Everyone you know needs to see MTV's "The People vs. Patriarchy"

Following last year’s highly impactful #FeesMustFall documentary titled ‘The People vs. The Rainbow Nation’, director Lebogang Rasethaba’s #MenAreTrash follow up project, ‘The People vs. Patriarchy’ will air tonight and everyone you know needs to watch it. 

The People vs. The Rainbow Nation’s primary focus was the disillusionment of youth in the face of the Fees Must Fall movement, and the race relations of the fees struggle.

According to the project’s production team, ‘The People vs. Patriarchy’ is “a documentary that unpacks what patriarchy is and how it has locked itself onto the very heart of our society. Through frank and confrontational dialogue with young people from different walks of life, all South Africans are challenged to interrogate their role in sustaining a system where men still hold so much of the power.”

We got to preview the documentary exactly a week ago and while we were deeply moved by the content, we walked away from the screening feeling as though we needed to see the documentary again and show it to everyone we know. 

‘The People vs. Patriarchy’ features a refreshing mix of young voices who have lived vastly different lives and therefore bring unexplored perspectives to the table. There will also be a few dissenting voices that proponents of feminism might find hard to stomach while watching the documentary. 

Among the faces taking a long, hard look in the mirror to find out why #MenAreTrash exploded are musician and Inxeba lead actor Nakhane Toure, transgender activist Glow Makatsi, 2017 Aspen New Voices Fellow Koketso Moeti, Social Anthropologist and poet, Nova Masango and Social Scientist, activist and vocal proponent of womanism, Wanelisa Xaba.

There is a noticeable vacuum in the documentary when it comes to the white middle class and white South Africans in general but the production team explained that they did try to reach out to a few people from the community to no avail. As such, there are very few white people contributing to the discussion with the own experiences of patriarchy, misogyny and the associated issues. 

Speaking to publication, Between 10and5, Rasethaba explained the documentary as his contribution to the ongoing conversation. 

“It’s important because patriarchy is f***ed up and a lot of people don’t think so, don’t understand why, don’t even know what it is… I don’t know if documentary is the right format for the topic but it’s the biggest way I could contribute to the dialogue, we all have to do our little bit in our little corners and in my corner this is my bit,” said Rasethaba. 

‘The People vs. Patriarchy’ airs tonight, on MTV, DSTV Channel 130 at 21h15. You can follow the conversation on social media at #PeopleVsPatriarchy

'The People vs. Patriarchy’ will repeat on MTV, DSTV Channel 130:

• 1st Repeat (No Breaks) 1 Dec @22:50.
  
• 2nd Repeat (No Breaks) 3rd Dec @21:00.
  
• 3rd Repeat (With Breaks)  4th Dec @22:00.
  

Main image credit: twitter.com/MTVAfrica