Page 150 - Bulletin 11 2007

147

“DIE VISSERS VAN KALKBAAI”

A film made in the 1950s by the Department of Information

Marais Carse

Background

In the second last chapter of his book, Die Bloudam is hul Oesland, my father describes
the film made in the mid-1950s about the fishing community of Kalk Bay. The book,

published in 1959, went out of print and was translated into English by Lin and Ron

Kent of Kalk Bay, with my father’s assistance, and re-published in 1999.

The chapter is repeated below verbatim:

KALK BAY FISHERMEN BECOME ACTORS

“The fishermen of Kalk Bay are not only skilled with hook and line, but are also good

actors.

“This they proved when the colour-film ‘Fisherfolk of Kalk Bay’, in which the vast

majority of the fishermen and their families took part, was made by the Government
Information Department.

“This documentary film, about the weal and the woes of the fishing community, runs

for about twelve minutes. It depicts colourful scenes, one after another. There is a scene
of the waves making ‘white horses’ which come rolling majestically in to break on the

pure white beach of Muizenberg.