Private Project

The Cane Cutters' Transcendence

The Singh Siblings’ debut documentary feature film is about Indian identity and the place of the Indian community in contemporary South Africa. Featuring many powerful voices from a cross-section of the Durban Indian community as well as some from the wider world, The Cane Cutters’ Transcendence is ideally timed as November 2020 represented the 160 year commemoration of the first Indian indentured labourers arriving in South Africa.

This unique cultural document exposes the fortitude, resilience, prejudices and contradictions of a complex, evolving community. Highlights include an exploration of the 1860s Heritage centre; a walk through the legendary Grey Street precinct; an examination of the innovative work done at the Dennis Hurley Centre; a special tea with “The Elders” and frank discussions with several renowned activists, including Prof Jerry Coovadia, Judge Thumba Pillay, Dr Betty Govinden, Prof Yousuf Vawda, publisher Nirode Bramdaw and London-based Tara Arts artistic director, Jatinder Verma.. The film is shot by acclaimed director of photography, Quintin Lee White and presented and directed by award-winning playwright, Ashwin Singh.

  • Ashwin SIngh
    Director
  • Ashwin Singh
    Writer
  • Quintin Lee White
    Producer
  • Shantal Singh
    Producer
  • Ashwin Singh
    Producer
  • Ashwin Singh
    Key Cast
  • Betty Govinden
    Key Cast
  • Raymond Perrier
    Key Cast
  • Jerry Coovadia
    Key Cast
  • Thumba Pillay
    Key Cast
  • Yousuf Vawda
    Key Cast
  • Derosha Moodley
    Key Cast
  • Sandesh Rampersad
    Key Cast
  • Nirode Bramdaw
    Key Cast
  • Jatinder Verma
    Key Cast
  • Karthigasen Pillay
    Key Cast
  • Selvan Naidoo
    Key Cast
  • Zubie Hamed
    Key Cast
  • Dolly Reddy
    Key Cast
  • Satish Dupelia
    Key Cast
  • Edmund Mhlongo
    Key Cast
  • Ralph Lawson
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    Documentary, Factual
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 44 minutes 44 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 20, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    8,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    South Africa
  • Country of Filming:
    South Africa
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2:35.1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Ashwin SIngh

Ashwin Singh is an attorney, academic, playwright, actor and director. He has been internationally published as both a playwright and an academic author. London-based publishing company, Aurora Metro Books published his play To House in the 2006 anthology New South African Plays. In 2013 the company published an anthology of his five best plays entitled Durban Dialogues, Indian Voice and in 2017 they published his three newest plays in an anthology entitled Durban Dialogues, Then and Now. Catalina UnLtd have also published his play Spice ‘n Stuff in the 2013 collective anthology The Catalina Collection. His works are being studied and/or referenced at a variety of universities in South Africa, Mauritius, India, Canada and Europe. They have also been the subject of papers presented at conferences in South Africa, India and Europe. His productions have travelled throughout South Africa as well as to India and the UK.

Singh is a three time national award winner for playwriting via the PANSA Play Reading Festival (South Africa’s foremost playwriting contest). He has received critical acclaim for his performances on stage, radio and screen. He has also presented several workshops on contracts and business enterprises for Catalina UnLtd, the Playhouse Company and PANSA and has been a script writing and business mentor for the Playhouse Company’s development programmes for the past decade. Singh has just written and directed his first documentary film entitled The Cane Cutters’ Transcendence, which will be released in 2020.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

A cultural document in the form of a documentary film about Indian identity and the place of the Indian community in contemporary South Africa is ideally timed for 2020. We will be into our 26th year of democracy and it will also be the 160 year commemoration of the first Indian indentured labourers arriving in South Africa.

Many members of the South African Indian community are continually evaluating their identities and some are currently feeling politically and culturally alienated in democratic South Africa. This artistic vehicle will fully explore these paradigms and attempt to present a nuanced picture of this multi-dimensional community. There has been no documentary film, focused exclusively on these topics, released in democratic South Africa, so this will be a unique creative project.

Ashwin Singh and Quintin White are two of the most highly regarded Durban creative artists who have produced a vast body of work. Singh is an award-winning, internationally published and studied playwright and is also a senior mentor with the Playhouse Company, having trained hundreds of young Black artists at the institution. White is a renowned producer of films and music videos, particular for the legendary Ladysmith Black Mambazo as well as the KZN Department of Arts and Culture. The two artists collaborate very well and have a deep passion for this story.

Singh’s arts company, The Singh Siblings (Pty) Ltd has built an impressive reputation in theatre and literature in a short space of time, having collaborated on a variety of projects with the Playhouse Company; Catalina UnLtd; the Indian Cultural Centre in Durban; the Theatre on the Square in Sandton; the Baig Foundation in India as well as Aurora Metro Books, The Nehru Centre and Tara Arts in London. The company creates and produces authentic, intercultural South African work and its values are defined by the content of the South African constitution.