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Logline

A female filmmaker uncovers a 16mm canister of celluloid in her mother’s garage. Recognizing her late father’s handwriting, she unearths footage of a 1970’s South African musical he filmed in Jerusalem and travels to find its original performers – and, through their stories, they intertwine into a journey that explores apartheid, racism, cultural appropriation, mourning, and dance as means of resistance.

Synopsis

What began as a simple opportunity to explore imagery through the lens of my late father, opened into something larger than I’d intended. The footage captures Ipi Ntombi, a South African musical that became a lightning rod of controversy at the height of the anti-apartheid movement, confronting me with urgent questions of cultural appropriation, resistance,and representation.

Through this inherited vision, I find myself on a journey into intergenerational trauma, political legacy, and the ways in which music and dance have long served as deterrents against oppression.

Somehow, I’ve found common themes within the central characters’ life stories.

My father’s gaze – that of an outsider, a witness, a man shaped by his own history of displacement — becomes a prism through which I examine not only his world, but my own.

In a moment of rising fascism and renewed global struggle, I must ask myself, what has truly changed?

And still, the voices of artists caught on that fragile celluloid continue to shapeshift my worldview. This is my meditation on inheritance, identity, and the resilience of the human spirit– told through the cinematic language of image, music, and memory.

Meet the Filmmakers

Yasmin Hed — Director/Producer
Yasmin Hed is a documentary filmmaker is captivated by personal narratives that build bridges across cultures. She is a TFI /A&E Indie Films Story Lab grant recipient (2019) and a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her first short documentary, filmed in the favelas of Salvador, Brazil, premiered at the Havana Film Festival and SXSW. She has directed and produced short films on South African dancer Tarryn Alberts and artist Joshua Vides, produced music videos for Olivia Malone, Mara Hoffman, and DVF, and created the curated travel series Unmarked Guide.

The Lost Reel is her first feature. She is based in Los Angeles, California.

Jeremy Stulberg — Producer
Jeremy Stulberg, ACE is a documentary filmmaker and editor drawn to intimate, character-driven stories that explore memory, identity, family, and the unexpected ways personal histories intersect with larger social and cultural forces. His work has received a Sundance Documentary Fellowship, a Gotham Award nomination, multiple Best Documentary awards, and support from the Sundance Documentary Fund, New York State Council on the Arts, Tribeca Film Institute, and ITVS. His credits include Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story (HBO), Move Ya Body: The Birth of House (Sundance 2025), Sabbath Queen (Tribeca/New York Times Critics’ Pick), Laura Poitras’s Terror Contagion (Cannes/Academy Award shortlist), Growing Up Coy (Netflix), Broken Heart Land (PBS/ITVS), and Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa (Sundance Channel), as well as documentary series including Vice, Children of the Underground, Woman, and Gaycation. Jeremy is based in New York and New Jersey.

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact [email protected].