On a continent that is generally portrayed as land of misery by the international
media, Anton Crone spotlights one filmmaker who effectively shows the many
positive aspects that Africa has to offer.
There’s a certain power in the hand that holds a camera. It can break down
walls to reveal the other side. In Africa, reportage achieves this to a degree: A
starving child. A burning hut. A Christian knife driven into Muslim flesh. We see a
lot of it. We sadly become desensitised. But the truth is we are only looking
through a crack in the wall.
It’s often what broadcasters are after and it gives an unbalanced view of the
continent. Not that the bad side should be ignored, but if you look through the
cracks there’s a good side too. With the advent of internet video and more
cameras in more hands, African smiles are reaching beyond the continent’s
shores and inviting people to re-evaluate their perceptions.
People are going beyond the romanticised confines of wildlife reserves, air
conditioned land cruisers and overlander trucks and travelling their own way.
Young European women are hitchhiking Malawi. Middle income South Africans are
venturing into marginalised areas that they used to steer clear of and college
students are journeying along African roads they once thought inaccessible in
old sedans. And it’s being filmed and shared in 15-second slices or lickety-quick
edits with stolen soundtracks.
I asked a few youngsters (I’m 42. If you’re under 35, you’re young) which online
videos inspired them to travel in Africa and two films cropped up more than
others. Interestingly, they were shot by the same person, Andrew King of D4
productions.
Full disclosure: I know King. I met him on one of the events he filmed, the very
first Put Foot Rally across southern Africa. But I had never watched his films.
When I finally did, I felt like breaking out of my Cape Town bubble and getting
back on the road.
“For each person the word African conjures up a wide variety of images: despair,
corruption; but in reality Africa is so much more,’ King’s voice says, kicking off his
promo for the Put Foot Rally. The film goes on to exemplify the “more’ aspect.
Indeed it is more than you could imagine experiencing on any journey, through
incredible landscapes populated with wildlife and of course, people.
The Put Foot Rally is, in essence, a social rally across southern African combined
with a charity drive for school shoes. The participants stop in countries like
Namibia and Zambia to help school kids climb into the footwear they’ve donated.
Participants who were full of Dutch courage the evening before are humbled, not
because the kids are sad, BUT because they’re happy.
Importantly, King doesn’t milk the emotion. He’s just a fly on the wall and he
shoots it as it is: a bunch of middle class folk connecting with poor but happy
kids they once perceived as perpetually miserable; playing football; playing the
fool; or simply laughing with them.
The video has inspired many more people to join the rally and in just three years
Put Foot has tripled in size and even spawned an offshoot, the Mzansi Trophy, a
more challenging off-road event.
King’s background is filming endurance sports and he has an enviable portfolio
with a unique focus on Africa. “I started out wanting to film sports worldwide. I
was particularly interested in the “States. But then I thought there are so many
experts (filmmakers) there, why not become an expert here?’
He’s filmed road cycling in Rwanda, mountain biking in Madagascar, trail running
in Tanzania and expeditions and adventures to many other countries in Africa.
Lately he filmed Fat Kid on a Bike cycling from Cape Town to London in time for
the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Seven months into his trip, King joined “Fat Kid’ Ron
Rutland in Ethiopia.
“His sponsors wanted to send a full crew to make a film,’ King explains. “But Ron
told them: life on the road is hard. I don’t want to babysit a whole crew. Just
send my mate, Andrew.’
King flew alone to Ethiopia with his bike and camera and roughed it on public
transport until he found Rutland. And then they cycled together. “That way you
sweat with the guy. You put in the effort, and when you ask him to ride up and
down that hill four times to get the shot, he doesn’t mind, because you’re in it
together.’
The other film that inspired people is called Mountain of Greatness, about an
eight-day adventure around the base of Kilimanjaro in which a small group of
ultra runners helped Simon Mtuy, a local villager, realise his long standing dream
of running around Africa’s highest mountain. What King captures so well is not
just the sporting element, it’s the communities they encounter; the people they
meet who make you forget the run; make you want to stop and chat. What
sporting event is like that?
What stays with King when he returns from such travels is the sense of
community he finds in many of the places he ventures. “Fields are owned by
communities. If someone’s struggling the community helps. People may be poor
but they don’t seem unhappy.’
Perhaps it’s the sense of community King captures that draws people here.
Westerners might identify with it more than they think. Community is what
brings people together in sporting events, in social rallies, in bright smiles on a
dark continent.
