In August 2012, mineworkers in one of South Africa's biggest platinum mines began a wildcat strike for better wages. Six days later the police used live ammunition to brutally suppress the strike, killing 34 and injuring many more. Using the point of view of the Marikana miners, Miners Shot Down follows the strike from day one, showing the courageous but isolated fight waged by a group of low-paid workers against the combined forces of the mining company Lonmin, the ANC government and their allies in the National Union of Mineworkers.

What emerges is collusion at the top, spiralling violence and the country's first post-apartheid massacre. South Africa will never be the same again.

With the Lonmin Marikana Mine massacre still fresh in the South African memory, Miners Shot Down, delves into the numerous historical and sociological truths that speak to the fault lines in South Africa's democracy, gaining access to mineworker strike committees and mining communities.

The movie charts the seven days leading up to bloodshed, much of it in real-time. The film uncovers disturbing new footage showing a line of police, with armoured vehicles in the background, firing live ammunition on a crowd of miners who are moving in a huddle towards the police line - challenging the police narrative that they acted in self-defence. The documentary utilises compelling previously unseen police, security and TV footage, some of which was submitted to the inquiry into the massacre, which is now underway.

Miners Shot Down from Africiné www.africine.org on Vimeo.

2014, South African, Documentary, 1hr25, English, Xhosa, Zulu, Fanakalo with English subtitles

Director/Producer: Rehad Desai
Producer/Writer: Anita Khanna
Producer: Brian Tilley
Company: Uhuru Productions
Country: South Africa

Producer / Director, Rehad Desai serves as the chairman of the Human Rights Media Trust and has conceived and produced over 20 documentary films.
Writer and co-director, Anita Khanna has written and directed several documentaries, including Looting the Nation, co-directed and produced with Brian Tilley.