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Kate Schoenbach, Director, Producer -
Alahna Lark, Producer
About the Project
HERERO unearths Namibia’s suppressed history - Germany’s first genocide and the enduring legacy of apartheid - through a present-day fight for justice. At a time when Black and Indigenous histories are increasingly marginalized, this character-driven documentary reveals how unresolved colonial violence continues to shape lives in Africa and beyond.
The film follows Namibian-American activist Veraa Katuuo, a leading figure in the global struggle for recognition of the 1904-1908 Herero and Nama genocide. From decades of grassroots advocacy to a landmark reparations lawsuit against Germany in U.S. courts, and an ongoing legal challenge to a controversial state-to-state aid agreement in Namibia, Veraa confronts systems that acknowledge history yet resist accountability. As legal pathways stall, the film turns its attention to quieter forms of resistance rooted in memory, land, and cultural continuity.
At the heart of the story is Veraa’s relationship with his American-born daughter, Veundja, who travels to Namibia to attend the Herero genocide commemoration for the first time, wearing traditional Herero dress. As she moves through ancestral sites and ceremonies alongside her father, the film traces an intimate, intergenerational passage - bridging past and future through lived experience.
Grounded in a vérité-led approach, HERERO weaves observational storytelling with rare Indigenous ceremonial access and lyrical imagery to create a cinematic portrait of cultural survival. The film asks: when institutions fail and courts fall silent, how do remembrance, ritual, and lineage become pathways to justice - and to healing?
