Browse Films

Five multiethnic L.A. teenagers travel to South Africa to live with South African students in a black township. The film focuses on the personal, rather than the political as these diverse youth share their experiences with family, school, violence, racism, and oppression. Woven into the film are short, intensely revealing video diaries made by each student reflecting his or her own views, culture and identity.

David Hunter
Hollywood Reporter
full review

Scott Rosenberg
San Francisco Chronicle
full review

Well-constructed and thoroughly engrossing, Uncommon Ground successfully shows and encourages the spread of youth awareness about the world and associates a more human face with the ongoing struggle to understand the human fallout of apartheid.
The Hollywood Reporter

This 'un' documentary insightfully and honestly addresses issues of multiculturalism and oppression. This work is what we in anthropology seek in holistic presentations which are invaluable as visual aids in presenting contemporary issues cross-culturally.
Sheilah Ekong
University of Missouri, St. Louis

A testament to youth concern and activism, it is amazingly revealing of the state of young people today in America, not just South Africa.
San Francisco Chronicle

AWARDS & SCREENINGS:

• American Film Institute International Film Festival, Los Angeles
• National Educational Film and Video Festival
• Best Documentary, Rivertown Film Festival
• FESPACO Pan African Film and Video Festival, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
• David Wolper Award, Independent Documentary Association

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Discussion & Study Guide