South Africa’s apartheid violence in the 80’ forced young men and women to sacrifice their youth to join military training in exile. Organisations like African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress had set-up military bases in countries like Zambia, Angola, Tanzania etc. This was in preparation for an armed struggle to liberate their country.    In the township of KwaMashu many young people had become politicaly active and had been joining their elder brothers in exile.  In 1994 when a government of transition was put in place military wings were disbanded and most of these youth were left with no skill and a desire to make it out of poverty where they had been returned to after more than 4 years in exile, training in far away camps.  Forgotten Guerrillas tells the story of this forgotten generation. Focusing in the L Section of KwaMashu where terrible  acts of violence erupted between 1992-1996 where heavy machine guns where used in a very small urban area. This documentary traces the history of this violence through the section with the largest number of these trained young fighters who were fit to be guerrilla fighters but not fit to be drafted into the national military as soldiers. Phumlani Mhlongo is one of these young men, still fighting social hardships without education.

Having been dismissed as un-African and survived an era of violent attacks upon disclosure the gay and lesbian people have finally come out in the township of KwaMashu and are walking openly.  Most lesbians are under threat from those who believe there is something called ‘restorative rape’ – a gang rape that those who perpetrate it believe can cure someone from being a lesbian. It seems however coming out of the closet has become less deadly in places where there are no homophobic rapist mobs . Thulani Shandu has established himself as one of the few people to be openly gay when one could be killed for it. Having moved to KwaMashu from the most conservative rural area of Nongoma he is now known as the ‘isitabane sodumo’ – meaning ‘the famous gay man’ . A hairdresser and aspirant musician Thulani is the talk of the township however he is aware of the challenges and what it takes to stay alive in a township like KwaMashu. Durban is still under the cloud of terrible hate crime as in the late 90’s activist gugu Dlamini was killed for disclosing her HIV status. In this documentary we talk to Thulani about surviving KwaMashu, coming to terms with himself, and his future as a recording artist.

Sithembile Dludla is a 9 years old girl with a gift of memory.  She has done more public speaking than most adults. A devout Christian, who doesn’t watch TV, believes in prayer and has limits to most things young people do. Sthembile hosts a radio show on Vibe FM about Christianity and is known to preach the word of God. If Sithembile reads something she can remember it as it is, but also Sithembile has the confidence that most adults desire but never possess. Sithembile is the youngest person in Kwa Mashu to host a radio show at the age of 9. She drives a radio show all by her self. Raised in an environment where children are always  left to learn and raise themselves, Sithembile’s gift has helped cement the relationship, especially when her mother had to quit her job.  This documentary looks at Sithembile’s life as a young child thrown into the media and scrupulous event organisers who take her away from her mom and exploit her talent. Outspoken Sithembile has won a bursary to study dramatic arts after school hours and she works harder then the average 9 year old township girl.

When he finished his 12th grade level, Pholani could not afford college or university. He applied and was accepted for the Creative Process course at the Imagination Lab. After 12 months in the arts centre he had committed his life to the arts as a poet, filmmaker and youth development agent through the arts.
In a townhip where most parents know very little about careers Pholani becomes the new breed that have to prove that one can sustain himself through talent or the arts. A co-founder of the youth arts organisation Kushobani (Zulu for "Who said so?") Pholani’s organisation represents more than just youth development but as their name says, they challenge societal scripts and recognise the importance of the arts in a society that is fighting to build skills, morals and confidence in its youth. In this documentary he shares his experiences and the way he sees life in KwaMashu as a poet and filmmaker. Pholani’s short documentary film on crime, development and opportunities in KwaMashu ‘KwaMashu Speaks’ was screened at the 6th KwaZulu Natal African Film Festival in 2009. He is a part time student of the Ekhaya Scriptwriters Lab.

Kwaito is South Africa’s equivalent of hip hop. Having developed in the early 90’s as a voice of the youth and brought to the media new forms of speak like Authur Mafokate’s song ’Don’t call me Kaffir*’. However since the 90’s kwaito has remained a product of Johannesburg and other cities like Durban have been observers, now a new breed of young musicians have come into the scene. Durban has taken over the kwaito scene with what is known as Durban Kwaito, a mixture of house music beats, kwaito beats, and the use of Durban based  street lingo in the lyrics. L'vovo, a graduate of the Durban University of Technology is part of this generations that has represented small townships like KwaMashu, Umlazi and Ntuzuma in a genre that pretended for years that the only township in South Africa is Soweto. L'vovo is a self made star, having won 2 Metro Awards and had 4 SAMA Nominations awards on his first album. In this documentary L'vovo talks about kwaito as the undying culture that should not be pitted against hip hop as while they serve the same audience, they serve different purposes. L'vovo’s new album "The Heavyweight" caused controversy when the sleeve design was found to look excatly like that of Jay-Z and had to be changed.