When filmmaker Carlyle Lodewyk sat around the galley blik as a child, he didn’t think that he’d be telling their stories on the silver screen some day.
Carlyle is one of three graduates from iKasi Creative Media who are having their work showcased at FAME Week Africa at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
Director of the film, Ma se Kind, Carlyle, 33, from Rheenendal, graduated in 2019 from iKasi Creative Media and has since become a freelance film and video editor working for big film producers such as FliekNet, where he recently edited five made-for-TV films.
His five-minute short film, Botter en Brood, shot in his hometown, won an honourable mention at the 48 Hour Film Race in 2020.
He has since been recognised for his editing in a short documentary about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in a film called From the Ashes which was screened at the Knysna Film Festival in 2021 and has won Best Editor at the Garden Route International Film Festival.
“I have done a few productions but I didn’t expect From the Ashes to do so well which is an achievement and made me realise that it is possible for local people to make our own content and get recognition for it,” he says.
Ma se Kind is a personal story for Carlyle, who wrote and directed the film.
“Where I come from we used to sit around a galley blik and tell stories; there is Hollywood but we cannot compete because our stories make us unique,” he says.
“The film Ma se Kind is about my two foster brothers who my parents adopted in the early years, they were found in an abandoned building on a farm.”
His parents found the boys when they were nine years old and the youngest was 18 months.
“The older brother used to steal for a living to take care of his younger brother because their mother was too sick to take care of them as she was bedridden.
“The older brother dropped out of school and broke into houses and shops just to provide and fend for themselves. The film is about what they went through as children.
“Their mom passed away a few weeks after my parents adopted them and they have been family ever since.”
Lamise Inglis, managing director for iKasi Creative Media, describes Carlyle as a creative, committed and driven filmmaker.
“It is very important that our true authentic stories are screened and these films by are exactly that.”
You can find Carlyle’s films on YouTube. For festival info, visit www.ikasimedia.com.
marsha.dean@inl.co.za