Durban 2014: THE LAST BOERS OF PATAGONIA Trailer And Stills

Stuart Muller, Contributing Writer; South Africa

July 24 2014, 5:00 AM

The Last Boers of Patagonia documents an astonishing community in Argentina whose roots stretch back to what is now South Africa.

Though we've had a taste thanks to a trailer (see below) and a teaser for the eventual feature film documentary The Boers At The End Of The World (previously covered here), the 15-minute short documentary that just screened at the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) was our first opportunity to really get at the flavour of this film, and it is delicious. For the first time we get insight into not just the collection of charismatic characters that populate the screen, but also the academic interest in this unique case as filmmaker Richard Gregory takes a team of linguistics researchers with him to document their unique Afrikaans.

The short shown at DIFF will compete for a grant from the Sundance Documentary Fund in the hopes of drumming up funding for the final phase, with a Kickstarter campaign having helped get the project this far. For what it's worth, I hope the final film includes Oom Ty Dickason getting his wish to see South Africa with his own eyes...

Gregory was generous enough to share some stills from the shoot - be sure to check them out in the gallery below (click for larger versions!)