It has been a very productive week at Victoria Girls’ High School. Lillian Robert, a Grade 11 learner at VG, has written a script that made it possible for the school to be part of the top 15 schools in the Eastern Cape selected for the Nab’ubomi project for 2010.
It has been a very productive week at Victoria Girls’ High School. Lillian Robert, a Grade 11 learner at VG, has written a script that made it possible for the school to be part of the top 15 schools in the Eastern Cape selected for the Nab’ubomi project for 2010.
Nab’ubomi (which means ‘this is life’ in Xhosa) is an inter-school writing competition for Grade 11 learners that has been running in the Eastern Cape since 2007.
An initiative developed and run by Mandela Bay Pictures in Port Elizabeth, Nab’ubomi is supported by the SABC, the Eastern Cape Department of Education and the National Film and Video Foundation in South Africa.
The selected writers get the opportunity to direct their own films and a learner crew from each
school is given the chance to be trained at film camp in the roles of director, producer, camera, sound and work behind the scenes.
The project is a platform for the youngsters to express themselves and discuss back-door topics openly. Staying true to the criteria, Lillian wrotea script that focused on the themes of sexuality, same sex relationships and peer pressure.
This was especially difficult considering the fact that VG is an-all girls school. The short film provoked some debate around these awkward topics among the learners but the team stood strong, emphasising that it is very important to speak out, despite criticism According to Bryoni Roughton, the Project Director, Nab'ubomi “facilitates the discovery and development of talented senior high school students by allowing access to a creative world largely inaccessible to the fast majority of South African youth”.
The shooting took place for the whole day on Monday and lessons were put on hold for the day. The teacher in charge, Dunne' Hartley felt proud of her learners and was really impressed with the smooth cooperation that took place between the Nab'ubomi crew and the school, including the members of staff, who were very friendly and accomodating.
