INTRODUCTION
Produced by  Helena Nogueira and Shan Moodley, and written, edited & directed by Helena Nogueira, this documentary explores the loves and life of poet Ingrid Jonker.
When the newly elected President Mandela, paid a striking tribute to Afrikaans poet Ingrid Jonker, in his inauguration of parliament, he raised more than just a few eyebrows.. But her story captured the popular imagination, and she has become a legend...
Ingrid Jonker was the revolutionary and groundbreaking shining star of the 60's poets in South Africa, and this is her story
Ingrid was never "liked", she was loved. Her energy filled a room and defined and encompassed the creativity and notoriety of her time as well as into the future.
The 60's was an age of pioneering thought, defining a culture and a new world devoid of Calvinism and the shackles of a patriarchal society, challenging a country chained by apartheid.. Ingrid Jonker was a force to be reckoned with and one of the most widely spoken of talents to ever come out of South Africa.
On a par with Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath and Marilyn Monroe, she is infamous.
Magnificent.. as those that crossed her tragic path will attest to without exception. This is Ingrid, as never seen before, through  the eyes of her family, her closest friends.. And her lovers.
She died just as she predicted..

INGRID
"My body lies washed up in grass and wrack
Wherever memory should call us back"

"My lyk le uitgespoel in wier  en gras
Op al die plekke waar ons eenmaal was"

Ingrid Jonker
ESCAPE

She was 31 and the greatest poet of her generation.
Rejected by her father - a prominent MP - before she was born, Ingrid Jonker was attracted to a string of older men, who were all seduced by her overt sexuality and childlike innocence.
Plunged into a destructive love triangle with rival writers Jack Cope and Andre Brink, she committed suicide at the age of 31, by drowning…
Her last words were: "I've been rejected by my father… and all The men in my life.."

Ingrid Jonker: Her Lives & Time.. includes Sir Laurens van der Post's last interview before he died in 1997 and Jan Rabie's final interview before he succumbed to Alzheimer's disease.
The film also includes an unprecedented access to Ingrid Jonker's diaries, private letters, home recordings and unpublished photographs, as well as the first public disclosure of Jack Cope's diaries.
Andre Brink broke a silence of 30 years to appear in this documentary, and for the first time on camera spoke candidly about his relationship with Ingrid.
Filmed over a period of six years in Cape Town, Douglas, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, London, Paris & Amsterdam, this is a prestigious film that offers an in-depth look at the artist in society and the role of culture in shaping our lives.

As a cultural legacy for future generations, this is a unique and important film..

Poetry read by - Antjie Krog
Jack Cope Diaries read by -  Graham Hopkins
Music  - Philip Miller and Julianna venter
Narration - Michael Richards

PRESIDENT MANDELA
"The time will come when our nation will honor the memory of those who gave us the right to assert with pride that we are South Africans, that we are Africans and citizens of the world. The certainties that come with age tell me that among these we shall find an
Afrikaner woman..

She was both a poet and a South African.
She was both an Afrikaner and an African.
She was both an artist and a human being.
In the midst of despair, she celebrated hope.
Confronted by death, she celebrated the beauty of life..
To her and others like her we owe a debt to life itself.
Her name is Ingrid Jonker.."

HELENA NOGUEIRA, writer-director and editor of INGRID JONKER: HER LIVES AND TIME, received her B.A. Double Honours Degree - Music and Speech & Drama majors - from the University of Natal in Durban. Towards the degree, she completed two short films -VISAGES,26', on child schizophrenia,  and THE BLOOD OF THE WALSUNGS, 52' based on Thomas Mann's short story;  a modern opera, SOCIOPHRENICOMANIA and a full thesis on THE AESTHETICS OF FILM MUSIC. She became the first woman to direct a feature in South Africa with QUEST FOR LOVE, which was followed by THE GOOD FASCIST.  Her work as a documentary producer & director include FUGARD'S PEOPLE, the first documentary to penetrate the isolation of South African playwright Athol Fugard. For television she produced and directed CONTACTO, a 2-hour weekly programme of news, sports, film reviews, variety shows & serials, for the SABC, in Portuguese, and did freelance inserts for FRONT ROW, which included exclusive interviews with over a hundred stars. She is currently working on the screenplay for a feature film on the life of Ingrid Jonker, entitled ALL THAT BREAKS.

READ AN INTERVIEW WITH WRITER-DIRECTOR HELENA NOGUEIRA

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