CHANDA'S SECRETS FILM: "I'M READY FOR MY CLOSEUP, MR. DeMILLE"

This is one of Chanda’s roosters (chickens?). I’m afraid I’m no good at figuring out the gender of barnyard animals, except for the ones with horns and obvious extra bits. Which, considering my grandparents and uncle were farmers is pretty embarrassing. (Hmmm, I’m thinking maybe that red thing on top means he’s a rooster.) Whatever, he’s got attitude. Fortunately, he’s about the only one who does, which on a film set is remarkable.

For sure, Oliver (Schmitz), the director, is attitude free. He’s totally focussed and in control but always with a smile and a sense of humour. Here he gives a notes between takes to Chanda and her mom.



Oliver likes to keep the tone light and friendly on the set, which is especially important with a story as heavy-duty dramatic as Chanda’s Secrets. Today, they’re shooting the scene where Chanda’s stepdad Jonah is dumped out of a wagon in front of Chanda’s yard. He’d abandoned the family after the death of baby Sarah. Now, it’s clear he has AIDS -- and Chanda is confronted with a terrible truth: "I think about their dead babies. I think about the way Mama's gotten so thin. Mama's problem isn't headaches or arthritis or fatigue. It's bigger. It's... Please, god, no." This is one of the scenes I’m most proud of -- the one I almost always do in public readings.

Anyway -- writing and acting tip -- the more dramatic the material, the simpler you have to be. Oliver likes his actors to be loose between takes, so they don’t overlay the drama. For instance, here’s Mama playing with her cane between takes.



And here she is seconds later in character, getting her makeup touched up, as she prepares for the A.D. to call, “First positions, please!” She is suddenly Mama, desperately ill, preparing to go to see the man she loved, the man who left her, the man who is dying in front of her yard.

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And this, by the way, is Jonah (Aubrey Poole), between takes. I don't want to spoil anything, so just let me say that what happens after his brother-in-law unhitches the wagon and he topples onto the road will break your heart.



I promised in my last post to post pictures of some of my readers’ favorite characters who appear in both Chanda’s Secrets and Chanda’s Wars. Here are the Lesoles (Refilwe Sihlangu and Tshepo Emmanuel Monyane). They’re as much fun as they look in their picture. (Mr. Lesole works at a safari camp up north; in Chanda’s Wars he will be attacked by child soldiers.)



And here is the conniving busybody, and Chanda’s nemesis, Mrs. Tafa (Harriet Manamela).



In real life, Harriet’s warm and gracious -- terrific qualities for Mrs. Tafa’s turnaround. Here she is off-camera with Chanda. My gosh, aren’t they just purrrrfect?



UPDATE: The film adaptation of CHANDA'S SECRETS is called LIFE, ABOVE ALL and will premiere as an Official Selection at the 2010 Cannes International Film Festival.

CHANDA'S SECRETS FILM: TAKE ONE

Arriving on set was a blast. Everywhere I looked I saw the characters from Chanda's Secrets come to life. In all cases, their spirit was what I'd imagined. In other cases, the actors even looked as I'd pictured them. I'll leave those of you who know the book to tell me which actors you think most closely match their characters. (I'd really love to hear your impressions.)

But first, here's the director, Oliver Schmitz, an ex-pat South African living in Germany. (He fled to avoid the apartheid draft.) He's well-known in Germany and has shown frequently at Cannes, but is perhaps best known here for being part of the director's collective (including the Coen Brothers, Sam Rami et al) that did Paris je t'aime. I first met Oliver several years ago in Berlin on a reading tour for Chanda's Wars. He struck me then as absolutely straightforward, committed, sensitive, and intelligent. (My thought at the time: And he works in film???)

Oliver laughs that he and his crew started the shoot discussing technical matters in German. But unfortunately, German sounds like German. As a result, the entire cast thought they were constantly angry. At them. So Oliver banned German from the set and everyone now speaks English which most people, whose native dialects are Tswana, Pedi, Ndebele and Africaans, can understand.

Okay, then. to the actors. For those of you who don't know the book, the key thing to remember is that it's about the love of family, the fear of stigma, the pain of bereavement and the courage to live with truth. Lillian, Chanda's mom, develops HIV/AIDS, and Chanda is left to raise her little brother and sister. So the chemistry between them is vital. Here's a candid shot of Chanda (Khomotso Manyake) and her mama (Lizzie Soeketa). Did I mention chemistry?



And let's not forget little Iris and Soly. Iris is a bit of a brat who bosses her younger brother, Soly, a shy, vulnerable little bedwetter. When I first took this shot, Iris (Mapaseka Matheba) kept jumping up and down to see it on my camera screen. She screamed with delight and began kneading my arm. I'm told we're some of the first white people she's ever met, and the only ones she's been able to touch. For his part, Soly just grinned shyly and pointed at himself on the screen. Did I mention Iris has gold earrings that she plays with, and that Soly's front teeth have just come in? Too adorable.



