International filmmakers and actors at the Dubai International Film Festival share how they have been influenced by the life of South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv
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00:00He would have been extremely grateful to have lived during such a great present time on
00:18the earth and to have shared a vision that was so unique and so deeply human and uncompromising.
00:26Probably the most inspired human being on the planet and will be for a very long time.
00:36He showed us what was possible so we're grateful to Mandela.
00:40I would say the overriding feeling I have for him was gratitude and the old prayer is
00:49we pray that a band of angels gathers him and leads him to paradise.
00:55He cares about the world, he cares about peace, he cares about humanity and as filmmakers
01:01I think our primary concern is about the human condition, about humanity so we hope that
01:07he rests well.
01:08Back in the day in New York, the lawyer I was working with was all about freeing Nelson
01:15Mandela.
01:16He was in prison then and we were all working to get him out.
01:19I worked particularly well with Kadil Asmar who was the Minister for Education in the
01:25first government.
01:26He was from India and he spent all his time in Ireland working out for anti-apartheid
01:32and the theatre I ran we used to help them.
01:35Kadil was a great man so there were a lot of unsung heroes down there.
01:40John Canney I knew and people forget that there's a big Indian culture in South Africa
01:47so I'm sure in India tonight they're crying for Mandela.
01:50I'm glad we can celebrate his legacy with the film that we've brought here.
01:55I hope the message is that we get to actually see the way he lived and we know it but it's
02:00nice to visually absorb it.
02:03When a very significant human being like him passes away, even if you don't know him personally,
02:13you feel sad because an era is done and you know that what he has fought for is what we
02:22are still fighting for in every country, in any nation.
02:26We just want to hold on to that reality that maybe we can find a Nelson Mandela within ourselves.
02:40It's not always that there will be a very, very special human being like him.
02:48They all go but we will always remember him if he stays in our hearts.
02:55I hope you, me, anybody, I hope we will have a Nelson Mandela within us.