Filmmaker Jeff Spitz explains how the film project got started in 2001:
"I first came to Robben Island, now a world heritage site, as a tourist in 2001. My tour was led by a black ex-prisoner who told us why he joined the fight against apartheid. I expected that narrative. What I didn't expect was a story about prison inmates reshaping a place of banishment into their own university of struggle, teaching each other and their jailers about a better future for their country... My tour guide's closing remarks seared my conscience. He reminded us that in order to build a new South Africa people would have to learn from Mandela's example how to forgive. And then teach others."
For media inquiries about The Robben Island Singers, please contact Jennifer Amdur Spitz: