Page 153 - Bulletin 11 2007
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badly. I remember him coming back after these trips and my mother would put
him to bed, reassuring him that no person had yet died from being seasick, and
calamine lotion would cure all sunburn. He was not going to die, and her words
of “you will be fine tomorrow”, always came true.
Relief:
Shooting completed and the film looked good.
No third degree sunburn, and seasickness was not a terminal illness.
Joy:
The acceptance of the film by the Kalk Bay fishing community.
Awards received at the Edinburgh and Cannes film festivals was the final cherry
on the top.
“DIE VISSERS VAN KALKBAAI” Part 2
Early in the 1980s a sequel film was produced by Dirk de Villiers for TV–1
Documentary Programmes. My father, by now retired and living in Hermanus, is shown
talking about his original book and the first film. There are familiar scenes of Kalk Bay
harbour, fishing out in the bay and up the west coast, the landing and selling of fish, and
well-known landmarks in Kalk Bay. But the film also points to some of the changes that
had taken place in fishing: the larger boats which enabled fishing further afield, and the
variability in fish catches in a time of increasing competition for seemingly fewer fish.
But at that time fishing was still a dependable occupation and the catches were still
good. Today, twenty-five year later, line-fishing from Kalk Bay is in a poor state.
References
Carse, T. (1959) Die Bloudam is Hul Oesland, H.A.U.M., Cape Town.
Carse, T. (1999) The Blue Dam is their Harvest Land (Translated from the original by
Lin and Ron Kent), Kalk Bay Historical Association, Cape Town.