“Best African Documentary”
International Film Festival South Africa.
The Story
Professor Sidney Bloch, determined to confront his guilt for colluding with Apartheid, returns to South Africa with his teenage son on a quest for reconciliation.
Festival screenings in SYDNEY, MELBOURNE, BOSTON, NEW YORK, WASHINGTON, VANCOUVER, CALGARY, RHODE ISLAND, MINNEAPOLIS, SAN DIEGO, JERUSALEM, HAIFA, TEL AVIV, AUSTIN, SEATTLE, SOUTH CAROLINA, ST LOUIS, SOUTH AFRICA, LONDON.
Produced, written and directed by Rod Freedman. Editor Joanne Levitan. Camera Marc Radomsky. Music Todd Hunter. Script Editor Lesley Seebold.
MORE ABOUT WRONG SIDE OF THE BUS

What’s the price of being a bystander?
Sidney Bloch is an internationally recognized professor of psychiatry, ethicist, loving father, singer and author of books on mental health. He is also a man with a troubled conscience. In this film, Sid returns to South Africa for his medical school reunion, determined to resolve the guilt that has troubled him for forty years. He’s accompanied by his teenage son, Aaron who turns out to be his harshest critic.
In the Apartheid era, Sid had benefited as a ‘White’, contributed negligibly to the struggle against racism and then left for Israel the day after his medical graduation in 1964. A sense of guilt and shame accompanied him throughout his later move to Australia.
Growing up in Apartheid South Africa, Sid abhorred the system but did almost nothing to oppose it. So how does a man who lost fourteen relatives in the Holocaust become complicit with a racist system? In 1964, twelve of the one hundred medical graduates in his class were classified ‘Non-White’ and were subject to a myriad restrictions – blacks couldn’t examine white patients, they couldn’t attend post-mortems on white bodies, they couldn’t socialize equally and their prospects were limited. Sid and his white colleagues barely registered this reality.
Returning to Cape Town to share his past with Aaron, Sid wants to confront his lack of courage during the Apartheid years. Connecting with his one ‘Coloured’ friend, Irwin, to reflect on their disparate experiences and express his feelings, Sid finds Irwin’s frankness confronting.
He’s determined to hold some kind of reconciliation event at the reunion, despite warnings that he may be taking people to where they would rather not go. Former classmates question his reasons. But Sid won’t be put off.
Flummoxed by the generosity of the black South Africans who say they have forgiven the Apartheid regime, Sid is himself unable to forgive the Afrikaners, who he always regarded as the enemy, akin to Nazis. In an unexpected encounter, he comes face to face with his own prejudice. Joining a ‘Facing The Past’ workshop, he feels for the first time a sense of belonging and is overwhelmed with emotion. Yet he still appears stuck in his dilemma as a bystander and his sense of guilt. Who is there to forgive him? He seems unable to accept that changes have occurred and that people have moved on.

In his quest to understand the past, Sid seeks out victims of Apartheid, former colleagues who stayed to make a difference and political activists such as Judge Albie Sachs, measuring his own stand against theirs. How do they regard him now? Could he have acted differently? What were his choices? Aaron critically observes his father’s explorations, both supporting and provoking him to move on and at least, forgive himself.
Redemption comes from an unlikely source when Sid and Aaron meet a former prisoner of the Apartheid regime on notorious Robben Island. In Nelson Mandela’s former cell, Sid and Aaron are given a symbolic new start, their key to a new future.
The film explores how easy it is to accept injustice and compromise one’s morals. Though it’s easy for any good person to become a bystander, it’s not so easy to live with the consequences. Wrong Side of the Bus is one man’s journey to forgiveness.
Wrong Side of the Bus / Download Press kit
ABOUT CHANGE FOCUS MEDIA
ROD FREEDMAN & LESLEY SEEBOLD
Change Focus Media was established in Balmain, Sydney in 1997 by partners Lesley Seebold and Rod Freedman. We produce documentaries, corporate, educational and promotional videos. Our clients come from the spectrum of government, corporate, community and private sectors.
Our corporate productions are designed to engage their audiences and satisfy our clients.
Our documentaries have won international awards and screened in film festivals all over the world.
Whether for distribution on DVD, TV, website or streaming, Change Focus Media will help you create a
strong and engaging video communication. Contact us to discuss your next project.
CHANGE FOCUS CLIENTS
Adult Migrant English Service
Adult Migrant English Program, Macquarie University
Alzheimers Australia
Australian Early Childhood Association
Australian Liquor & Hospitality Group
Australian Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health
Australian Dental Association
Benevolent Society Post Adoption Resource Centre
Beyond International
Career Channel
Department of Health and Ageing
Department of Veterans Affairs
Disability Services
EndoActive Australia & NZ
Family Advocacy
Film Australia
Fujitsu Australia
Health Support Services
Health Workforce Australia
Huhtamaki Worldwide Packaging
Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University
Jewish Communal Appeal
Lady Gowrie Child Centre
Mia Mia Child & Family Study Centre
Maritime Union of Australia
Moriah College
Museum of Australian Democracy, Old Parliament House
Macquarie University National Centre for English Language Teaching & Research
Macquarie University School of Business and Finance
NSW Adult Migrant English Service
NSW Attorney General’s Department
Rural Health Education Foundation
SBS Television
Sydney Jewish Museum
Sydney University Physics Foundation
University of NSW School of Public & Community Medicine
University of NSW Office of Business & Technology
University of Technology, Sydney School of Mathematical Sciences
Voiceless – The Fund For Animals
Westlake Family Support Service
2010 Association – Gay and Lesbian Youth
CONTACT US
Change Focus Media produces documentaries, corporate, educational and promotional videos. Whether for distribution on DVD, television, website or streaming, Change Focus Media will help you create a strong and engaging video communication.
CONTACT US TO DISCUSS YOUR NEXT PROJECT
PO Box 240 Balmain New South Wales 2041 AUSTRALIA