We began filming ‘Fight Like a Boy’ today! Although we have filmed several interviews over the past month, narrative filmmaking is a significantly different experience.  Armed with the script that we finished only a few days ago, we set out to Kashoba to make actors of our favorite Swazi family – the Mkokos.

Before we get into the rest of the blog post, let me give you some more information about the film! The story revolves around the relationship between a boy and his father (who suffers from MDR-TB). I won’t give you too many spoilers, but there main characters are the boy, the father and the mother played by Zola, Mr Mkoko and Mrs Mkoko respectively, and will be shot at the Mkoko’s house.

The first scene of the movie features Zola running down the driveway in his school uniform. As soon as we began filming the scene, I was struck by the shift we had made – the film went from being an idea that we discussed around a table at Sibane to being an alive, real project. We went from talking about the different roles of a film crew to actually being one – lights, sound, acting coaches, cameramen… For me, it has been my first experience with the many intricacies of producing a film. Today, that involved everything from finding scrap metal to build a makeshift gurney to making sure that Zola didn’t change out of his school uniform.

Zola seems to have taken to acting like a fish to water. We spent a good part of the afternoon teaching him his lines for tomorrow. “Managing the talent” included target practice with toy guns and some well-deserved tickle torture.  When we first met Zola, he impressed us all by being the epitome of the ‘cool guy’ (he gave us some nods and handshakes and went on his way). Now that we’ve spent more time with him, he has turned into being an adorable, fun-loving kid that is great to work with. No tantrums from this child actor!

Today wasn’t just the first day of our film; it was also the first day in business for ‘Musa and son’s fresh eggs’. Mr Mkoko has decided to open up an egg business, and to that end went to Manzini today to buy a hundred live chickens. In the middle of the day, the Mkokos all went to move their chickens into their newly refurbished chicken coop. It was definitely an interesting experience to be filming while most of the cast was busy setting up a chicken farm on location!

The bulk of the shooting will be done tomorrow. Although it is a hectic and ambitious schedule, I’m excited to learn more of the technical aspects of filmmaking, and to see what new challenges the day will bring!