En nou vir iets nuuts...

Vandag gaan ek my blog in Afrikaans skryf, want dit is immers my eerste taal en die tema wat ek wil aanraak benodig dat ek Afrikaans skryf.

Daar is 'n vernuwing in die Suid Afrikaanse film industrie, wat my kinderlike opgewonde maak. Dit skram weg van die platvloerse 'slapstick komedies van ouds, dink byvoorbeeld Leon Schuster se flieks, asook Lipstiek Dipstick en enigiets anders wat uit die vulgere pen van Willie Esterhuizen spruit.

Daar was wynig iets anders op die mark sedert Katinka Heyns se Paljas in 1998 en amper niks voor dit. Maar wat deesdae in die industrie gebeur is ook heeltemal anders as die diep dramatiese flieks soos Wolwedans (moenie dat ek eers uitbrei oor die tragedie van 'n fliek nie), Veraaiers en so meer. Hoekom hou Afrikaanse skrywers van sulke swaar, donker en moeilike temas? Is dit wat dan verkoop?

Blykbaar nie. Die vernuwing, vir my, het begin met Semisoet in 2012 - 'n prettige en snaakse fliek wat gebasseer is op jou Hollywood 'romcom's maar met 'n lekker Afrikaanse - selfs Kaapse - draai. Ek het die fliek verskriklik geniet en dit het my lus om Afrikaanse flieks te kyk opgewakker. My arme man sug net as ek noem dat daar weer 'n Afrikaanse fliek gaan uitkom.

Na Semisoet het uitstekende flieks soos As Jy Sing en Klein Karoo gevolg. Lekker flieks wat jou net so lekker laat skaterlag.

Daar was hier en daar ook 'n paar folterings, soos die onwaarskynlike storielyn van  Pad na jou Hart, die langdradige advertensie-blaps wat Vrou soek Boer as uitgedraai het en die totale flop van Musiek vir die Agtergrond.

Alhoewel al die flieks die potensiaal gehad het om fantastiese flieks to kon wees, was daar fatale foute in die draaiboeke. Soos Musiek vir die Agtergrond wat vir amper drie kwart van die fliek net uit die Heyto Potato liedjie bestaan het. Walglik.

Nog iets wat pla van die bedryf is dat dit voel of daar net 'n paar akteurs in die land is, met Nico Panagio (hierbo) wat al wat manlike hoofrol is opraap. Dit moet binnekort verander, want mense gaan begin deurmekaar raak.

Maar, daar is 'n uiterse helder silwer randjie om die donkerwolk wat Mollie en Wors, Liefling en Vaatjie sien sy Gat uitgereen het. Flieks wat sommer so in 'n ry die maand uitkom en uiters belowend lyk sluit Konfetti en Die Windpomp in. Later is daar ook Mooirivier, wat tans in Potch geskiet word.

Berigte beskryf Mooirivier as die Suid Afrikaanse weergawe van Love Actually - 'n fliek waaroor baie mense gaande is. Ek sien uit na die fliek, maar hoop nie dit is 'n perfekte ets van sy inspirasie nie.

Verder gaan Die Windpomp hopelik 'n meesterstuk wees. Dit blyk of dit in die styl van Wes Anderson se flieks kan wees - van wat ek in die voorskou gesien het en het al reeds talle pryse ingeryg. Loer gou na die trailer.

Die vervaardiger van die fliek, 'n Amerikaner genaamd Chris Roland, wat ook verantwoordelik was vir Hotel Rwanda en Stander, het in mediaberigte genoem dat hy 'n Hollywood-kwaliteit fliek vir die Afrikaanse gehoor wou maak, al kan hy self net 'Boer maak 'n plan' uiter.

Van Konfetti, skryf fliekfundi Leon van Nierop, dat dit "skreeusnaaks en slim" is en dat dit "gesofistikeerd en trots Afrikaans is - al is daar dan nou ook baie Engelse dele. Nou toe nou.

Met die kwaliteit flieks wat nou uitkom is daar baie vir Afrikaanse mense om na uit te sien, en dit gaan net beter word! Maak seker jy ondersteun die flieks en gaan kyk hulle in die teaters, want local is mos lekker!

Kamers vol Geskenke!

