In 1979, South Africa’s fascist regime kept blacks and whites separate and unequal. But three young men — a white guitarist from Johannesburg’s Jewish side, and black Shangaan sibling musicians from Soweto — dared to launch National Wake. In a time and place where it was illegal for them to play or live together, their band and its fans fought back with music, smashing every law to rebel — and filmed themselves doing so in astonishing Super 8.

This is National Wake is a dreamlike immersion into a utopian journey, whose lasting lessons about imagining an anti-racist world resound as loudly today as this historic band’s rollicking sound.