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BACKGROUND
I woke up one morning in 2011 in South Africa and wanted to have a "braai" (barbecue) with my friends. I realized how many of them left the country and I started doing research on
South African immigrants. I wanted to find out more about this diaspora that has been taking place for so many years, suspecting that there may be some intriguing rationale behind this. Through my research I realized that nobody had ever documented these stories on video.
I was inspired to produce a video documentary on South African immigrants and wanted to hear what they had to say about the following. These were the questions I had for them:
· Why did you leave South Africa?
· How long have you been in your new country and what are you doing now?
· Do you have family in South Africa?
· What do you miss about South Africa?
· What are your views on the current state of South Africa?
· Will you ever go back to South Africa?
· How did you adapt and what are you currently doing in your new country?
· Are you happy in your new country?
I formulated the concept and posted the following statement on Facebook one evening in October, 2011:
"Hi Dear SAFFAS. I'm planning on doing a video documentary on South African emigrants around the world. If you would like to participate and share your story with me, please let me know".
The next morning my inbox was flooded with interest from South African emigrants all over the world and it took me an entire month to reply and correspond with the people that were interested in the project. I received a lot of interest from the USA and in December 2011, I embarked on a journey and visited immigrants in Atlanta, Houston and Dallas, completing 150 interviews in 52 days – mission accomplished!
Back in South Africa I edited large volumes of videos and produced three 20 minute videos. (See Media Tab for the videos)
The success of my first trip generated additional interest from other regions in the USA forcing me to return and gather additional stories and more diverse viewpoints.
In May 2015 I returned to the USA to conduct further interviews in Florida, California, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Carolina, Tennessee, New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Virginia and Georgia.
I woke up one morning in 2011 in South Africa and wanted to have a "braai" (barbecue) with my friends. I realized how many of them left the country and I started doing research on
South African immigrants. I wanted to find out more about this diaspora that has been taking place for so many years, suspecting that there may be some intriguing rationale behind this. Through my research I realized that nobody had ever documented these stories on video.
I was inspired to produce a video documentary on South African immigrants and wanted to hear what they had to say about the following. These were the questions I had for them:
· Why did you leave South Africa?
· How long have you been in your new country and what are you doing now?
· Do you have family in South Africa?
· What do you miss about South Africa?
· What are your views on the current state of South Africa?
· Will you ever go back to South Africa?
· How did you adapt and what are you currently doing in your new country?
· Are you happy in your new country?
I formulated the concept and posted the following statement on Facebook one evening in October, 2011:
"Hi Dear SAFFAS. I'm planning on doing a video documentary on South African emigrants around the world. If you would like to participate and share your story with me, please let me know".
The next morning my inbox was flooded with interest from South African emigrants all over the world and it took me an entire month to reply and correspond with the people that were interested in the project. I received a lot of interest from the USA and in December 2011, I embarked on a journey and visited immigrants in Atlanta, Houston and Dallas, completing 150 interviews in 52 days – mission accomplished!
Back in South Africa I edited large volumes of videos and produced three 20 minute videos. (See Media Tab for the videos)
The success of my first trip generated additional interest from other regions in the USA forcing me to return and gather additional stories and more diverse viewpoints.
In May 2015 I returned to the USA to conduct further interviews in Florida, California, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Carolina, Tennessee, New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Virginia and Georgia.