Unexpected Experience

May 23rd, 2010

Having travelled to Gugs on Saturday for an extra lesson with the Amy Biehl group, we found ourselves in the middle of a Xhosa funeral. The young people needed a lift to the graveyard  and would be able to leave after that so I found myself watching a traditional Catholic ceremony over-layed with African songs. The women of the church, in their black and white uniform with a streak of red ribbon around their necks sang the loudest. After a while we gave phones to the kids and they shot the burial, capturing each guest throwing sand into the earth and the faces of the ladies sitting under the awning away from the midday sun.

At the wake, while the students shot interviews,  I spoke to the parents about how much they appreciated Amy Biehl and what a difference it made to their children’s lives. Plates of food, fizzy drinks and smiles came from all sides.  I had washed my hands in the big tub and was from then on part of the gathering.

We drove over to the school where we had been given permission to use the computers to edit. Having been delayed by the funeral, we were rather late, but the Principal forgave us when we showed him some of the footage from the funeral, along with interviews with the family of the deceased and a report to camera from some of the students.

We converted the footage and began to edit. As ever, the limited Ram in the computers made playback hard so we whipped out two of the laptops donated by Jenny Estill and Rex Salisbury from Davidson University, which saved the day.

Back at the wake, we gave a DVD of the short report to the sister. It was a great lesson in how quickly their work can turnaround. We found half the group playing on iTunes which they figured out instantly and loved listening to the music in the collection.

It was a great day. More to come soon

If anyone has an old laptop they would be willing to donate to this project, please contact [email protected]

Cheers!

The workshop is underway!

April 24th, 2010

Preparation for the workshops continues. Father Audecius agreed to an affordable venue charge for teaching space, which was generous of the church of St Raphael in Khayelitsha. Laptops are arriving from America where Jenny XX and Rex Sailsbury have managed to raise funds to send over two PCs. This is a huge relief as renting editing space in Cape Town is costly.

Community leaders are onside in the township of Delft, where we are intending to run a workshop with a group of young theatre practitioners. My fixer in the townships, Simcelile Kalimashe, arranged a meeting with the group in the shack of one member last week.  We spoke for a while about the workshops and I asked why they would like to take part. They all agreed they had lots of stories to tell; of young men making music in the neighbourhood, a local TV star busy drinking himself to death and a Swiss man moving to Delft many years ago and marrying a local woman.

They were also enthused by the possibility of changing people’s views about the township, generally agreeing that the news reports which came out of Delft did not accurately portray the life and the community that stay there.

In Gugulethu, the workshops with Amy Biehl Foundation has started and already the young students are producing startlingly good films. The tutors, Kimshee and aforementioned Simcelile are leading the group towards making insightful films, beautifully framed and full of confidence. The teenagers told the story of the hardest day in their lives. Some were the universal; going to the dentist or failing an exam. Others were more troubling, the day they were stabbed or shot at.

The Cape Town community has been incredibly supportive. Professionals in sports and news journalism have agreed to mentor students, venue space has been offered to teach, CTV are running a weekly World Film Collective slot featuring the best material from World Cup reporters. Ideas are bouncing around and our commitment to providing support for students between workshops is becoming a reality.

The shoe-string budget on which WFC is carrying out these workshops seems less daunting when social entrepreneurs such as Silulo Luto in Khayelitsha offer discounted rates to use computer facilities. There is a genuine will from inside these commuities to help youth, although meetings with local government have been less fruitful.

We’re incredibly grateful to 1000 Heads for sending across phones and to MTN for supplying handsets too. Zoopy.com are very much onside and you can check out our World Film Collective page in the coming weeks.

With the World Cup upon us, Cape Town is talking of little else. It will be an event of mammoth proportions, offering the chance to see not only the skill of their football stars, but also the talent of South Africa’s youth.