Audience Award IDFA 2006

We Are Together (Thina simunye)
Paul Taylor

"Singing makes me think of my home, because that was where I learnt to sing". Slindile is 12 years old. She lives at the Agape Orphanage in South Africa, a home for children, many of whom have lost their parents to AIDS. The children form a choir which becomes a great source of comfort and hope. Meanwhile Slindile makes regular visits to her former home, where her parents taught her to sing as a child, and where her brother Sifiso is now unwell. It's unclear what is wrong with him, but Slindile's worst fears are confirmed by the hospice. He has HIV. Sifiso must face the inevitable, but the family still have the strength to sing. Back at the orphanage, despite the hardship the children have been through, they too continue to sing, which takes them on a journey they could only dream of.

http://www.wearetogetherfilm.com

UK, 2006
colour, video, 83 min
Director: Paul Taylor
Production: Teddy Leifer & Paul Taylor for Rise Films
Photography: Paul Taylor
Editing: Masahiro Hirakubo; Ollie Huddleston
Music: Dario Marianelli
Narration: Slindile Moya
Narrator: Slindile Moya
Involved TV Channel: Channel 4
Screening copy: Rise Films