Jonkershoek Valley, Stellenbosch
Filming on the project started well, late in the midsummer afternoon of 15 December, with Strijdom’s bamboo pyramids successfully set afloat one by one on the sky-reflecting water. The light was perfect after the sun had disappeared behind the mountain, and weather conditions were ideal. We were able to capture the serenity of the scene, with Strijdom in the pond, leaving the light structures he had made to drift slowly on the surface. We were also lucky to be able to get the sound while filming him at work in the water, recording hadedas and other birds overhead, tiny frogs croaking, and the bubbles and movement of the water as Strijdom moved around: later in the shoot, from somewhere, a valley resident’s music wafted in, rather breaking the spell of the meditative Zen moment – but by then we had caught it in the sound files and footage.

