Research it, live it, write it, refine it.
San Francisco, 1890: the cobblestones in the narrow alley are scattered with horse dung and a washing line is strung between roofs. Cluttered, chaotic and utterly believable, the year is actually 2019 and this is ‘Chinatown’ at the Cape Town Film Studios. More than 600 crew and 390 businesses are working on Warrior, a Bruce Lee-inspired TV series being filmed locally. it’s just one of the constructed sets under wraps here.
The need for dedicated space for wildlife has never been so important. Author and African wildlife conservationist Peter Meyer tells Kathy Malherbe how his childhood has made him realise that sanctuaries are crucial to man and beast.
Achmat had to cut 18 seconds off his 100m butterfly time to meet the Olympic qualifying time of 1 minute 3 seconds. It is an incredible achievement considering that shaving even one second off your race time takes hours and hours of training. His not only qualifying for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, but coming ninth, was an extraordinary feat for any sportsman. Achmat followed this by cruising into the butterfly and freestyle finals at the 2010 World IPC swimming championships in Holland and setting all Africa records. This year at the Midmar Mile, he tested his mettle against 200 swimmers amongst them Duzi canoeists and Iron Man competitors and won the event. He has set his sights on winning a medal at the 2012 Olympics. Achmat is both driven and humble. It comes as no surprise that his sponsors Foot Gear and Mitsubishi have been right behind him.
“ Smiling is infectious,
You can catch it like the flu.
Someone smiled at me today,
And I started smiling too.“