Filmed as South Africa's new constitution was being finalized, THE DEADLINE provides a look at the realpolitik of South Africa's negotiated settlement.
Following the first democratic elections of April 1994, the ANC-led Constitutional Assembly began to produce the blueprint for a post-Apartheid Constitution. By the final weeks before the May 10, 1996 deadline, the bulk had been written, but the major parties divided over several key issues: property rights, labor rights, education and language. Tensions grew into open antagonism, as the deadlock continued until the final night, threatening to derail the entire transition to democracy.

THE DEADLINE, commissioned by the Constitutional Assembly to document this final stage in South Africa's transition, provides a unique behind-the-scenes look at the historic constitutional process.

"An in-depth, intimate view of the exciting and critical final period in the writing of the new South African constitution... Exceedingly informative... Of great interest to scholars of contemporary South Africa."
-Educational Media Reviews Online


Directed by David Jammy
Produced for the South African Constitutional Assembly