Stopping the Music (2002) is the story of singer Roger Lucey and security branch policeman Paul Erasmus. The events surrounding the central confrontation in the film took place in apartheid South Africa in the late 1970s and early 1980s, where Roger Lucey dared to challenge the injustices of the racist system through the songs he wrote.
Now, twenty years after Paul Erasmus teargassed the club where Roger Lucey was performing, the two of them meet face to face...

Stopping the Music is ultimately a story of reconciliation in a country torn apart by severe racial and ideological conflict. In a country where a Truth and Reconciliation Commission assisted a traumatic process of exploring its dark past and attempting reconciliation, the meeting between Erasmus and Lucey offers an insight into the cathartic process if facing up to one's past.

More info: www.rogerlucey.co.za | www.facebook.com/RogerLucey

Stopping the Music was made possible by a special partnership between Cutting Grooves and Freemuse, an international human rights organisation, which advocates freedom of musical expression worldwide. Freemuse funded the project as part of its long-standing commitment to assisting South African with their exploration into the censorship of music, which for many years made it difficult for controversial musicians to be heard. Cutting Grooves is a small non-governmental organisation based in Grahamstown, South Africa. It undertakes archival and educational projects related to the censorship of music in South Africa. For this documentary Cutting Grooves worked with the Television Section of the Rhodes University Journalism Department and the Rhodes University Sociology Department, involving both students and staff.

More info: www.freemuse.org