make their way from Africa
to New York City to perform their well-rehearsed repertoire at
an uplifting benefit concert.