ROUGH AUNTIES at Sundance

I wanted to give a personal congratulations to filmmaker, Kim Longinotto, who will be US- debuting her latest film at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the World Cinema Documentary Competition.  Two of the film's subjects, traveling all the way from South Africa, will be joining Longinotto at the festival.  (Pictured: Longinotto, second from left, with her subjects, her crew and, standing front row right, Women Make Movies' Debra Zimmerman, the filmmaker's North American distributor, at the Rough Aunties world premiere at the IDFA this past November.  Photo courtesy of indieWIRE.) 

I had the great privilege of sitting down with Longinotto in London this past summer at the post-house where she was putting the final touches on the film and preparing to unleash her latest nonfiction gem on the world.  Rough Aunties is the story of how five extraordinary women (two white, three black) band together to help heal the children of post-apartheid South Africa.  Through their organization, they protect and care for the abused, neglected and forgotten children of Durban.  Rough Aunties was recently acquired for broadcast by HBO Documentary Films, and was produced by Rise Films' Teddy Leifer and Paul Taylor, the team behind the extraordinary award-winning We Are Together. 

Read my conversation with this prolific storyteller and exceedingly generous and spirited woman here.