“Against all odds they did, so we can” : ‘Music by Prudence’ wins an Oscar!!!
What an amazing tribute to Prudence and all the wonderful members of Liyana. The full acceptance speech is posted below and can be read on the official Oscar’s page here.
I was expecting the usual Oscar-style thank-you speeches that we all have yawned through, but the producer, Elinor Burkett – who lives in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe – was on a mission! She cut in to the director’s speech with an intense sense of purpose. I was already emotional, blown-away by the fact the film had actually won an Oscar, but tears literally poured down my face when Burkett, who looked emotional herself, said
In a world in which most of us are told and tell ourselves that we can’t. Liyana, the band behind this film, teaches us that we’re wrong. Against all odds they did, so we can.
I can’t hear the words “Against all odds they did, so we can” without thinking of Zimbabwe because we are a nation daring to hope for a future without fear and tyranny, and we are a people who feel that all our hopes are fragile and flimsy when stacked up ‘against the odds’ hurled at us by a tyrannical Zanu PF.
“We can’t” is a daily struggle for me, and I know its a daily struggle for lots of Zimbabweans; in fact, I’d say that “we can’t” is probably one of the biggest obstacles confronting us.
It’s hard to square up to the enormity of the obstacles facing us and think, ‘we can do it’; it becomes even harder to do this when just as you think that maybe we’ve taken a small positive step forward, Zanu PF comes along and blindsides us with yet another ill-conceived policy that disrespects the nation and her people.
The film is all about an astonishing young woman named Prudence, and the Liyana band members, but the words “Against all odds they did, so we can” grabs what is an unashamedly ostentatious and glitzy American moment by its throat, and roots it strongly back in the brutal and bloody context the film emerges from: a country still struggling to recover, a nation still hurting from decades of human rights abuses, citizens still too afraid to hope that maybe we can pull ourselves through to the other side, families still divided across different countries and continents. Ours is a world where despair and hopelessness thrive. How do we dare to hope, and how do we dare to find the strength to believe that there might be a better future?
I hope that the individual band members who have overcome so much, and then came together to achieve so much, are enjoying every moment of pride that they are entitled to in this moment. An Oscar is … like… wow, wow, WOW!!.
But the most spectacular gifts that this band can potentially offer Zimbabweans are gifts of courage and self-belief – qualities that we desperately need to save and heal our wonderful country and to unite our communities. When the headiness if the red-carpet moment fades, it should be these inspirational gifts to Zimbabweans that Prudence and the band members should feel the most proud of, because these are the qualities that may save our country and quite literally save lives.
“Against all odds they did, so we can” – Amen to that! Congratulations! More about Liyana here.
Full acceptance speech:
Roger Ross Williams:
Oh my god. This is amazing. Two years ago when I got on an airplane and went to Zimbabwe, I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I’d end up here. This is so exciting. This is so exciting. So exciting.
Elinor Burkett:
…Let the woman talk. Isn’t that the classic thing? In a world in which most of us are told and tell ourselves that we can’t. Liyana, the band behind this film, teaches us that we’re wrong. Against all odds they did, so we can. So the bottom line is, to me, my role models and my heroes, Marvelous and Energy, Tapiwa, Goodwell, the whole rest of the band and especially Prudence.
Roger Ross Williams:
And Prudence who is here. Who is back there. Prudence is here tonight. This is for Prudence.
