Combining passions to film a story about South Africa

TWO friends and fellow creative minds who call themselves The Barefoot Twins, have teamed up to film a story about South Africa.

Dominique Wiggill, a video technology graduate from DUT and Tarryn G Jolly, a graduate from AFDA, are collaborating to share the stories and joys of individuals throughout South Africa. This dream became a reality when they were informed of The Jozie Film Festival and Discovery Channel’s “Don’t Stop Wondering” Award – a call for two to five minute documentary films that showcase and celebrate unique African stories while capturing Discovery’s ethos of sparking curiosity.

Dominique graduated from Durban Institute of Technology in 2003, after completing her diploma in video technology. She has worked for various production companies over the years as a camera operator and senior editor.

“When I was a teenager, my dream was to create music videos, which is what inspired me to study video technology. In 2004, while travelling through New Zealand, loaded with a Pentax film camera and a cheap point and shoot film camera, I really fell in love with the idea of viewing the world through a lens. Together, mine and Tarryn’s passion and drive to up and leave with cameras and travel Africa, has been in the pipeline for a while. We want to share joy and be inspired by people we meet,” said Dominique.

Tarryn recently graduated from AFDA, The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance, with a BA in film and motion picture, in the field of directing and screen writing.

During 2016 Tarryn created a short documentary called Raising the Future, with the help of two colleagues. They entered this into an international competition called StoriesLived which went on to win its category of Personal Passions. She also recently created a community project called One Brick, where she began collecting bricks for a woman in a rural community, whose home of sand and stones came down in a storm.

The brick collection turned into creating an entire drive within the community of Durban to raise the funds, as well as individually sourcing all materials needed to build this home. After seven months, the team managed to build her a beautiful, sturdy new home.

“Our past and present successes in life are all reflections of our love for the people, and for creating ripples of change everywhere we go. Filming a story about Africa has always been a yearning, a passion that stirred within Dom for years, and began tiptoeing into my own heart, which is why together, we want to collaborate and share the stories of individuals throughout South Africa,” said Tarryn.

“Our film is still in the first baby phase of being written, and will be morphed and molded along the way,” said Tarryn.

Their film is entitled Gold Dust, and will be a short documentary, narrated as a poem by various characters across the diverse landscape of South Africa, who share their own love story of Africa.

“Gold Dust tells of how we are united to the African spirit through her land, her soil, connected together, dancing to her beat. It will be a five minute documentary told by the people of South Africa, focused mainly on those we meet between Cape Town and Durban, We will hear their love stories of Africa unfold, and what captivates them about this land,” said Tarryn.

“We are searching for those significant individuals who hold the same vision of our wondrous Africa, who are willing to invest in us, to believe in our dream with us, and to help us make magic on the soil of this beautiful continent. If you want to donate, fund, or sponsor anything that you feel could be of value, please contact us,” said Tarryn.

If you can help, contact Tarryn G Jolly on 083 300 9267 or Travellingtoes10@gmail.com.