Saints and spinners
Sue de Groot spoke to filmmaker Ernest Nkosi about his new documentary and his vision for SA’s most exciting motor sport
By the time you read this, a uniquely South African documentary will have had its world premiere at Slamdance, the international festival for independent films that happens alongside the more mainstream Sundance festival in Park City, Utah. “Most filmmakers go their entire careers without ever showing at a festival like this,” said Johannesburg-based writer, director and producer Ernest Nkosi before leaving for the US. “But I don’t want to be front and centre. I want the audience to see the participants. The message that spinning carries is bigger than all of us.”
Nkosi and his co-producers, Nhlane Enos Manthata and Thato Dhladla, spent more than four years and many terabytes gathering and editing material for their film about the sport of spinning in SA. The result is An Ordinary People, which beat thousands of entrants to become one of nine feature documentaries — the only one from Africa — in competition at Slamdance.
The three own a company called Original Creative Breed (OCB) and make a living by creating content for advertising agencies and brands. They used their own money to make An Ordinary People, just as they did with their 2015 film, Thina Sobabili, SA’s official foreign-language-film entry in the 88th Academy Awards.
“My biggest frustration with Thina Sobabili was that we had to win some pretty big awards at international festivals to get any attention at home,” said Nkosi. “It’s not that different with An Ordinary People. The biggest support the film is getting in SA is from the spinning community.”
Nkosi and his crew have become comfortable as passengers in spinning cars, not even flinching as daredevil drivers shred tyres at breakneck speeds.
“The fear goes away,” Nkosi said. “You just see the pedals going and the car is drifting sideways and then it’s spinning ... and then the driver says he’s getting out. That is a weird sensation: one minute he’s there, the next he’s running on the roof and you’re still in the car. Everything in your body tells you to grab the wheel, but then you become one with it.”
Spinning is a misunderstood sport to those unfamiliar with it. “If you grew up in certain townships, spinning is a part of your DNA,” Nkosi said. “There are very strong emotions attached to the E30 box BMW. It’s a symbol of many things.”
Elsewhere, many assume it is dangerous, illegal and involves stolen cars. But, as said with a chuckle in the film by Myboet Thubane, father and coach of two young spinners and owner of a transport company: “These days we buy our own cars.”
Nkosi and his business partners fell so in love with spinning that they set up a professional league. Car spinning is now officially recognised by Motorsport SA (MSA), SA’s regulatory body since
2010. Spinning now happens in dedicated arenas under controlled conditions and attracts 15-million spectators a year.
The top participants can make a living through contests and demonstrations and are role models and heroes to youngsters who follow them.
“We want to educate people about this sport,” said Nkosi. “It has completely changed from what it used to be. A lot of people, if they even know about spinning, think it’s just hooligans on the roads. But it’s a whole culture, a whole movement.
“What surprised me most while we were making this film was how little most South Africans know about spinning. It’s the biggest unkept secret in South Africa, depending on where you live. Now we are taking that thing and putting it on a world stage at Slamdance. People have no choice now but to notice it.”
As for the “bigger message”, Nkosi said spinning gave him hope. “Spinning makes me feel that we are lucky to be South African. The level of creativity and ingenuity that is involved … There’s a guy who is one of the best BMW mechanics; he builds his own engines and he is completely self-taught. No-one else can do what we do.
“There’s Kayla, one of the top five drivers in SA. No-one knows who the driver is when her car roars into the arena: it spins, spins, spins and then this 17-year-old girl jumps on the roof and says thank you, and 20,000 people go wild and it’s … oh my goodness me.”
After Slamdance, An Ordinary People will go on tour to spread the thrill of smoke and wheels around the world. Nkosi and the spinning community hope to raise enough money to send some of the film’s young stars abroad so foreign audiences can meet them.
“It is so hard to find anything original and unique these days and this is completely South African, it’s ours,” Nkosi said. “Just watch, 2020 will be the year spinning takes its rightful place in the mainstream. It was only a matter of time before someone made a film about it. I’m the lucky one to be a part of it.”
Just watch, 2020 will be the year spinning takes its rightful place in the mainstream