Private Project

Tear Salted Sea

During a harsh winter, a filmmaker sets out to document the South African leg of a coastal sailing journey from Cape Town to Manila. Amongst the tragic events and characters he would end up filming - he manages to pursue a quest to return 10 years later to make sense of it all. The film culminates into a moving encounter of the ocean and how She shapes the heart of man with her tear salted waters.

  • Riaan Hendricks
    Director
    The Devils Lair (2013)
  • Tebogo Hendricks
    Producer
    Ramothopo the Centenarian (2018)
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 12 minutes 25 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 1, 2021
  • Country of Origin:
    South Africa
  • Country of Filming:
    South Africa
  • Language:
    Afrikaans, English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital Video
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Riaan Hendricks

Riaan Hendricks is a multi-award winning independent South African Documentary filmmaker whose work follows classic character driven observational documentary cinema - shot and edited for cinema.

His most prolific work to date is The Devil's Lair(2013) and his most recent award wining documentary film is Ramothopo The Centenarian (2018).

His work is celebrated for constantly pushing the boundaries of the South African documentary genre. The constant struggle of engaging audiences with the "subjective reality" of his characters are expressed in the rich tapestry of moments engrosses his work.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

The ocean is a place of meaning. Even more so if your life has been affected by her waters.

When the opportunity arise to work on a sailing vessel enroute to Manilla from Cape Town – I took my camera along.

I've always been passionate about the ocean – al be it through the eyes of the fisherman's son who I am.

The theme of Her work always came back to meet my lens throughout my life time.

But this time around – it was a harrowing experience to get to know her cold unforgiving nature that remains forevermore untamed to the will of man.

Our sailing vessel “Yacht Fairest Cape”, was just over 50ft, a long deep keel – slow, yet steady through rough weather.

So when a weather system hit the South African coast – she turned our waters into a nightmare.
The worst of which we missed by a day – when I filmed the tragedy of the Mandy fishing vessel that capsized in Mosselbay.

By the time we reached Durban – my heart was already tied to a string of tragedies filmed enroute. But here, I still had to see the Rubicon Memorial - a memory that left the entire saling fleet of Durban cold.

She had an impact on me with her waters. It never left me.

10 years later I went to search for the only surviving fisherman of the Mosselbay fishing vessel Mandy tragedy. We went off to the SS Mendi Memorial in Pretoria – in an a moment, the statue of a sailor sinking down into the briny alleys of he waters of death – came alive.
Allowing myself to close a chapter in my life – but even more so, allowing the sailor to lay to rest the impact of the wrath of her waters. Her Tear Salted Seas.