A FILM tribute to unsung heroes of South Africa which was screened during the Bermuda International Film Festival will have its New York premiere in the coming weeks.

Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela will run at the BAMcin?matek in Brooklyn, July 5 through 11.

An award-winning film by Thomas Allen Harris, it honours a group of men willing to give their lives to see democracy established in South Africa whose efforts have largely been overlooked.

Mr. Harris' stepfather, Benjamin Pule Leinaeng (Lee), was one of 12 foot soldiers in the African National Congress (ANC) forced into exile shortly after the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre. Mr. Leinaeng used that opportunity to inform the world of the brutality of the apartheid system.

He lived as a refugee in the United States for 30 years, during which time he continued his activism, using the media to raise world support for the ANC and its leaders, Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tumbo.

Relying on his late stepfather's archives and the memories of the disciples still alive today, Mr. Harris was able to recreate those past events, drawing on the talents of South African actors to illustrate some of them on film.

"I got to recreate the experience of what the beginning part of his exile was about," Mr. Harris told the earlier this year. "I got to educate people. Many thought the problems in South Africa started in 1976 with the student uprisings in Soweto.

"But these guys were the first trail-blazers. Through the men I spoke with, I was able to understand the challenges they faced then and why they left ? the ANC had just been banned with the Sharpeville Massacre. They had already been harassed and then the Ban to Education Act, which outlawed the education of black people in South Africa, was put in place."

The piece was selected for the ninth Bermuda International Film Festival having won Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival. It was also nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards and will be broadcast on a PBS series, , in October.

The film has also been lauded by industry publications. described it as ". . . a deeply personal portrait of a father-son relationship that also details the important historical journey of 12 fearless revolutionaries." And said: ". . . Harris pays tribute to Benjamin Pule Leinaeng, the stepfather who raised travelling to South Africa and excavating the late Leinaeng's life as a political activist (in) the ANC and whose real-life exploits play like a James Bond film."

Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela will show at the BAMcin?matek, on 30 Lafayette Avenue between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street. General admission is $10. For information, directions and parking visit BAM.org. A Q & A with Mr. Harris will follow the 6.50 p.m. screening on July 5.