Time travel: San through the hourglass

24 June 2016 - 10:59 By Shelley Seid

"This documentary made itself," says filmmaker Davison Mudzingwa of Lost Tongues, his 75-minute exploration into a Khomani San woman's battle to save her 25000-year-old N/uu language.Set in the arid Northern Cape, the documentary premiered at the Socially Relevant Film Festival in New York in March where it won the Women Film Critics Circle award.It is currently playing at the 37th Durban International Film Festival.Mudzingwa, with cinematographer Themba Vilakazi and producer Francis Yannicq Hweshe, stumbled onto the subject of the dying language by chance."We went to the Kalahari for an altogether different subject," says Mudzingwa.''We were looking forward to meeting San people, seeing their traditional dress, hearing their traditional language. When we got there they were in Western clothes, speaking Afrikaans with Afrikaans names, listening to the music of the cities."We discovered a young San woman named Helena Steenkamp. She was asking the same questions. Her name didn't reflect her heritage in any way."NOT ALONE: Ouma Geelmeid, Queen of the Khoisan, keeps N/uu values aliveThere were only three women remaining who spoke the language - the youngest of them was 81. Most of the community was apathetic, and there was almost no government support."We followed Helena's journey to discover who she is - a journey of about three-and-a-half years."It is a gentle, poignant film. While the audience roots for the protagonist, it becomes apparent that she represents, rather, what could have been. While she yearns for the past she is too much a product of the present; during the filming she gives birth to a son and despite her attempts to immerse herself in the San culture and language she gives him Afrikaans names. The past, it seems to say, is irrevocably lost."The birth of the child was a powerful metaphor," says Mudzingwa. "If this had been fiction we could have had her giving the child a N/uu name. But this is real life. It showed how ingrained the issues are."The filmmaking is a respectful process, a stream of consciousness that leads to a number of "tributaries" in a natural, uncontrived way.They meet Ouma Geelmeid, one of the remaining N/uu speakers who has been running a language school from her home for years, a single-handed quest to keep the language and culture alive."We could never have predicted what would happen," says Mudzingwa, "that there'd be a governmental policy change that would lead her to becoming 'Queen of the Khoisan'."The ceremony itself is a fascinating element of the documentary; what becomes evident is that there is no precedent for such a ceremony, that the framework of cultural references has been lost.For the filmmakers this story of lost language and lost culture worked on a bigger scale. "It acted as a mirror," says Mudzingwa."Throughout the process we kept asking ourselves questions: 'Who am I?' 'Do I still represent my culture?' 'Who will my kid be?'"This story took place in a marginalised community but it's a universal story; these are issues that define our being as humans - identity, culture, values, language - it resonates with everyone."For cinematographer Vilakazi the need to understand one another's cultures is paramount."We can be different from each other and still unite. We need to know where we come from so we can see where we are going."'Lost Tongues' will be screened at the Indie Karoo Film Festival on July 1...

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