Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Tapiwe


We came upon a sinewy young man steadily practising backflips on the nice grass just north of the Company Gardens. I had to ask him: Are you practising parkour?

I even said it with a French accent.

Blank face. Polite, but blank.

Parkour? In a South African accent.

No, just gymnastics, he said.

Tapiwe is from Zimbabwe, and has been in Cape Town for 8 months. He has no job yet. But, he said, with a beatific smile, he will never give up hope.

He would like to work in movies, in his craft. Once some Germans filmed him, he says, but he was unable to view the video well when they emailed it to him. I made one too. I am not a film maker, but he asked me to film him "in action."

He flipped, rolled, spiraled and flew.


I have Tapiwe's email. If you have work for him, get in touch.

3 comments:

  1. I know it's secondary, but what stunning weather!!!

    Any way, I guess parkour has to be vehicle-d by TV or cinema first, and he will have had exposure to neither... Shame.

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  2. Random act of kindness with great stop motion! You never know....

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  3. Marie....I'm not sure how to get in touch with you, except to comment here. I'd love to feature your blog in a post on my blog to let my readers know about you and I'd love to use one of your photos for a visual. I'd like to have it go up sometime this next week. What do you think? I'd be quite willing to let you select a photo to represent you if you like. Do be in touch! I'm so pleased to have found your site. I'm a lurking but very happy reader. :)

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