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Family Vilakati by Xanthe Hamilton follows the trials and tribulations of the Vilakati family. Orphaned when their dad died from HIV and their mother left to start a new life, the film charts their everyday routine, from finding matches in the morning, to cooking a meal in the evening. Xanthe Hamilton's sympathetic film offers us a chance and rare opportunity to share the joy, sadness and aspirations of these four children.
Rachael Thornley writes: Films like ‘Family Vilakti’ really matter. I like the way that after a while I almost forgot I was watching a film. The camera doesn’t feel operated but rather as if it’s been left turned on by mistake in a corner of a darkened room. This film suggests a thousand tales without explicitly telling any of them, just like how life really is, the messy state of something that cannot be sealed and delivered, looking at life without the obscuring veil of glamour and drama. We are observing small heroic acts – the real-life heroism that occurs every day in developing countries – children caring for children, the five mile walk to collect water - the African stereotype. This way of observing makes it very difficult to dissociate ourselves from these people and most importantly it causes us to ask; what really is our position in all of this – sat in front of our computer – safe and comfortable in our manufactured world?
Documentary mediums very often claim to be revealing an, as yet, unseen truth that the makers have miraculously ‘uncovered’. A tantalising tale is produced, full of the drama and glamour of the big screen, with all the twists and turns of an activist’s conspiracy story. This is the documentary style that has had great success at the box office as well as in our living rooms. Leaving the cinema having viewed these types of documentaries, we discuss the terrifying atrocities of say, the Rwandan Genocide or Ugandan Despotism; the heroism of the protagonists; the death; the violence. But when our babble has died down and the conversation turns to other things, have we, in the end, emerged from the experience with something real and concrete to take away with us? How much do we really know of these events and of the people who lived through these scenes? How much have we discovered about the on going depravity and horrors that continue after the cameras have turned away from the sets and the actors have gone home?
Review by Rachael Thornley
In 2003, the Salvation Army set up kids camps to give orphaned children psycho-social and practical support. This includes:
Yet, despite these efforts, thousands of children like the Vilakati family remain unreached and unsupported. Our goal is to raise £10,000 to extend this project to more regions in Swaziland. If you have been touched by this story please give generously; your donation will substantially help to alleviate the suffering of many children.
After the making of this film the Vilakati family were sponsored by a family from the U.K. (£500 a year provides them with food, clothes and an education.) However, the Vilakatis are but 4 of the 65,000 children in Swaziland who have been left orphaned by the HIV/aIDS epidemic. Please help us to help them!
Click on the following link to DONATE NOW, quickly, easily and securely:
To donate by post, send cheque to:
HOPEHIV
PO Box 44350
London
SW20 8XR
NOTE: 95% of all money raised will go directly to aid centers in Swaziland and 5% will go to the production costs of the film and administration costs of the campaign.