Jitsvinger, Fruit Stands and Sandile

Fruit Crates in Stellenbosh

As our days in South Africa hint of ending soon, we are trying to capture all the missing pieces of this story.  Find all the voices that still need to be heard, get all the shots that are needed for a solid film.  It’s been a great few days for gathering some of the final elements of this project.

Yesterday we left early to meet with Jitsvinger (translation: The Dope One), a Cape Town based hip hop artist who has gained international acclaim for his music.  Jits keeps all of his lyrics in his native tongue, Afrikaans.  Told that he needed to rap in English if he ever wanted to make it past his own community, he took it as a challenge to prove everyone wrong and be the first internationally recognized Afrikaans MC.  He has agreed to be one of the artists that appears in the film, adding to the texture and cultural landscape of this story on South Africa’s 2008 Homeless World Cup team.

Jitsvinger

Also important to Jits is being a positive role model in his community.  After spending the day with Jits on his cousin’s fruit selling route, we followed him to his performance at the District 6 Museum, for a Freedom Day celebration (Freedom Day remembers South Africa’s first non-racial, democratic elections in 1994).  Along the fruit route, we learned about different communities and about the fruit selling industry from the folks who sell the “third-tier” fruit.  The “first-tier” is packaged and sent overseas to Europe, “second-tier” is packaged and sent to local grocery stores and “third-tier” fruit is gathered by local vendors and taken into the townships to sell to the community stands and shops there.  The people who sell this fruit take pride in their work and in the knowledge that they are bringing healthy food into their communities and that they are able to provide for their families without resorting to theft, drug dealing or other desperate means.

In between fruit stands and concerts we stopped by the University of Cape Town to interview Dr. Cathy Ward, graduate professor of Psychology.  Dr. Ward’s research is focused on issues of substance abuse and violence in local communities, particularly the ways in which it affects the lives of local youth.  She was a wealth of knowledge and insight and her input in the film is greatly appreciated.

Today we visited the trials for the 2009 Homeless World Cup.  Sandile was there, helping to coach the incoming players.  We caught up and shot an interview with him, hearing how life has been since he got back from Australia.  Full of ups and downs, he says.  It has been a mixed journey for Sandile but he is keeping his head up and his goals set.  I hold a great deal of hope for his story.