Oscar Honour For South Africa

It may not have generated as much hype as Charlize Theron's Oscar did in 2004 or as the film Tsotsi did in 2006 but South Africa once again walked away with an Oscar at this year's Academy Awards.

Taxi to the Dark Side, one of the films made for the South African coordinated, global documentary project Why Democracy?, won the Documentary Feature award.

South African producer and film maker, Don Edkins, was the executive producer of the film. Edkins also produced and coordinated the Why Democracy? project for Steps International from their Cape Town offices.

Director Alex Gibney’s film tells the story of an Afghan taxi driver tortured to death by the American government as part of its "War on Terror" and was one of 10 films in the Why Democracy? documentary project.

Edkins as Executive Producer on ‘Taxi to the Dark Side’, and Producer of ‘Please Vote For Me’ says, “This is a great honour for the film. I am very pleased that ‘Taxi to the Dark Side’ won because it deals with a very tough political issue. By awarding the film an Oscar, the Academy has showed it is not scared of films which expose the undemocratic practices of the American Government."

This is yet another opportunity to showcase the talent that this country produces. Well done Don Edkins and your team!