| “The granny who took on the apartheid state” In 1989 an eighty-one year-old, white woman died in a car accident on a highway to Durban, South Africa. This is, sadly, not an uncommon occurrence except for the fact that the victim was in reality neither white nor female. Metamorphosis explores the life of one of South Africa’s most colourful and intriguing characters: Leonard Du Plooy. Born to a mixed race (“coloured”) family in 1908, he spent the first part of his adult life teaching at the Christian Brothers’ College in his hometown of Kimberley. Then he changed his mind. Moving to Johannesburg in his sixties, he became the club scene’s most famous drag queens known as “Granny Lee”. After overdosing on medication, Lee literally turned white overnight. She lived out the rest of her life as a white woman, notorious party animal and when she died at eighty-one she became the first person of colour to be buried in Johannesburg’s Westpark cemetery. Granny Lee’s story merges the personal with the political, a unique and fascinating story set within the racially and sexually repressive era of apartheid South Africa. The winner of numerous awards in South Africa, Metamorphosis has been screened at film festivals throughout the world. 52 minutes Director: Luiz DeBarros Visit program site at: http://www.underdog.co.za/grannylee/ |