In fact, Soly and Iris are so adorable I think they deserve another picture. Whadeya say? This one is of the kids at quiet play in the background of the scene where Chanda goes to ask Mrs. Tafa for her phone.



The last of the young people is Esther (Keaobaka Manyane). Esther is Chanda's best friend. She's lost her parents to HIV/AIDS and her brothers and sisters have been scattered among her aunties and uncles. Esther turns to the street to try and earn the money to get them back. She is raped and beaten and goes to Chanda, who takes her in.



I'd pictured an Esther about fifteen or sixteen whose loss has turned her self-destructive. Some ofn that would have been hard to capture on film, given the time limits on dealing with Esther's story. Casting her younger maintains the tragedy while focusing on the dream-denial kids have about the risks they take. Although Esther's rape and beating take place off screen. I imagine this will be a very hard scene to watch. Which is as it should be.

I know I haven't shown the adults yet , other than Mama -- I mean, where's Mrs. Tafe, Jonah, and the Lesoles? I hear you complain -- nor included any back of set material. Forgive me. It's just I'm terrified my photos won't load -- it's taken over half an hour already for these, and I think I should quit while I'm ahead. (Did I mention the Internet is slow here in rural south Africa?

But here's a sneak preview from the next blog: Oliver off to give notes during a break between takes of today's harrowing scene in which Jonah, dying of HIV/AIDS is dumped outside Chanda's home by his sister and brother-in-law.



OMG! Stay tuned.

P.S. If you want updates to get to you immediately as they come out, just press the little do-hickey either under this post or at the end of the blog. And if you think the blog's fun, please pass it along, especially to anyone who knows Chanda.

UPDATE: The film adaptation of CHANDA'S SECRETS is called LIFE, ABOVE ALL and will premiere as an Official Selection at the 2010 Cannes International Film Festival.

FILMING CHANDA'S SECRETS: ON LOCATION AT LAST

So this is the place where the production company has set me up for the week. It’s a country lodge called The Guinea Feather, about a fifteen-minute drive to the town where they shoot the Chanda and Mrs. Tafa home and street scenes. So peaceful. Here’s another shot, this time from the top deck of the outdoor dining room.



Daniela Ramin, the Producer’s Assistant, flew into Jo’burg last night by way of Turkey. Sam Radebe the production driver, and I picked her up at the airport, and then the three of us drove the three hours to Groblersdal, Mpumalanga over some absolutely stunning territory. Among the sights, the Loskop Dam.



It’s the day off, so nothing was shooting. We dropped by the house being rented by Supervising Line Producer Martin Hamer and a few of the sound and camera guys. Techies are the most dedicated people in the world, able to work fifteen to twenty-hour days for weeks on end. Martin showed me some unedited footage of Chanda with Mr. Selelame, and the scene where Lillian (Mama) leaves her children in Bonang to go to Tiro.

For those of you who don’t know Chanda’s Secrets, Lillian is the mother of sixteen-year-old Chanda and her two younger siblings. She has HIV/AIDS, but rather than shaming her children by dying in the neighborhood, she travels north to die alone at her family’s cattle post. When Chanda realizes that her mother’s sick, and what she’s done, she travels on her own to Tiro to bring her mama home to die in peace and dignity, surrounded by the ones she loves. The movie is set against the pandemic, but really, it is a story about the love of family, the fear of shame and stigma, and the courage and hope of living in truth.

The scene I was shown was unedited, and spoken in Pedi (aka northern Sotho). It didn’t matter. I was in tears. Little Soly and Iris were the very picture of kids who know something big and important and grownup is happening, but are afraid to ask what it is. Chanda -- played by an extraordinary young find from the village -- was the perfect mix of uncertainty and strength. And Lerato Mvelase, a well-known film and television actress here in South Africa, blew my socks off. Absolutely devastating. So quiet. So simple. Nothing overdone. Her silences were eloquent beyond measure, her eyes filled with pain, apprehension, loss and love.

I meet them all tomorrow outside “Chanda’s house” where they’re shooting some street scenes. Will keep you posted. In the meantime, I’m going to try and get some sleep. Aside from me being excited, it’s summer in subSahara, which is to say IT’S HOTTER THAN HOT!!! And, while beautiful, my country cottage is without air conditioning. It does, however, have mosquitos (I’m on malaria pills). It also has three species of frogs, that are each trying to out-croak the other. One sounds like our typical North American bullfrog. The second like a cafeteria full of kids blowing high-pitched bubbles in their milk. And the third like the crickets of the Apocalypse on crack.

