For our first documentary this year, we had to produce a feature package on an accomplished South African who has not been given media coverage in the mass media. Taking my first look at the brief, the words "undiscovered talent" came into mind. Well it was not entirely true because with undiscovered talent, the person is not yet accomplished, because their talent has not been discovered yet.
I had a lot of searching to do in order to make sure I stuck to the brief and found an interesting person to base the documentary on. I then found William Zondi, a street kid who has travelled the world due to his talent in surfing. He basically learnt surfing after he spent some time hanging around the shore in South Beach, Durban. William still lives on the street and hustling while trying to get another sponsorship after he lost his previous one. He is a positive young man who does not let his background define him as a typical "street kid".
I really enjoyed doing this documentary on William, because I am hoping that the little exposure I gave him will somehow be of great help. He was not a difficult person to work with, even though sometimes I would go all the way to South Beach, only to find out that he is nowhere to be found. This was caused mainly due to communication breakdown because he does not have a cellphone. We overcame this little obstacle when I decided to take all the shots I need the next time I saw him.
I would have loved for the documentary to be longer than it is, because due to the brief, we were only allowed to shoot for a maximum of 90 seconds, which was quite a challenge.
All in all, it was once again a great assignment and I hope I did justice in telling William’s story and who knows? Maybe the mass media might cover him eventually.
