a Joyous Inside Look at Nobel Prize Winner Desmond Tutu

It’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu as we all remember him, and as we’ve never seen him before.

Tutu, the new documentary from Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI, 4 Little Girls), is a behind-the-scenes look at the life of the smiling, joyous rebel clergyman who helped end Apartheid. Tutu premieres as a Berlinale Special screening, at the Berlin Film Festival on Monday.

Tutu, a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, was an influential anti-apartheid and human rights activist and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. With access to decades of never-before-seen archival footage and first-hand accounts of those who knew him best, Pollard offers up an intimate portrait of a man who became a moral compass for a nation and the world.

In an exclusive first look video clip form the doc (below), we can see a sampling of that fly-on-the-wall footage, shot by South African journalists Roger Friedman and Benny Gool over 20 years, showing Tutu with his family and congregation — them singing loudly while he tries to talk on the phone, dancing and laughing at backyard barbecues — as well as with world leaders.

One scene shows an annoyed President Obama, trying to have a private conversation with Tutu, whose security detail quickly pushes back the camera team. “They want to wallop you!” chortles Tutu (in Xhosa).

“Over my 20-25 years I have done films about Martin Luther King , SNCC – The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Civil Rights Movement,” notes Pollard. “The idea to do a documentary about a global figure excited me, so I was excited to come on board to investigate who he really was. I thought I knew who he was but as all documentarians feel, this was an opportunity to really dig deep into really understanding who Desmond Tutu was as a human being.”

Pollard noted that, “as an African American filmmaker, I can’t help but view Tutu’s struggle through the lens of my own country’s history of racial oppression. The parallels between South Africa and the United
States are undeniable, and yet Tutu’s journey reminds us that even in the face of systemic hatred, faith and hope can be acts of rebellion. His laughter, his playfulness and his refusal to surrender to bitterness became his most radical tools.”

With the film, he said he hopes to provide audiences with “an intimate portrait that allows Desmond Tutu to speak directly to viewers in his own words and on his own terms. I wanted Tutu’s voice to be the heartbeat of the story, to let his humanity, humor and moral conviction lead us through his world. A cinematic scrapbook that captures the texture of his life.”

Tutu was produced by HLP Studios and Universal Pictures Content Group. Cinetic Media are handling worldwide sales.

Check out the exclusive clip of Tutu below.