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SALT LAKE CITY — The grandson of the late South African President Nelson Mandela, Kweku Mandela, is using his charity "Africa Rising" to promote a film screened in Salt Lake City.
Mandela's a filmmaker, but he wasn't directly involved in the making of the documentary "Beyond Right and Wrong: Stories of Justice and Forgiveness."
But he says the themes in the film reflect the mission of his charity. At least one famous Utahn is helping him promote the film.
Shooting hoops with former Utah Jazz player Thurl Bailey is still pretty cool — even for Mandela.
As he travels the world, he often finds himself sharing stories about his grandfather, the late anti-apartheid leader, Nelson Mandela.
"The people told us stories about the time my grandad had traveled there and what it meant to them," Kweku Mandela said.
Bailey was eager to contribute.
"The Mandela name is really about legacy and the fact that he's helping to carry that on could teach and help a lot of people," Bailey said.
Mandela said he's carrying on his grandfather's legacy of love and peace through his charity "Africa Rising." It aims to change perceptions and educate people about Africans.
"Every time I'm able to come to whether it's the states or somewhere in Europe I interact with people and show them 'hey look I'm from South Africa, but I'm not that different from you,' " he said.
On his new radio show, "Inside the Arena," Bailey and Mandela talked about ways to have a positive impact on boys and men through his charity.
We have a lot of responsibility as men to be able to take that mantle and do the best we can with it while we're here.
–Thurl Bailey
"We have a lot of responsibility as men to be able to take that mantle and do the best we can with it while we're here," Bailey said.
The mantle Mandela's picking up now at the Sundance Film Festival is promoting the documentary: "Beyond Right and Wrong: Stories of Justice and Forgiveness."
One of the stories filmmaker Leyka Singh tackles in the movie is the aftermath of the 1994 genocide of Rwandans in East Africa.
"I saw the most amazing resilience of the human spirit that I've ever seen," Singh said. "People have gone through the worst."
And Utahns like Lindsay Hadley are helping Mandela by rallying corporate groups to use social media to push the film.
"I want to have a million people see this film but i also want it to have amazing social impact," Hadley said. "Awareness is probably not quite enough for the gravity and merit of this film."
The Utah-based Arbinger Institute is working to help people incorporate the film's main theme of forgiveness into their own lives.
"We magnify the worse in each other, we miss some of the problems in ourselves and we drive each other apart," Arbinger Institute co-founder Jim Ferrell said.
The Sundance Film Festival runs through Jan. 26.
