After 11 years in the making, a seven-episode documentary based on the life of anti-apartheid icon and wife of Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela, debuted on Netflix this week.
The Trials of Winnie Mandela explores the complex life of the late activist through her voice and those of her granddaughters, HRH Princess Zaziwe Manaway and HRH Princess Swati Mandela-Dlamini, who also serves as a producer.
Through the Ichikowitz Family Foundation’s African Oral History Archive, Ivor Ichikowitz, the film’s executive producer, played a big role in the making of the film alongside the late two-time Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Mandy Jacobson.
“When I started this project, I genuinely thought it was going to be a 12-month project and it was going to culminate in a 120-minute conventional documentary giving everyone an in-depth view of Winnie’s life,” Ichikowitz told Sunday Times.
“There were so many layers to Winnie’s story that I could never tell Winnie’s story or the story of the struggle or give a balanced view without digging into these layers. I felt that this was such an important story to tell. Because it was the story of the struggle through Winnie’s eyes.”
For eight years, Ichikowitz and his camera crew filmed two days a week.
“She trusted me to tell the story without editorial comment. She gave me the list of people who hated her. She wanted to hear, as much as we did, what they thought about her and why.”
“I’m very excited that the world gets to see this right now. I’ve lived with it for years. Some very hard truths have come out of the film. What the series does is very concisely tell the story of South Africa. Good, bad, ugly.”
“There were some people who did not want to talk to us, or be associated with Winnie or the project.”
The production was in editing phase when Winnie died in 2018, but seeing the 37,500-seat Orlando Stadium in Soweto, attended by thousands of global leaders, made him rethink how much of the story needed to be told.
“We had a version of this ready just before Winnie died. I was heartbroken that we hadn’t been able to do the story before Winnie died. I was on the stage during Winnie’s funeral and I saw how Winnie had become in her death the unifier in South Africa that she could never be in her life. I decided the story was not over. We still had pieces to tell.”
He and his crew continued making the film for two years after she died and decided to significantly improve the production value.
“I felt it was an important story and that it needed to be world-class.”
We didn’t always agree. In fact, there were many times when we had very robust debates. It was very difficult to get Winnie to change her view on things, but she listened. She always listened and always respected my view as I did hers.
— Ivor Ichikowitz
“It’s probably the highest budget documentary in South Africa. She trusted me to do this. She said to me, she wants me to show the good, the bad and the ugly.”
Over the years, Winnie had controversies centring on her alleged involvement in violent acts during the anti-apartheid struggle.
These included the alleged killing of a 14-year-hold, accusations of assault, fraud, theft and inciting “necklacing” (burning tyres) against informers, which led to a 1991 kidnapping conviction and a 2003 fraud conviction.
Ichikowitz said the documentary is not an educational film, but rather a real-life drama that deals with Winnie’s life and the struggles surrounding her.
“As you dig deeper, it starts dealing with complex issues like being able to understand what the struggle did to people, how people had to struggle to survive. Winnie did stuff that, in the context of the war, was acceptable.
“It [the film] deals with the issue of fake news before social media was even an issue. You see in the film a lot of what people were driven to believe about Winnie was fake news.”
Ichikowitz joined the ANC before the 1994 elections, working alongside members of its leadership including Winnie, but it was only in 2007 that they got to know each other well.
“Our relationship became far warmer. It was very difficult to gain Winnie’s trust. She was hugely suspicious of everybody around her, but I would say that over time we learned to trust each other and understand each other.
“We didn’t always agree. In fact, there were many times when we had very robust debates. It was very difficult to get Winnie to change her view on things, but she listened. She always listened and always respected my view as I did hers.”
As a producer who has spearheaded many productions capturing key historical moments, including Plot for Peace, Ichikowitz said Winnie’s story is among those that need to be told.
“Winnie knew she was handed a very unfair deck of cards. Her story will remain relevant for generations to come. This is an inspiration for the next generation of black women about their role in the world,” he said.
Winnie’s story has been told many times, but Ichikowitz has deliberately never consumed any of the content, whether it be books or films, he told the Sunday Times.
“I’ve been collecting archive material for 20 years. We’re not finished. We keep doing it. There was stuff left on the cutting room floor, but it’s not lost because of the oral archive. The footage will be available to filmmakers as part of a legacy to ensure that people get to see the original footage.”
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