I always love to see a film made locally about local waters. I was scrolling through Instagam and noticed an old friend’s post saying something about fly fishing. Justin Badenhorst, @justinbadenhorst is the old friend and as far as I was aware he’s not a flyfisherman. An amazing man who I met through a friend and immediately struck up a friendship, I hung out with Justin on most Saturday mornings while he manned his wife’s stall at a local market called the Old Biscuit Mill in Cape Town (long before it became super popular). A few beers and laughs always ended up with me having an afternoon nap.
Justin is a good looking lad, even coming from a straight guy, and worked as a model. We ended up working together on a couple of shoots I was producing that he was acting in. I’ve followed him making his way behind the camera in stills and by 2009, he established himself as a professional photographer shooting all over the world for clients such as Marks & Spencer, Next UK, Adidas Terrex, JD Outdoors and more. https://www.justinbadenhorst.com/
His interest in motion and video led him to start making intimate films about people and their passions with Chalk and Flies being one of them.
Watching the video, I realised it was about another friend Stuart Tappe (@stonewooky) from the film industry whom I met on a shoot with my buddy and producer Andre van Wyk, also a regular contributor to The Mission. What I also found out is that Dre went to school with Justine in Kwazulu Natal.
Stuart was new to fly fishing and Dre was telling me how obsessed he and his buddies were, always asking questions and showing photos of some of the amazing fish they were catching. Stuart would often slide up next to me on set and chat fly fishing and to be honest I didn’t know that much about him. When I watched the film and understood some of his obsessions and that he has ADHD, so much more made sense. Having been dragged into the spectrum world through my son and understanding ADHD and the various levels, it became apparent to my wife is that I am probably ADHD as well. This was then officially confirmed and suddenly so much about my personal struggles through life made sense, if only I had known, how much of a difference would it have made? It seems like pursuits like rock climbing, fly fishing and tying suit the divergent mind as so many of my friends are in the same boat with similar interest.
Anyway, check out the film, it’s intimate and there are no fish, which for me is something that often makes a fly fishing film that much more intriguing.
CHALK & FLIES – A STORY ABOUT FLY FISHING, ROCK CLIMBING AND ADHD.