Sea change: SA short film rides the wave of success

The recent SA winner of the biggest competition for short films in the world is an antidote to the global heartbreak wrought by the Covid pandemic.

Amanzi Olwandle (“water of the sea”) tells the story of Avuyile “Avo” Ndamase and his brother when they were young, playing in rivers and surfing their home break at Port St Johns on the Wild Coast. The day after his 15th birthday, Zama died in a shark attack.

Director and editor Timothy Hay and surfer-turned-storyteller Ndamase have spun a cinematic story that shows the power of the ocean to heal and revive the spirit.

Even today the 26-year-old Ndamase connects to his brother through the ocean, believed in Xhosa tradition to be a sacred place where the ancestors live.

“Being in the ocean gives me a sense of belonging because of a spiritual connection,” he said in an interview by phone from Port St Johns. His voice has a soothing rhythm, not unlike the surf he chases.

Excellent cinematography, rock-solid pace, well-acted, and a ton of heart.

Losing his brother and best friend did not stop Ndamase surfing or competing.

Hay, 39, also understands how vulnerability and mortality feel up close, after almost dying in a car accident in 2016. With a crushed pelvis, he was hospitalised for four months and, multiple operations later, has just started surfing again.

Hay wanted to reach out to a world stricken by loss with their story, but also to share the wonders of the Wild Coast. With Ndamase, an exuberant crew of two from KZN and a pair of boy surfers with no prior acting experience, his wish came true.

“We just focused on making an emotional story that people could connect to, especially to find a way to resonate with people who have lost their loves ones ... We did not think we were going to win.”

Amanzi Olwandle was awarded the Judges’ Prize at the My Røde Reel competition in November, trumping thousands of submissions from 114 countries for the top prize of $200,000.

My Røde Reel judge Ryan Connolly said of the film: “Excellent cinematography, rock-solid pace, well-acted and a ton of heart. It conveyed its emotion and story effortlessly while showing a lot of respect for its audience. I was really floored by it.”

The mystery of sacred spaces and beauty of wild spaces are among the elements that make it soar, along with a poignant soundtrack by Soweto band BCUC, Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness.

After the lockdown of millions of children in 2020, the free-ranging childhoods of Avo and Zama look like a lost dream, but in remote places in SA kids are still running wild.

Ndamase says: “I wouldn’t change my childhood for anything! I was immersed in it, and there was never a dull moment. It was like we were living in awe every day.”

Immortalising his brother on screen was Ndamase’s motivation for Amanzi Olwandle, so the award was unexpected. “We never even spoke about winning. It was a bonus,” he says.

Before Hay spoke to Ndamase about the film, he wrote a different script to the one that got made.

“The first one was about the two kids playing in the rivers, surfing together, and only at the end of the film Avo comes to the realisation that his brother did die. It was a happy story with clues revealing that his brother had passed.”

But then Hay and Ndamase met up for the first time over a cup of coffee, and Ndamase told the filmmaker he wanted in on the story and acting.

“As an athlete and an African man, it is difficult to be part of such projects,” says Ndamase, who is based in Durban, while Hay is in Ballito, 60km up the north coast. “But Tim really involved me in how it came out, through strong collaboration. He is really good at what he does.”

A full-time surfer with sponsorship from a US clothing brand (last stop Bali in October), Ndamase wanted “a lot of surfing” in the film, but that was not how Hay envisaged it.

He says: “I wanted a story that was more about him about coming to terms with his brother’s passing and using the ocean to connect to him, and to end with a short barrel shot.”

Ultimately they got what they wanted, except for the barrel shot. “We had only two days to film and the weather and waves did not play their part on the last day,” says Hay.

8 in 5 years at Second Beach 

—  FATAL SHARK ATTACKS AT PORT ST JOHNS

Sanele Antonio Mthethwa (as the young Avo) and Mphathi Ndlovu (as Zama) had never been in a movie before. But to see them hurling themselves down a hill, battered surfboards under their arms, or mesmerised by a bonfire on the beach, you would not know these were their first roles.

Playing himself as an adult, Ndamase is soulful, gazing in silence out to sea in the film. “It is a mysterious place that gives so much, yet can take it all away,” he muses.

Ndamase still spends as much time as he can now with his nephew of nine and two-year-old niece in Port St Johns, where his sister lives.

When his mother Ntombodumo moved to Port St Johns, she supported her boys as they joined the local surf movement at Second Beach, where they were coached by Michael Gatke.

“Zama was good, and I was surfing to hang out with him. My mom took us down and watched us a lot as kids,” Ndamase says. Amanzi Olwandle moved and impressed his mother, he says.

Inevitably the landscape is also a star in this film, with Hay’s drone footage revealing the contours of this stretch of the Wild Coast, which earned its name for its crashing seas, storms and shipwrecks.

He says: “I’ve been to the Transkei a few times and love it. It is my favourite place to go ... it is one of those places that don’t get as much credit as it should in films, only in Long Walk to Freedom.

Being in nature is about letting go and having a sense of something bigger and realising how small we are.

“I’ve always wanted to film a feature there, and this was a beautiful story. That is why it jumped out at me,” says Hay, who got to start small with this three-minute movie.

He has been going to the Wild Coast for about 10 years and discovered the location of Sinangwana, where they filmed about a year ago.

Hay did a recce before the filming and then went in with the crew and a shot list for each day and night, which ran smoothly.

“I’d love to include everyone who was involved in the film. It was not just me,” he says of their success. “A lot of people gave inputs, which you can see in the behind-the-scenes video. We were just really enjoying the whole process. It was not about the end but how we got there.”

Ndamase feels the same and says the kids from Salt Rock treated it more like a surfing trip than work.

My Octopus Teacher won the Best Science/Nature Documentary and the Best Cinematography at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards in November. Directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed, the Netflix original documents the relationship between filmmaker and kelp forest driver Craig Foster with a wild common octopus.

The Edge of Existence won the Best Human and Nature Film at the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival in November. Filmed in Tanzania’s western corridor in the Serengeti, the film shows the complexity around human-wildlife conflict. James Suter and Charlie Luckock of Black Bean Productions directed the film.

—  AWARD-WINNING SA FILMS IN 2020

“They embodied the exact same energy we had as kids. I felt their energy when we picked them up with barely (any stuff). They took me way back.”

The behind-the-scenes shots show a trailer crowded with surfboards, bouncy kids and a huge amount of camaraderie.

Kyle Smith, the assistant director and Hay’s cousin, has been working with him on “passion projects” for decades, often shooting for free. Hay says: “It is awesome to have these guys who are willing to help out to make this vision come to life.”

Hay never studied film and has always entered competitions as a way to refine his craft.

He started making videos while travelling around Europe after school and joined a fishing show as one of the camera crew when he came back to SA.

“I learned on the go, not in a classroom,” says Hay, who started his own company Hellmot Productions in 2007.

Among his achievements are filming a series about riding the Roof of Africa, an offroad motorcycle rally in Lesotho, for SuperSport, and this year he won honorary mention at an Athens film festival for his film Perspective: KwaZulu-Natal Lockdown 2020.

“I got a phone call from (award-winning film producer) Anant Singh a while back about Perspective,” says Hay, who seized the opportunity to discuss potential projects.

“It’s top secret,” he jokes, but it is no secret he would like to film more on the Wild Coast.

Ndamase will keep chasing waves around the world. “Even on a smaller day, the energy and power of the ocean are awesome. It can be big and mighty and put you in your place. Being in nature is about letting go and having a sense of something bigger and realising how small we are.”