But hey, you can’t have everything, and I must say at the moment I’m one helluva happy camper! (One final shot: the nearby market with stalls for hundreds of yards on both sides of the road.)



UPDATE: The film adaptation of CHANDA'S SECRETS is called LIFE, ABOVE ALL and will premiere as an Official Selection at the 2010 Cannes International Film Festival.

"GETTING THERE IS HALF THE FUN"

GETTING THERE IS HALF THE FUN

This is the cover of the Dutch edition of Chanda’s Wars, out this January from Van Goor. I’ve included it here because I’m currently in the Amsterdam airport. I left home June 4 at 2:00 p.m., arrived here at 7:00 a.m. December 5, and am waiting for a fourteen-hour flight at 10:30 that’ll get me into my hotel in Jo’burg by the wee hours of December 6. (I love the cover it mixes cultures of dream and reality; how the landscape suggests the bush and danger, and the red, blood; and how the face of Chanda, while afraid, is full of courage and resolve: in short, it captures Chanda's Wars and the whole child soldier theme perfectly. After I’m back I want to blog about how different cultures reflect the same book differently in their covers. But in the meantime --

Whoever said, “Getting there is half the fun,” never traveled economy.

Honestly, what’s the best part of the experience for you? The man with the prostate problem wedged into the window seat who wakes you up every five minutes to go to the bathroom? The woman with the cold who sneezes her brains out all over your dinner tray? The drunks in the row ahead who recline their chairs into your lap and snore beer breath in your face? Or maybe the baby who keeps shrieking till you want to scream, “WHERE’S THE PILLOW?”

For me, it’s the two-year-old who thinks it’s majorly funny to kick the crap out of my chair back -- and even funnier when its mother says over and over “Please stop that, honey,” without doing anything. Far be it from me to knock modern parenting: I mean, I’m sure “dialogue” is very useful with children whose brains are less developed than the family pet’s. I’m just saying...

That’s why I always make sure to travel with ear plugs, eye shades, a blowup pillow and a bottle of Pams. I swear by Lorazepam. Daniel says it’s addictive; I say, “So is ice cream.”

Take it from me: if you’re diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder -- and these days who isn’t? -- scoring a good night’s sleep is a snap: “Hey Doc, I’m having a panic attack,” scribble, scribble, and you’re away. Let's face it, Pam is Ritalin for the middle-aged. Or, more precisely, it’s Valium with a makeover. And thank God for that is all I can say. Whenever I think Valium, I see June Cleaver vacuuming the stairs with a pitcher of martinis: Well, I don’t drink, I hate housework, and I can’t imagine myself in pearls.)

...

Fourteen hours later -- and a beautiful clear flight over the Alps and the continent of Africa, I have arrived in Jo’burg. I was met by the production driver, Sam Radebe, a very nice guy who walked me by the hand to the car. I’d forgotten men in subSahara do that. Have been put in a very nice cottage for the night in a complex behind barbed wire. The area isn’t so much about gated communities as gated blocks -- each street around here is a fortress wall with barbed wire and spikes on top, divided into lots, with a buzzer system at each locked gate -- many with private security posts.

Tomorrow the production assistant, Daniela Ramin flies in from Germany, and the three of us we drive to Mpumalanga province where the shoot is taking place. A very topographically varied province, but more on that later. All is well and I’m very excited!

See you on set!

UPDATE: The film adaptation of CHANDA'S SECRETS is called LIFE, ABOVE ALL and will premiere as an Official Selection at the 2010 Cannes International Film Festival.

MY EDITORS

By the time you hear from me next -- Monday or Tuesday -- I’ll be in South Africa.

In the meantime, I thought you might like to meet my editors, Soly and Misha. They’re one and a half. It’s nice to have editors so young, because at that age they can’t read much less write editorial letters.

Soly is the Abby. He’s named after Chanda’s little brother in Chanda’s Secrets and Chanda’s Wars. I’ve always had a soft spot for Soly (the character) because he’s so shy and vulnerable. I have a soft spot for my Abby, too, but being an editor he can be more than a little pushy. For instance, when I’m in the middle of a scene, he’ll leap on my lap, nuzzle my chin, and lick my ears. If my concentration isn’t entirely broken, he’ll wrap his little front paws around my forearm and suck on the inside of my elbow as if I’m his mother.

Misha, the Siamese, was given Baryshnikov’s nickname, seeing as how he loves to leap to the ceiling; more exactly, to the top of the kitchen cabinets by way of the counter. When he was a kitten we had to put wrapping all around the second floor railing after he performed a grand jete onto the stairs. If Soly is an in-your-face kind of editor, Misha is much more interested in punctuation and revision. He gets between me and the computer screen and tries to catch the cursor.

