The journey… Final Reflections

My journey through researching Eastern Cape writers has been a very interesting and fulfilling journey to say the least. It seems that when I began this project I did not have a real concept of what a huge undertaking it would be. This week has been a tough one in terms of deciding what would and would not make it into the final mix. I finally finished my transcribing (at last) and then it was time to decide the content of the final documentary. Originally the final outcome was supposed to be a half hour documentary but after a few sleepless nights and a lot of thinking and discussions with my lecturer we decided that we needed to do a three part series of mini documentaries. Because of the sheer volume of audio that I had collected and the varying topics that the writers spoke about I felt that if I only covered one topic I wouldn’t do justice to the people I had met along this journey.

The three parts would all be about Eastern Cape writers, using the various interviews I had conducted over the past few weeks and with the Eastern Cape itself as a connecting force between the three, but each would cover their own topic within the overall focus. The first part would be about why writers write, where they get inspiration from and the spirituality of writing. Part two would then cover publishing, the difficulties and successes of writers in terms of publishing in both English and African languages. The final part would be about education and how we can improve readership and literacy rates of the youth in South Africa, this was a topic a lot of the writers were very expressive about because as they put it – “the future of writers is linked to the future of literacy”, and a section that I though was very important and interesting to cover.

The first part has now been mixed and I am happy with how it came out. It is 20 minutes long so there is a possibility of the three parts together being an hour long or of a remix that is shorter, maybe 15 minutes for each part. Either way the three parts should be able to stand alone as individual pieces or work together as a series. He first part has the voices of 8 of the writers I interviewed and is a mix between English writers and poets and Xhosa oral poets. The other two parts will use the voices of some of the writers already used and also those that have not yet been used. The final two parts will be completed in November after all of my fourth term work is completed. In the end I hope to do justice to all of the great audio I gathered and the twelve amazing and talented writers I met along my journey.

I enjoy the medium of documentary because it provides the space to delve into a topic in a more extended way. I enjoy the interviewing process and I also love the mixing and hearing the final product after all of the prep that goes into it. I chose to do a documentary as my final project because it was a section of the course I really enjoyed and a section I think I did well in before.

This project has been a huge learning process. For the first time I have interviewed well known people, branched out of my comfort zone of Grahamstown to interview people further a field around the Eastern Cape and investigated a topic that has more national relevance then what I am usually involved in (not to mention the improvement of my typing skills through all of the transcribing).

This has been a great learning curve of realising how much information one can get out of a single interview. I have had to become a better editor to choose how to put this project together after sifting through all of the audio and overall I have been inspired by the topic. I have always loved literature and I think that when you cover a topic that you feel really connected to and that you are passionate about your work really shows it. This project has inspired me to put more effort into my own writing and each interview and part of the process has taught me something. I want to thank all of the people that made this process possible especially Crystal Warren from NELM for all of her assistance and of course the twelve writers for their time and honesty. Thank you to: Chris Mann, Robert Berold, John Forbis, Lynette Rudman, Jeanette Eve, Russell Kaschula, Monde Mothlabane, Mzi Mahola, Khaya Thonjeni, Kwanele Butana, Brian Walter and Bonisile Mqweniso, I have been blessed to meet you all and I hope I can do justice to your talent.

Keep reading and writing and inspiring yourself and others with your creativity…