Ports d’Attache, or Home Ports, is a Canadian documentary series on 13 major port cities*, currently in the process of production. One of the cities is Cape Town, and I had the opportunity earlier this week to show reknowned Canadian photographer Heidi Hollinger, the host of the show, and her crew, around the Central City. The documentary series is looking, amongst other things, at the impact that ports have had on a city’s history, people, culture and development.
The series is specifically not focusing on popular tourist spots but what it terms ‘the soul of the city’. Walking only a short distance, we were able to discuss the origins of Cape Town as Camissa, the ‘place of sweet waters’ where for centuries, indigenous inhabitants watered their herds until their dispossession by the Dutch East India Company; the consequences of the importantation of slaves from Africa, India and the East to build the Castle, dig the canals, plant the Company’s Garden and construct the early settlement; the origins of Greenmarket Square, Church Square and the historic role of Eerste Berg Dwars Straat (St George’s Mall); the devastating impact of forced removals of tens of thousands of families from the Central City through the Groups Areas Act; the gradual separation of the city from the sea with the construction of the modern industrial harbour and the reclamation of the Foreshore, and current efforts to reconnect the mountain to the city to the sea, and the many other issues that have shaped the history of Cape Town.
The Purple Shall Govern - telling the story of the September 1989 march in town that defied the apartheid police alongside the public sculpture by local artist Conrad Botes on the corner of Berg and Church Streets that commemorates the event
With photographer Heidi Hollinger at the Rainbow Experience in Church Street
Celebrating the release of Nelson Mandela on 11 February 1990 (almost twenty years ago!) and his first speech to the world as a free man from the Cape Town City Hall balcony
All pictures courtesy Heidi Hollinger and crew, with thanks. The Cape Town Partnership conducts regular walking tours in the Cape Town Central City – all welcome!
*Cities: San Francisco, Helsinki, Marseille, Lisbon, Havana, Cape Town, Tel Aviv, Moscow, Houston, Buenos Aires, Bangkok, Melbourne and Reykjavik
