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GRANNY LEE

By Ian GABRIEL

Drama - Development 2021

1980s Apartheid South Africa. When she loses her teenage son to AIDS, a conservative white woman, under false pretences, enlists the help of the enigmatic Granny Lee, the godmother to the lost gay boys of Johannesburg, to trace her child’s final footsteps.

- Year of production
- 2021
- Genres
- Drama, Historical, LGBT
- Countries
- SOUTH AFRICA, CANADA
- Languages
- AFRIKAANS, ENGLISH
- Budget
- 5 - 10 M$
- Duration
- 90 mn
- Director(s)
- Ian GABRIEL
- Writer(s)
- Gabe GABRIEL
- Cast
- Niza Jay NCOYINI
- Producer(s)
- Shant JOSHI (Fae Pictures), Roelof STORM (Marche Media)
- Synopsis
- Set against the tumultuous backdrop of 1980s Johannesburg, a white Afrikaans mother IRENE, has just lost her teenage son to AIDS. Her grief turns into a hatred of and desire to punish the man who infected and killed him.
  To trace her son’s footsteps, Irene befriends an elderly white woman, Granny Lee, who has been volunteering in support of the underground gay community in the “whites-only” community of Hillbrow. As these two women journey through Johannesburg searching through Billy’s last year of life, they grow to rely on each other’s friendship.
  Their journey soon leads them to the African township of Soweto where Irene discovers that her son’s lover was a Black teenager and is HIV-negative.
  Upset that she has hit a dead-end, Irene reacts violently resulting in her and Granny Lee’s parting of ways. Before the two can reconcile, Irene learns of Granny Lee’s untimely death.
  At the funeral, Irene learns that her friend was, in fact, born a coloured man. Reflecting on her journey with Granny Lee, Irene resolves to take Lee’s place to volunteer and care for and fight for the lives of young men and women who lived and loved like Billy did...
- Partners & financing
- Telefilm Canada
  Ontario Creates
  Industrial Development Corporation - South Africa
  Department of Trade and Industry - South Africa
  National Film and Video Foundation
- Beginning of shooting
- Jan 04, 2021
- End of shooting
- Feb 05, 2021