FILM NEWS

Making progress on – and off – the field

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:40

Prgress DVD cover

There were two things that happened in 2005: the Japanese tsunami and Progress beat Maties. So claims one of the players of Progress rugby club in a new documentary called Progress.

“It’s a community film,” states Simon Taylor of Periphery Films in Cape Town, made richer by the considerable amount of time he spent with the small town of factory workers who make up the bulk of Progress Rugby Club near Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape.

“It started when a journalist, Duane Heath, told me about the club,” explains Taylor. “I began filming in 2006 and went back and forth, spending as much time with the community as I could. Hanging out with the community made me fall in love with rugby all over again.”

Just seeing the preview of the documentary on the net I realised it looked bigger than a rugby film. It explores issues such as community and violence in a unique way, and an alternative masculinity in South Africa. Commitment on the field is paramount for these factory workers who put in everything, even after endless shifts of work. But the parallels are clear in that they are not only building a team; they are building a community through commitment to one another and a support structure.

It highlights the greater values of sport. One focus of the community is to keep vulnerable kids off the street by giving them an outlet for their energy and instilling pride in themselves and their community.

The film traces not just Progress’ incredible win over Maties of Stellenbosch – a feat in itself for such a backwater team – but their losses; their family lives and relationships as well as the junior team they are building to carry the Progress flag. You are behind closed doors, in the family homes and the locker room, seeing things you wouldn’t see unless you played rugby or lived in a community like this. This is arguably one of the greatest aspects of the film: a bridge for many South African viewers to understand and appreciate the lives of people they seldom connect with; to realise the parallels with their own lives and the potential of all people in South Africa.

Dedication of the players, men like the enormous Zama Tokai, a prop with a momentum that defies the immensity of his thighs, is clearly evident, but so is their dedication off the field.

After four years of development, Progress was completed earlier this year and was screened at The Labia in Cape Town and small communities around South Africa. Taylor has been overwhelmed by the response, it’s a people’s film and doesn’t just appeal to the audience one would find on the festival circuit.

Progress will be on DVD shelves just before Christmas, in time to make up for the defeat the Springboks suffered in the Rugby World Cup, by opening up a wider view of a sport that is so much a part of this country. It might just make you fall in love with rugby all over again.

SCREENAFRICA Print Magazine – November 2011 (view here)
By Antone Crone

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