Mandela Preview

Last week, I saw an article in the Arizona Republic about a preview of the movie, Mandela: Long Road to Freedom which was going to be shown this week Tuesday at a theatre in Scottsdale. The article gave a website address to get passes to the preview. I went on-line and ordered passes for us which I then printed out.

It said on the passes that you needed to be at the theatre early as they were giving out more passes then there were seats available in order to assure that they would have a full house. The film was supposed to start at seven, so we figured if we left a bit after five, we'd be there an hour early. It's about a half hour drive from here to where the theatre is, so I figured we'd be in good shape. But there was a bad wreck or something on Indian School Road a few blocks from where we were supposed to turn onto 87th, The police detoured us off the main road and we had to wind around several blocks until we came to a street that would take us back to where we were supposed to be.

We got to the Harkin Theatre a few minutes before six o'clock and the line was already way out the door! We waited outside until about six thirty when they finally let us in. They let quite a few people directly into the theatre, then had the rest of us queue up in zigsag lines (like at the airport). A young woman came by and said they were waiting for all of the VIP invited guests to arrive. She said that not all of those standing in line would be able to be seated and that those who didn't get in would be given passes to another preview.

We decided that since we had come this far and had already waited quite a while, we might as well wait some more. They admitted the whole first part of the line until there were about six people in front of us -- and about fifty behind us. Thankfully, they finally allowed us in. We actually got a seat about mid-way down.

I think anyone who was anyone in the Phoenix area African American community was present tonight! Many people were our age and older, but there were a great many young people as well. Like us, many of the folks there had lived through the years the film detailed. Idris Elba, the actor who played Mandela, did an excellent job.  It will open in theaters on December 25th.

I'm not sure what it means, but the last two movies we've seen were about segregation and apartheid. We saw 42, the Jackie Robinson Story last summer, then saw The Butler when we were in Spokane in the early Fall. I feel especially fortunate to be able to see this powerful film on the day of Mandela's Memorial Service in South Africa.