Guys, I cannot believe we are so far in the year already. It's Easter, I've been married six months already and winter is fast approaching! We've already gathered all the blankets in the house for the living room and our bedroom and I am so pining for one of those faux fur throws from Loads of Living. Have you ever touched those? It's to die for!

Soon, we'll need to fill up our gas tanks to have our heater going 24/7. We live in an old house with those vent blocks in. I guess people from yesteryear were much tougher than us, they didn't give a damn about the cold. And Africa knows nothing about insulation and central heating.

Anyway, I am so excited for this Easter weekend, because I will be attending my very first Kamers vol Geskenke (or Kamers, in colloquial speak). What is Kamers? Well, it is theeee biggest pop-up event in South Africa and has all kinds of creatives coming together! It is no it's 11th year and promises to be glamorous and jam packed with great food, good music and gifts galore!

I am most excited about it as I will be buying some extra special things I cannot divulge too much about yet. But it's big news! Another really exciting prospect about the fair is that Matthew Mole will be performing on Friday at 13:00. I walked down the aisle on one of his songs, but I've never seen him live. I want to jump out of my skin!

Kamers will be at The Forum, in Bryanston from April 18 to 21. Tickets are R75.

"We're not into the perfectly made or the mass produced - it's about high end true craft, slightly imperfect, timeless and originally designed... that special something that is only found at the show." - Kamers

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Remembering Trees

My prompt from Greenpop, for my Givengain project to raise Trees for Zambia, was to relive my favourite tree memory. But in actual fact, I should be terrified of trees.

When I was about seven years old, my aunt and uncle had built a look-out over a dam on their farm. It was about 7 m high, in a tree. A friend and I went up to check out the view, while my uncle was putting a few planks together. I stepped on a plank that was not quite fixed to the structure yet and plummeted those seven meters out of the look out. I landed in a thorn bush, with a thorn in my neck. That thorn bush saved my life. My guardian angels too. I now have a fear of heights, not trees.

Also in my young years,I had another terrifying incident with a tree. We were a group of kids that lived on our street and would all play together during holidays. One day we had gone with a friend’s mom to some place. We were about four or five kids playing around an old, big tree, swinging on its branches and just being kids. The next we know, the tree starts falling over. IT FELL ON MY HEAD! And I had to get two staples in my head for the gaping hole.

But I’m still not scared of trees. And you shouldn’t be either. You should also not be scared to donate money to grow trees, which you can do here!

How green are you?

How green are you in your every day life? I'll admit that my green efforts in my own life isn't as good as I would like it to be. We don't have a recycling system at home, but I consciously decided not to implement one, as it somehow creates jobs in my area.

You see, every morning at around 4 am, you can hear them coming: the informal trash collectors. 

This awesome new video by Skrillex can give you an idea of what they do. 

But in layman's terms: these are people who have no other source of income but to go through peoples' trash, find the glass, the paper and the plastics, sort them in their bags and take them to recycling centers in the area for a little bit of money to buy their daily bread. Now, you see, if I consciously recycled and took my rubbish things away from these people, I would literally be taking food out of their mouths. It's quite a huge occurrence in Johannesburg and I actually wish that our government would support these guys a little bit more - kit them out with proper tools to make the most of what they do.

I tried to be a little more sustainable by starting a compost heap in my garden, but - even when it was fenced off - my dogs would eat all the peels, egg shells, everything. They are worse than pigs. They absolutely LOVE carrot peels and potato peels, so there is no hope there. Perhaps I should invest in one of those plastic composters? But, chances are, my staffie will eat that up too.

I never leave a room without switching a light off, something my mom has drilled into me and I work in an office that recycles paper. I would say I am pretty green, hahaha.

I would love to go off the grid - my husband is constantly nagging that we must install a windmill in our garden to generate windpower. But, aren't windmills actually used to pump water? I'll have to look into that. And if the roads weren't so crazy dangerous here in Joburg, I would switch to riding my bike to work every day. Heck, anything to shed a kilo or two.

So, there are ways that I can green my life, it's about time I started implementing them, just like GreenPop is doing with its Trees for Zambia initiative. You can help green the world by buying a tree!

By clicking the image below, you can donate money for my role in

'Who Wants to be a Tree-llionaire?'