The process of making Doing it!

by Kali van der Merwe

The documentary "Doing it!" was officially began with a weekend workshop on sexuality with Dr Marlene Wasserman (aka Dr. Eve) on the 9th and 10th of March 2002. It had taken much work to get to this point since the inception of the documentary over two years ago and when it received the first bit of funding from the National Film and Video Foundation. Some of the young women who were with the project from the start were still around, others had dropped away because of other commitments.

The weekend workshop was aimed at familiarising the crew and the future participants in the documentary and also as a means to initiate topic of sexuality and allow the young women to explore some of their issues they had around sexuality in the presence of an expert. What was realised through discussions and interviews was that some of the painful histories the young women had experienced were still very raw and they still needed some time to process their experiences as well as the various issues they had around sexuality.

The workshop was intense and covered a lot of ground in a very short time, dealing with many raw and sensitive issues. We were all exhausted by the end. Some of the topics explored over the weekend were: Sexual Practices, Sex and culture, Sex and the media, The vagina /The Penis, Erotica and Porn, Sex and Power, Sense of self, What do young girls/women want from: Relationships Sexual activity / orgasms / Partners.

The workshop was a success and achieved what we set out to achieve, which was to bring the crew and the participants to an intimate level of sharing and to deal with sexual issues that were unresolved or difficult in the young women's lives.

Highlights

There was a verbal evaluation at the end of the workshop and what came out of this was that Marlene's facilitation was named again and again as the main highlight. It was her skill in creating a non-judgmental environment, as well as her healthy refreshing attitude, her ease in communication, the pleasure found in her creative exercises and the welcome concept of the self as a goddess that were named as positive experiences in the workshop. More than one participant felt that what had previously seemed like an insoluble problem now seemed like something that could be worked out with a bit of support and communication.

The group dynamic was seen as a highlight, as well as the meeting of new people and being stimulated to open up with others about personal matters. The immense value of hearing other's stories and educating each other through sharing life experiences in an environment where it was safe to feel emotion. There was much relief amongst the young women to find that others had similar fears, desires and thoughts.

Mathys, the cameraperson and only male at the workshop was thanked for providing his personal experience and helping to heal the hurt men had caused in the participant's lives.

The extent of abuse

For me personally I was shocked to find the amount of abuse the young participants had experienced in their short lives. I had known some of the participants for a long period of time, yet it was only on this weekend that the real extent of their abuse and hurt pain emerged.

Training

The young women in the film were also trained in filming, sound, interviewing and lighting skills. They then shot part of the film themselves in the form of interviews with youth.

We had some hilarious moments as the participants took turns to be behind and in front of the camera. In the mock interviews people were asked the impossible qustions;, "Define sex", "What is the difference between sex and sexuality?", "What do the letters HIV stand for?" Questions any expert would have difficulty answering. During the workshop the participants were taught to formulate questions that would elicit better responses and to phrase them in a more personal, youth-friendly way.

The camera training was conducted by Mathys Mocke, the actual camera person for the documentary. This worked well as the young women were already familiar with him and as a facilitator he was able to take away the fear surrounding the technicalities of the camera. We didn't have nearly enough time to cover all the intricacies of the equipment but were able to impart a basic working knowledge of the equipment.

After the training each woman was required to perform the role of director. She chose her crew, she found her own interview subjects, chose the location where to film, prepared her questions and then directed the shoot on the day. The professional crew of "Doing it" were there just to film the young directors at work and not interfere too much except be of assistance when it was required. Each young women coped remarkably well with their briefs. Antoinette had this to say about filming; "Being involved in the filming process and creativity was to me also a big learning experience. It feels wonderful to have your own images and thoughts put onto film"

Sometimes all the organisation beforehand does not prepare you for the actual day of shooting where any number of unexpected variables have to be dealt with. Shameema filmed in the late afternoon and the light disappeared fast just as she was getting interesting responses from her subjects - Linda did not feel well when she was filming for Antoinette and actually collapsed mid interview, in her own interview, she chose to film outside and it started raining - Zandi had difficulties finding young people to speak to, the young woman she wanted to include was refused permission to appear in the documentary by her parents. These were just some of the obstacles the young directors had to deal with.