“She has a great gift for storytelling that is built on emotion, like the music itself,” he says.

She also showed objectivity that proved invaluable, especially for the film’s more difficult segments.

One such instance was the interview of former prison official Johan Steinberg, in which he described his work as a warden on death row in Pretoria Central Prison, where many activists were hanged.

“There were dozens of ways we could have humanized him more or less, and Johanna was really good about helping us see the balance,” Hirsch says.

However, Hirsch does regret the cutting of one powerful moment when Steinberg expresses empathy for the executed, asking, “What’s wrong with fighting and dying for what you believe in? I would do it.”

The film met with positive reviews at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, and the soundtrack is being released by ATO Records, headed by musical icon and South Africa native Dave Matthews.

Hirsch says he hopes that one of the messages audiences will take away from the film is “the importance of song for activist movements across the world.”

However, more important than anyone else’s reaction for Hirsch was that of the cast and their families, the men and women who lived through the struggle.

“The film stands up for South Africans first and foremost,” he says. “This is their story, their history, their phenomenon.”