Film

Synopsis

Fatherless and under challenging living conditions, Tshidiso, Venter and Seipati are coming of age in a South African township.


With his dance group TAXIDO, Jerry is keeping the youngsters away from the street. Wherever they perform, they are met with thunderous applause. Suddenly, there is hope of a dance career, of work, and of a better future.


But back in their shacks the daily struggle and hardship prevails. And Jerry, demanding rigid discipline, is not making life any easier for these young people. But then the teenagers start to realise that life has even more in store for them.


20 years after the end of apartheid, LIFE IN PROGRESS offers a unique insight into the lives of three teenagers living in the run-down township called Katlehong.

Protagonists

Jerry.jpg

 

Jerry Zwane

Jerry spent his youth in the late apartheid years. As a teenager he became the commander of a paramilitary group, before turning to petty crime. Now he runs TAXIDO and tries to improve the lives of township kids

Seipathi.jpg

 

Seipati Qhooba

Seipati fights with charm or tooth and claw, depending how she thinks she’ll get what she wants. Yet she happens to jeopardize all she has so painstakingly acquired.

Venter.jpg

 

Venter Teele Rashaba

Venter dreams of going to university and leaving the poverty of his upbringing behind, though hurdles to higher education look insurmountable for this young man growing up in a township.

LiP Still Tshidiso

 

Tshidiso Mokoena

Tshidiso loves girls and they love him. But as it has become a life threatening undertaking in present day South Africa, love has lost its innocence.

Director

Irene Loebell 1

 

Irene Loebell

Born 1954 in Zurich, Switzerland. She started her career as a journalist for diverse Swiss newspapers. Since 1979 she's created magazine articles and documentary films for the Swiss television. Since 1997 she also works as a freelance documentary filmmaker.

 

Filmography

- Life In Progress, 2014

- Ort am Wasser, 2006

- Member of the Family, 2004

- Le Grand Chalet de Balthus, 2003

- Eine Reise nach Genf, 1999

- Leben aus dem Labor, 1998

- «... Man konnte doch nicht neutral sein!», 1995

- Von der Schweiz nach Auschwitz, 1994