I’ve always had pets. I’ll write about them someday. Mr. Rose, the terrier with the hair lip who adopted me; Pecadillo who was abandoned when the neighbors went to jail; Muffin who was simple as a brick but amazingly loving -- he’d roll over on your lap for a tummy rub, and if you weren’t ready to catch him he’d fall on the floor.

But that’s for another day. My plane awaits and my editors need a cuddle!

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BTW, a shout-out to the technologically literate: I may no longer be a blog virgin, but I remain dreadfully inexperienced. So... Question: I'd like to respond to people who leave me comments. Is there a way for me to do this within the comment section after the guest comment? Or am I only able to do a comment at the bottom, and/or to privately email each person who is registered? Thanks!

A BLOG VIRGIN NO MORE!

I swore I’d never do this. That I’d stay pure. That I’d save my writing for my books.
“Everyone’s doing it,” my editor coaxed.
“But once I’ve done it, I’ll have to keep on doing it,” I said. “My friends who blog do it two or three times a week. They’ve addicts.”
“But it’s fun,” my web mistress winked. “You’ll like it,” (Her name is Christine, but I call her Madame and she calls me Sir, and she helps me with everything to do with technology, because I’m basically terrified of anything with strange initials like URL or pdf or RSS. I’m also a very old friend of her sister, Louise, who goes by the name of Blinky.)
Anyway, Madame me set up with this blog pad, and she’s decorated it all nice for visitors and all, so what can I say? I’ve been seduced! I’m a blog virgin no more!
AND I WANT ALL THE WORLD TO KNOW!
So tell your friends! Tell your relatives. Tell complete strangers, like the people at the checkout counter, or half the people on your Facebook page. (That is if your Facebook page is anything like mine.)

“Great,” I hear you say. “Just what the world needs. Another writer with a blog. So tell us, oh Great One, who thinks he’s so important people should actually spend time reading his Blah Blah Blah -- what’ll we get if we come to your blog?”
Well, okay, yeah, I’m a writer, so some days I’ll probably blog about stuff that comes up in my work. For instance, my novel Chanda’s Secrets is being made into a movie in South Africa and I’ll be flying over on Friday to be on set. It’s a German/South African co-production set to open in Berlin in the fall. The shoot is in Elandsdoorn, a town of about thirty-thousand people, a two-hour drive north-east of Johannesburg. It’s the first time I’ve had a book turned into a film, and the chance to be back in Africa is wonderful, especially with all the local actors and the rich cultural mix. So, yeah, I’ll probably blog about that.

And in January, I’ll be on a private writer’s retreat in Cayo Largo, Cuba, for a couple of weeks, working on the first draft of the first book in a new series for HarperCollins: The Grave Robber’s Apprentice. I write for a couple of hours before breakfast, then hit the beach, swim out half a mile to the reef and relax with the corals and barracuda, then write a few hours before and after supper. It’s kinda perfect, and there’s always lots of interesting and/or weird tourist encounters, so hey, that should be good for a few entries.

Then in February my coming-of-age/ mystery/ thriller Borderline comes out in Canada (March in the U.S.) from Harper, so I’m sure there’ll be some self-indulgent commentary on that front. And stuff about researching with a guy from the ACLU, and a hostage from the Iran hostage taking in the 1970s, yadda yadda.

And in March, I’m taking a break with Daniel to either Vietnam and Cambodia or northern India for two weeks. (We haven’t decided. If you’ve been to either, please let us know what you think we should pick.)

April is my The Grave Robber’s Apprentice deadline, which should be fun if you like reading about nervous breakdowns. (Blogging is also the perfect writer’s tool at deadline time, actually, because it gives writers another reason not to be doing what they should be doing -- like, uh, writing the damn book -- which only adds to the incredible pressure that is so essential to getting things done.)

Then in May, Daniel and I are off to Italy -- Venice and Florence, mostly -- to do research (ha ha) for The G.R.A. sequel, The Necromancer’s Revenge. And face it, if I can’t write something interesting about hopping onto gondolas and seeing reliquaries with the severed limbs and organs of medieval saints, then I really ought to give up writing and sell tacks.

In between the above, I’ll write about things that pop into my head -- or if I’m blocked, maybe toss in a short series on recent trips, like my time this fall in Argentina, doing hairpin turns in the Andes, skinny dipping at Iguazu Falls, and checking out the crypts in Buenos Aires.

Oh, and I’ll always try to include a picture -- except for stuff like skinny dipping and such: The world has enough horror.
More important, I’ll be answering any questions you may have about writing or whatever. So come on, feel free -- what have you always wanted to ask a writer? Or this writer? Don’t be shy. Just ask. I’m an open book -- even if some of my pages are torn.

UPDATE: The film adaptation of CHANDA'S SECRETS is called LIFE, ABOVE ALL and will premiere as an Official Selection at the 2010 Cannes International Film Festival.