Field Notes: Wheaton Filmmaker in South Africa
Each year, Wheaton College offers several Filmmaker in Residence Fellowships that fund students to travel with faculty-led international courses and produce films about the experiences and issues being studied. Film and New Media Studies major Finn Snow ‘28 was awarded a fellowship to travel to South Africa in January with Professor Wesley Jacques for the course Witnessing Contemporary African Society. Finn recently spoke with Patrick Johnson, Chair of the Film and New Media department, about the experience.
What was the experience like being in South Africa, and the work you did for the course?
South Africa was wholly unlike any other place I’ve been. It is a nation vibrant with culture and natural beauty, despite having suffered for hundreds of years under oppression. The country’s diversity is immediately apparent, but so too are the lingering scars of apartheid. Throughout the course, we were asked to write reflections to help us process and put into words the things we saw and heard and to think about them more deeply. There is so much being thrown at you over the course of those two weeks that without these assignments, I wouldn’t have taken the time to work through the information.
Please tell me a bit about the film/project you filmed?
I created a documentary to immerse people in the South Africa I experienced, the glaring weight of apartheid and the long road to reconciliation, alongside the extraordinary beauty, both natural and cultural, that exists within this complex nation. My goal is for someone to watch this film and feel compelled to learn more, to go there themselves. This is a country full of richness that I could never fully capture in a short visit, but I fully enjoyed trying.
What was an important lesson that you learned from the experience?
South Africa’s wounds are still fresh; we may hear of the atrocities committed during apartheid and distance ourselves from them as a relic of the past, but this is far from true. Some may believe that when apartheid ended, and Nelson Mandela was elected president, wrongs righted themselves and things got better, which in a sense is true, but it will take many more years before South Africa is truly whole.
There is a South African philosophy called Ubuntu, meaning I am because we are. We share the successes and failures of our community and must work together to foster change. I interviewed a professor there about this and what it means to practice Ubuntu. He spoke of the need to consider not only what is good for us but what is good for humanity. We can only have peace when it is true for everyone, not just ourselves.
What were some of the challenges of filmmaking there?
The pace of the trip made documenting things harder. Our itinerary was planned to make the most of our time there, but it left little room for interviews and discussions with the people we met along the way. Trying to find a balance between engagement and recording was difficult. You are with a group of your peers who are fully engrossed in every activity, and having to step back to record feels like a disservice to the moment.
I’m a white male trying to tell stories from a predominantly black nation that is dealing with an incredibly traumatic history. I want to convey the aspects and things I found and saw in South Africa that make it so special, but I must do so in a way that acknowledges my ignorance and limited understanding. I do not have lived experiences and can never truly know the pain and suffering of South Africans, but I can try to do my best to represent them accurately and justly.
What was a standout moment that you were able to capture?
Beyond the giraffes, elephants, and the plethora of other incredible experiences, two are at the forefront of my mind. Visiting townships like Langa shattered my detachment from global poverty. It’s easy to brush off a photograph from thousands of miles away, but witnessing the living legacy of apartheid in person is different. Seeing the dregs of oppression
Returning from Langa later that evening, we took the cable car up to the top of Table Mountain for the sunset. I was worn out both mentally and physically, dragging myself along at least to check it off my list. But I have never, in my 20 years of travel, seen anything like that sunset, the colors of the clouds pouring off the side, everything about those moments was special. We ended up extending our stay, taking in the magnificence of this place, and just caught the final cable car of the night down.