Video Diary, Unathi

Unathi shares a moving account of her hardest day, when she had to go to court over the custody of her child.

Of Vevuzelas, films and BBQ’s

We rounded off the workshop in Khayelitsha with a Braai (a South African bbq). Half a cow appeared on a plate which was distributed and eaten with only the sauce that it came in. Being a vegetarian, I became a residual source of amusement as I made conversation around the bbq with an ice cream tub of rice and beans. On the final day students performed the process of filming, editing and up-loading from start to finish, with each group showing (thankfully) how much they’d learned. The good feeling at the end left us all with a smile. I then got lost dropping students home. Not a great move in the middle of a township, but thankfully James was with me and navigated us back to the main road.

Already ideas are flowing, with each production team agreeing on a programme schedule for the month. Roles have emerged quite naturally. The good directors, producers, presenters and editors are aware by now of who they are. Competition doesn’t show itself often, and the students are happy to share and co-operate so that everyone feels included. On the penultimate day we screened match reports shot during the South Africa / Guatemala match and subsequently edited. As a group we have been trying to work out how to do match reports when we have no access to the games and finally we struck gold, with three excellent reports shot in the shabeens  of Khayelitsha and Delft and showing the end to the match and celebrating, while a voice-over narrates the highlights and turning points in the game.

Yesterday was spent in the AFDA film school studio space, where CTV record their shows. Balt and I had selected two presenters from the group – Zintle and Pelisa – and they were given scripts with intros and links. The 28 minutes programme will be aired today (Wednesday) at six o’clock. James has been the star behind the show, taking on the responsibility of cutting it together after the decision was made to go ahead last Friday. Three cheers for James Farmer! The programme shows off match reports, pre-match reports from the Khayelitsha group, as well as video diaries from the young students at Gugulethu.

In Gugulethu we spent yesterday (Tuesday) shooting the first video diaries for broadcast on the BBC’s youth programme, created by 21CC. Also for broadcast, they shot vox-pops in the local market asking which team members of the public supported and who they thought would win. Naturally there was resounding endorsement for Bafana Bafana, with little defection. The sense of nation-building is acute here, flag fly from car bonnets, car wing mirrors are abalze with the South African colours. Imaginations have run wild and every car accessory possible adorns vehicles throughout the city. Vevuzela’s are a feature of every household and the national uniform seems to be a yellow and green Bafana Bafana t-shirt.

The World has finally reached South Africa to be welcomed by much noise and excitement!

Life in Nkanini

Our reporters examine the living conditions of people living in an area of Khayelitsha known as Nkanini. The residents lack water, sewage, and other basic necessities.

Community Kitchen

Our reporters visit a local woman who cooks food for the community in her own kitchen. Watch as she serves up hearty stews and massive plates of samp and beans. And don’t worry, the food is free to those who can’t afford it.

Pollution in the Townships

Our reporters investigate the serious problem of pollution in their community, asking who is to blame and what can be done about it.

Excitement in the air!

With only a few days to go until the workshop in Khayelitsha ends, the group is planning their schedule for the World Cup.

So far they’ve divided themselves into four production companies, with one covering Delft, two covering Khayelitsha and one covering Gugulethu. Today they’re deciding on the types of content they’ll produce and the dates when they’ll deliver.

This week has focused almost exclusively on editing, so watch out for lots more finished content hitting the net over the coming days. The AYK boys (Ambitious Youth of Khayelitsha) filmed a Saturday night out in a ‘shabeen’, which is basically a township bar. They came back with brilliant footage of them dancing, drinking, laughing and being chatted up out front by lovely local ladies. The finished film resembles a township version of a reality TV show, and the guys have enlisted the help of their female counterparts to write and record the voice-over script, narrating the story of the boys night out.

Internet superstars are emerging: Pelisa and Bokiwe are utterly engaging presenters, heading up life-style pieces, which take us right inside these communities. Ntombi, Bokiswa and Zintle are equally arresting and have a style, at this stage, that is more tailored for news.

Piwe and Mendile have found a niche in producing match reports. However, as we’re nowhere near any soccer stadium, the guys are working together to figure out to report on a game using the reactions of those watching, rather than what is actually on the screen. To see if they manage to pull it off, stay tuned.

Thulani, a student from the past two workshops, is excelling in editing, and spent part of yesterday writing the voice-over for Terra and Bafana’s match report, South Africa versus Guatemala, shot in Gugulethu the night before. A great writer, Thulani sums up the critical moments with the flair of a professional. Naturally, it helps to have our tutor, Lukhanyo critiquing, a professional sports journalist with many years experience at South Africa’s equivalent of Channel 4,  eTV.

