The Dubai Frame
Currently in post-production, this is a 'making of' documentary that focuses on the engineering challenges of constructing a difficult (even by Dubai standards) and iconic building.
What ever you say, I am!
A harrowing film about life on the street for some of Cape Town's youngest homeless. The children were a significant part of the production and offered an open window into their daily life. During the three weeks of production, two of the children died. Only one of the children below is still alive.
Second time around
Two young lovers have their lives and marriage torn apart when George is sent to Robben Island. Nometemba leaves George (it's complicated), but George won't accept that and eventually convinces Nometemba to remarry him 20 years later. The story unfolds during their second marriage on Robben Island where George was a prisoner for 10 years.
You only live once
Damian and Freda met and fell in love when they were living on the streets of Cape Town. They decided to marry and attempted to integrate into a 'normal' society. They soon found that life off the streets was harder than the life they left behind and also had to deal with the issue of both being HIV positive. Freda has since passed away.
Sea Hunters
Sea Hunters tells parallel stories of two kinds of fishermen - commercial trawlers and subsistence poachers. The differences between them are as dramatic as the risks they both take in the wild Southern Atlantic ocean. The trawler sequences were recorded over a 10 day period along the Benguela continental shelf.
This is a short sequence from the official 'Robben Island' Living Museum production, covering the history from the island's first use as a prison by the Dutch East India Company, its time as a leprosy colony, through to its more notable recent history as a political prison in apartheid South Africa.
The Robben Island Story
Dalai Lama, The last visit
It was an honor to be asked to be involved with this project. Here is a high lights package of the Dalai Lama's last tour to South Africa, during which he spent time with a number of great spiritual and social leaders of the time. Unfortunately - subsequent to this visit, he has been denied access to South Africa due to conflicting global interests.
I had been a line producer and editor on independent movies in Los Angeles, where it took an army of people to change a lightbulb. Documentaries gave me the freedom to tell stories about the things in life that were important to me. All I needed was a camera and a laptop to edit... what a welcome contrast!
On location recording The Robben Island Story
Documentaries are a license to experience aspects of life that would never be otherwise available to you and constantly remind you of your place in the world