Memories of Movement is an experimental short documentary created by Tsogo Kupa and Shaeera Khalla, reflecting on ten years since the start of the Fees Must Fall movement in 2015. Instead of an analytical reflection on time, this film aims to explore the textures in the movement’s legacy.

Memories is grounded in the theme of memory and public consciousness, utilizing reinterpreted archival material including music, photography, and video, to explore the human and structural impacts of protest movements. The re-interpolation of the archive allows us, as filmmakers, to paint history on our terms and reconfigure narratives and representations that have arisen and sustained themselves in the 10 years since the movements. Additionally, this re-interpretation gives us the freedom to ground the story in a deeply human and intimate experience, a quality that can often be lost in the sensationalization of protest imagery.

Memories passes interchangeably between four broad themes: the body, memory, spirituality, and architecture. Rooted in an experimental mode, with sparse use of voice-over and text, the film aims to distance itself from a didactic mode of address. This mode engages the viewer and disrupts a passive viewing experience, prompting the audience to interrogate the images presented to them, allowing preconceived ideas of the time to be challenged and critically reflected upon.

Memories of Movement is a reflection and reinterpretation. Our hope as filmmakers is not necessarily to provide the viewer with any discernible answers from our experiment, but to engage with the images and montage critically, just as we have during the process of making this film. We hope that through the conversation between our film and the audience’s impressions, a synthesized and unique understanding can develop, tailored to each pair of eyes and ears that watches this film.