Negotiating the meaning of film for intercultural pastoral work: Tsotsi and the cry for humanity

Abstract

Acknowledging the fact that stories play a very important role in Africa, it is a given that, with the emphasis on the narrative accent, the medium of film is regarded as an important expression of meaning giving. The award wining movie “Tsotsiâ€, by the director Gavin Wood and based on the novel with the same title by Athol Fugard, portrays contemporary South Africa revealing heartbreaking realities of poverty, HIV and/or AIDS and crime. In exploring the fact that films from other countries could be considered as prime vehicles for cultural and religious exploration, not only in content and form, but also in audience reception, the proposed ABDCE-research paradigm for intercultural pastoral work is followed. Accordingly to this paradigm, and concurrent to the narratives portrayed in film, the movements of Action, Background, Development, Climax and Ending could constitute a narrative research paradigm and epistemology. In following this methodology the focus in the paper will be on exploring and describing the background that informed the development of the movie “Tsotsi†within the South African context. In the practice of the development of a form of practical wisdom which values the stories of people and communities, it is described how the pastoral paradigm portrayed by film could assist people to give meaning to their humanity.