The documentary, The Spirit, filmed by Mercia Wechoemang recently won two awards at the Airflix Film Festival in England. Filmmaker Wechoemang explained the documentary is based on the life of liberation struggle icon, Frances Baard, who also has a municipality in the Northern Cape named after her. Wechoemang tells OFM News the documentary idea grew in her mind after she lost her father.

The Spirit is to be showcased in South Africa in the near future.

Wechoemang further explained she will share details of the screening to the public after the private screening. She is, however, hopeful that The Sprit will receive the same love in SA that it is receiveing in the United Kingdom.

“I am grateful that the documentary that started as an idea has been recognised internationally,” she stated.

Wechoemang believes her biggest source of happiness came from the contribution that she made in creating jobs for about 50 people of Kimberley during the process of filming the documentary.

She told OFM News that she is currently working on a documentary on the Henyekane brothers, Richard and Joseph, the Kimberley-born professional football stars who died in car accidents, four months apart, in 2014.

The documentary won with the Best Women’s Film in the Bright International Film Festival’s (BIFF) monthly competition and the Best Film Article Publish at the Airflix Film Festival in England. It also was a finalist in the Best Short Documentary category of BIFF, as well as in the Best Documentary category at Airflix. The Spirit was also selected for the Lift-Off Global Network First-Time Filmmakers Showcase - also in England.  

The Department of trade, industry and competition (dtic) in Media Relations, Bongani Lukhele, explained in a media statement that Wechoemang’s documentary was funded for almost R200 000 through the department’s South African Emerging Black Filmmakers Incentive - whose objective is to nurture and capacitate emerging black filmmakers to take up big productions and contribute towards employment opportunities.

Between April 2016 and March 2022, the incentive has supported 110 productions to the tune of R316 million, thereby creating over 1 500 full-time equivalent jobs.

The documentary also received financial support from the National Film and Video Foundation, and agency of the Department of Sport, Arts, and Culture.

OFM News