So the Grubstreet gal has a very smart buddy, Andrew Mogridge, with whom I have collaborated on a three-minute documentary about Enon, a little-known village near Kirkwood in the Eastern Cape that started life as a Moravian mission station in 1816.
I came across the little village while I was on the Daily Dispatch @Venture project last year and was struck by the neat but quite poor little village in the back of beyond (it’s on the way to nowhere in particular), its beautiful Moravian church and the fact that it has a brass band, a hallmark of the Moravian church service. The people of Enon were the original farm workers on the citrus farms of the area and, indeed, still do itinerant labour on these farms.
But time was pressing and the @Venture team I was leading had a date to ride elephants in the Zuurberg Mountains in the nearby Greater Addo National Park.
I’ve always regretted not being able to spend more time in Enon and when Andrew Mogridge and his savvy team of web designers at Mogridge Design in East London, mentioned they wanted to experiment with video and making doccies, Enon sprang to mind.
And so Andrew and a couple his fellow band members (he’s also a talented musician and fine artist), who are fluent in Afrikaans, headed off to Enon for a weekend and interviewed the Enon pastor, Rev Heflin Houlie, and some of villagers. They also filmed them singing and playing music. We realised that this is a remarkable little community, which has survived against the odds, and what holds it together is a love of music and the church, which is in daily use.
Andrew did some very elegant editing and I contributed to the framing of the story. Attention spans being so short on the web, we decided to make it three minutes in length, which turned out to be a real challenge. Three minutes is not very long when you want to tell a story in film and you’ve got hours of footage from which to choose.
Andrew and I also argued over one point. I was adamant that the doccie needed a voice over. It was the news hack in me. How can we tell a story without words? Andrew (being an artist at heart) didn’t want a voice over and felt the music and editing itself could tell the story. Well, blow me down, he came up with a rough edit and it worked! Brilliantly, if I say so myself!
So here it is. A first venture into the world of film and video. WATCH THIS SPACE AS THERE WILL BE MORE! We’d love to hear your comments, dislikes and likes, and any advice you might have. We’ve also entered it into a Channel 4 (the British TV channel) competition called “3 Minute Wonder” for three-minute doccies so if the spirit moves you, we’d love you to vote for “Enon – A place of song” here. Enjoy!
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November 30th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Beautiful Gill – whatever beats you in the BBC competition will have to be special; this is wonderful. Ethos, pathos, logos – superb!
November 30th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Gill, this is just outstanding. It made me cry and I got into work today feeling really happy. After seeing this, I feel even better!
November 30th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Gill, this is bloody fantastic!Well done to you, Andrew, Lee-Anne and the crew. A really moving story with great viddie and beautiful stills. You guys get my vote, for sure. Now, how ’bout we collaborate? I’ve got some ideas…
November 30th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Oh ja, some freakin’ excellent editing as well.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
What a story, well done to everyone involved.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Thank you all for the encouraging comments. Together with our Grubstreet associates we are convinced that there is an audience for short films about the folk of the Eastern Cape. Enon is the start of something great.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Great to get a story told of a place that’s far from the beaten track. It’s well-paced, vivid, informative, enlightening and inspiring! A follow-up would be great to see, taking us beyond the captivating music into other dynamics in the settlement.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Well done Andrew and Gill. This is the sort of thing that will give websites the edge over the print media (sorry Peter) but oh for some broader bandwidth. Please.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Depressing and uplifting at the same time. Well done on exploring the new medium. Look forward to more…
Duncan
December 1st, 2009 at 10:25 am
Mwah. Mwah too you all.
David, it is indeed a pity about the bandwidth. When, oh when, will Seacom save us from this endless buffering? But I do find, when faced with buffering on an online vid, that the best thing to do is to turn the sound down and let it play through once with all the buffering. Then go back a second time and watch it.
And, Guy, you’re quite right about there being more stories in Enon. The fascinating contradiction about the place is that the Moravian church and the music binds the place together and has helped it survive — but this also means that young people there are condemend to low-paying intinerent farm work if they stay in Enon or they must leave (most go to PE and Cape Town) to seek work.
December 3rd, 2009 at 4:08 am
Hi Heflin,
I’m so pleased to come to know something about Enon. Happy to see you! I remember the nice time we had in Darmstadt and especially in Herrnhut last June. God bless you and all the church-members!
Your sister in Christ Bärbel Göckel
December 3rd, 2009 at 4:24 am
To the lovely folk of ENON and to the videographer and the team who pieced together an excellent video clip, C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S on a job done
so beautifully. It was joy to watch it.
I plan to share this wonderful report with my friends and colleagues here in Oklahoma City, USA. Mooi werk, almal!
December 3rd, 2009 at 9:58 am
Thanks John. Glad you enjoyed it. So what’s a Saffer doing in Oklahoma City then?
January 7th, 2010 at 9:48 am
Gr8 Article all of you who worked on this assignment. I’ve visited ENON with friends from 31 December 2009 for a few days, what an awesome community. My heart really went out for everyone there. I just felt so touched by the fact that we sometimes take what we have for granted, but looking at Enon, made me appreciate the people in my life and also what I have. Should I be able to or get an apportunity to make a difference in someone’s life in that community, I certainly will.
January 7th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Hi Nerine. Thanks for the comment. It’s lovely place, isn’t it? One of the things that really struck Andrew when he was there was that althouhg it’s poor, he never once heard someone say that “the government should do this or that for us”. There’s no sense of entitlement at all as the poeple rely on each other to get through things. The sense of community is really strong in Enon.