Emotive Documentary Follows The Solidarity Fund's Fight Against the Pandemic

Not even a month into the beginning of the pandemic and the first hard lockdown, Laurence Hamburger and Groundglass, newly-affiliated, and looking to collaborate with brands and institutions interested in long-form documentation, found themselves being approached by TBWA\ Hunt\Lascaris about a new initiative that they were working with – a multi-pronged business-led Fund to help assist the national effort in the fight against the pandemic called The Solidarity Fund.

“When it began, Peter Khoury, the ECD, just wanted to explore what a documentation of what he was observing there might be. He and John Hunt, who was heading up their Comms Team, explained their work as a 'Rapid Response Unit' in the procurement of PPE, ventilators, food relief, etc. We met online with some of the executive team, including Adrian Enthoven, and began brainstorming the idea of a film about the country at large, and what the spirit of their slogan ‘Unity in Action’ might look like as a story.” - Janette De Villiers

Two and some years later, the various obstacles of access and distribution finally sorted out, the film, ‘The Most Urgent to the Most Vulnerable’ has been playing for two weeks on five local TV channels and online. Tasked with bringing together in two and half months, what was over 30 narrative strands, comprised of nearly 75 hrs. of field work and interview footage, the production used nearly six camera persons, and five editors across the span of the production.

“Things got quite hectic at times. It was often a very trying experience from a production standpoint. Things were so fluid during the first year especially. We were constantly losing access to places and people we had spent weeks or months setting up, only to find out we had to go somewhere else for another thing altogether.” - Debra Stubbs – EP/HOP.

“Getting your favourite people on at the last minute who could shoot in a pre-established style, with completely different gear etc, was often the most difficult thing to maintain. But I think in the end we had such a good combination of age and experience – imagine the privilege of having both a DOP like Chuanne Blofield and Miles Goodall on your project. It was often a very beautiful experience going into places like the ones we did with people like that. To let them loose and see them respond so intuitively to a small scene in an ambulance call out or rural farming initiative was everything I’ve so often wanted to do in ads but rarely get to do. The combination of commercial story-telling needs with genuine documentary approach is so rare and is exactly what Janette and I were looking to try and do when we joined up in 2019.” - Laurence Hamburger 

“So using multiple cameras and lenses, the secret was having a great colourist pull it together. Nic Apostoli has got that experience of celluloid that I was wanting. He completely got my references, of wanting to ‘time-stamp’ the whole period. So we used a strong sense of colour to go with the titles and CI that TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris had created, but not with any of that overly ‘warm Africa’ cliché, ‘cause it was a medical emergency and everything needed to get pulled through the colours and tones of the time, which was hospitals, and nurses etc. etc. So it was all about getting the right blues and greens, from which the local colours – the reds and yellows - could pop out of.”

 “The real mensch in all of this was Mario Kowarz, the main editor. I didn't know him before we began working, but now it’s hard to imagine working with anyone else. He was so incredibly honest about the scope and ambition, and I know he still lives with a lot of regret with what was left on the floor, but he really got so much out of the footage by creating these mini-narratives that could connect with each other through clever uses of V/O”

“I’ve always wanted to a drum-driven ST, and jazz drummer/composer Tumi Mogorosi is both a hero and a friend, and while the sessions were short and often not even to picture, his work through the sensitive hands of Rob Brinkworth, really brought that sense of urgency and imperative with the driving beat that often only percussion can bring.” - Laurence Hamburger

The team talked about the incredible opportunity and responsibility they felt they had been given to try and document such a unique and often highly conflictual period in modern history.

“We had 32 narratives strands at one point, and only 48 min of screen time. The whole thing was a bit insane really. I remember realising that certain people and stories weren't going to make it, and identifying in some abstract way with the pastor in the film who talks about going to sleep at night knowing that there were people her feeding programme wasn't able to reach that day. The pandemic has been a terrible and highly destructive blight on our society, being under economic and social pressure before it arrived, but in the making of this film, there was a genuine national character that I saw across communities, class and conditions, that was truly South African, and that was a very particular resourcefulness. If we can learn anything from this and from the work of the Fund, it’s that we are often our own worst enemies and that the only way out is through and the only way through is together.” - Laurence Hamburger