Everything Must Fall

Time: Sept. 28, 2019, 1 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Location: Shemin Auditorium, Shaffer Art Building

17th Annual Syracuse University Human Rights Film Festival

(Rehad Desai, South Africa, 2018, 85 min. Captioned in English)

In this galvanizing examination of the fight for free higher education, acclaimed documentarian Rehad Desai takes his own alma mater as a case study in a growing intersectional global movement. At South Africa’s elite, ivy-covered Wits University, students chanting “Fees Must Fall” held a rally against steep tuition hikes. The cry became a viral social media hashtag. One protest fueled another. The administration called in more than a thousand armed police. Soon, a leading institution of nearly 40,000 students was shut down. Neighboring university students struggling with their own mounting debt joined the cause, which become a national movement marked by escalating conflict and violence. Even after their fight has led to three deaths, 800 arrests and counting, the students are determined to achieve transformational, intergenerational justice and “decolonized,” free higher education, a message increasingly popular around the world.

Check festival website for complete details as they develop.

Roger Hallas, Tula Goenka, English, Newhouse