Documentary Screening: Word Down the Line

Screening of documentary film, Word Down the Line. In a voice that is at once mischievous, seething and sardonic, Rampolokeng praises his influences, analyses the politics and aesthetics of the past 20 years, reflects on poverty and repression, and articulates the expansive possibilities and undeniable importance of poetry in South Africa — past, present and future.  

Directed by Bobby Rodwell, the documentary sees the poet literally go down the line, travelling the country and tracking down frontline poets who have inspired and provoked him.  In a sequence of interview fragments Rampolokeng lays down tracks through a landscape that is itself always sliding away, to explore personal relationships and the struggle (emotionally, politically, financially and spiritually) of living a committed creative life. 

Poets as diverse as James Matthews, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Mafika Gwala, Jeremy Cronin, Boitumelo Mofokeng, Maishe Maponya, Sandile Dikeni, Vonani Bila, Khulile Nxumalo, Kgafela oa Magogodi and Gift (Makahafula Vilakazi) Ramashia reflect on how far we’ve come, where we’re going and what the future holds.  

Following the film’s successful world premiere at the Durban International Film Festival, Rampolokeng offers a timely meditation on the word, on politics, on film and on friendship that challenges what poetry does, what it can do, even what it is willing to address as a form.