Manez, Mbo, Bora and the other Delft guys took us to the Italian House, a nightclub in Delft, which I’m now desperate to visit! The music is pumping, the crowd, rocking and according to interviews with bouncers and car guards outside, the place is pretty well secured. Bokiwe showed us around, dancing with the peeps and chatting to the ladies. Her enthusiasm is contagious and I wouldn’t be surprised if others, like me, make their way to this funky spot after seeing this programme. I was very pleased to hear this is only the first in the Delft production company’s planned series - World Cup Nightlife

Gotta go as I’m rushing back to Khayelitsha now to critique the latest films before they go onto zoopy.com/worldfilmcollective

BTW – we’re still struggling with computers, so any old rejects, please let us know [email protected]

This is me signing off. Back soon :)

Headlines from the Townships

Find out the top stories that our reporters will be developing next week!

News Reports from the Townships

Yesterday was the last day of editing for the Khayelitsha group. They had one final hour to complete the news reports they had shot last weekend.

Mbo, Manez and Zintle’s group did a story on the tensions between coloureds and blacks in Delft, a divided township with coloureds (mixed race) and blacks at odds with each other. The group  used the Delft Library to find their interviewees and people spoke candidly about why these divisions exist.

Pelisa and her sister Spokazi chose to follow a lady as she cooked meals in her shack for a hungry queue of customers waiting outside. We watch as she dishes up mounds of rice and chicken stew, while talking about how she and other women will watch the World Cup together without the men. Pelisa then interviews the people sitting outside eating, wonderful on camera, she has been nominated by the group to present their reports.

Another group, Bokiswa, Ntombi and Thembile, focus on environmental issues and ask whether the government is doing enough to collect rubbish, and on the flip side, whether local residents are using these refuse bins.

We watch as one lady shows us the plastic toilet her family has been using for years – a small contraption with a tray that is cleared twice a week. The woman shows us her toilet and explains the realities of living with such basic facilities. It’s an eye-opener.

A group of boys, Andile, Juga, Terra and Shaun, cut together footage from a match they filmed at their local soccer field in Khayelitsha. The commentary is brilliant, and this was a good lead-in to the match reports they were assigned to film last night.

Everyday more young people turn up, wanting to be part of the workshop. Some are friends of existing students, others have heard about the workshop on the radio, thanks to Simcelile’s appearances. He’s been on both Khayelitsha community radio and UCT radio already. The word is getting out there and WFC is becoming known within these communities. It’s a great feeling.

James Farmer has joined us from the UK and is now filming the workshop. Welcome James! He’s already part of the team and we’re so happy he’s here.

The group from Gugulethu shot vox-pops in the local mall. Although in their mid-teens, they’re grasping the concept of filmmaking and have now completed their films about the funeral of an aunt last weekend, as well as a report on why people are buying fake Bafana Bafana t-shirts rather then their original counterparts. This is a hot topic, and people are debating whether real patriots buy fakes. We’ve talked about it in class and like all young people their age, status is attached to expensive clothes and some students are convinced that it’s imperative people buy originals at four times the price. The other camp argue that wearing Bafana Bafana t-shirts shows a person’s support for South Africa, so fake or original, it doesn’t matter. We’ll return to this topic as the World Cup approaches to see if opinions have changed.

Computers are slow due to small memory, so we’re asking our supporters to donate old laptops for this project. Especially with the younger students, the delay in playback leads to boredom and distraction. We’ve got only two working computers for the Gugs group and this is continually frustrating.

Panavision have donated a camera for James to use, so we’re incredibly grateful to them.  We’re also working out of an office in a very cool, bohemian part of Cape Town called Observatory. Thank you to Phillip and his wife for their support. Yet another generous gesture of support from the Cape Town community, amazing people, we couldn’t do this without you.

Spreading the word

May 25th, 2010

Yesterday saw final touches added to the report from the Gugulethu group on the funeral of their aunty. We drove to the graveyard where students Linda, Alutha, Mangaliso and Thanda recorded intros to their report. Tutor Lukhanyo Calata gave guidance notes on the footage they shot on Saturday at the burial and the wake. We’re going in for a re-cut and adding a voice-over too. The report should be ready for viewing by the end of the week, so watch this space!

The Khayelitsha group goes from strength to strength. Students booked out phones over the weekend and will be cutting their news reports together today. We watched their intros to camera yesterday and they’re absolutely brilliant. Pelisa and Sisa in particular were straight out of SABC (The South African equivalent to the BBC). Students clapped at the end of these reports, astonished at how quickly they could look and seem like reporters, the reality of what they were preparing to do finally sinking in,  their confidence rising.

Our Producer here, the canny Simcelile Kalimashe, appeared on Khayelitsha community radio yesterday to spread the word about WFC, and to warm up our potentially huge township audience. He called me straight after he left the studio to tell me he was being inundated with calls from interested participants. So it looks like we have our next workshop set-up thanks to Simi’s sales techniques!

The weather is holding and we’re making real progress. I remain overwhelmingly impressed by the talent of these young people. During a conversation with workshop participant, Manez, I learned the students in the Khayelitsha group are pleased to be participating. They’re hungry, Manez tells me, and they see the value in this workshop. Now I just hope we live up to expectations!

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.