Two Rivers

SA WINS GOLD MEDAL AT VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

Yes, it’s true! But the headline dates back to 1975!

My late father, Beaudry Glen Pautz (known to all as Beau) was a passionate aviator, and a writer and raconteur by profession. He started his career in journalism at the King William’s Town Mercury in the late 1940’s and 50’s and moved on the East London Daily Dispatch in the 1950’s and 60’s. His contemporaries there included Donald Woods, Allister Sparks, John Dewar, et al. From the mid-60’s through the end of the 80’s he was Press Officer and ultimately Head of Public Relations for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria, South Africa. As a key member of the Information and Research Services (IRS) he became a respected science writer…and not a “sign writer” as quoted in an obituary (in a South African newspaper that shall remain nameless) following his untimely death in 1990.

In the 1970’s and 80’s my father became deeply involved in film and video production for the CSIR, establishing a small audio-visual studio on the campus in Pretoria East. Beau was a gifted wordsmith who became immersed in all aspects of film-making – script writing, filming, directing, editing, producing, soundtracks and commentary.

On some of his most notable documentaries he collaborated with Hugh Whysall and Duane Rogers of Killarney Film Studios (the team responsible for those great Gunston “surfing” commercials) and in 1975 the three of them produced a documentary for the CSIR called "Two Rivers". It concentrated on two South African rivers – one polluted and one clean - and predicted the environmental problems that South Africa and the world would face in the final quarter of the century, and beyond. Incredibly, it foreshadowed Al Gore’s Nobel Prize winning film, “An Inconvenient Truth”, by 31 years!

"Two Rivers" was entered in a film festival in Venice in 1975 and went on to win the Gold Medal for documentaries! I still have the medal (at least, I thought so - for the life of me, I can't find it)...



I only remember seeing the documentary twice – once at the Christian Brothers College in Pretoria where I went to school and a second time before the main feature film at a cinema called The Oscar in Sunnyside, Pretoria in 1976 or 1977. The version we had for the school screening was on 16mm film, and I remember the overwhelming sense of pride in my father’s creation…and how my partially brain-dead teenage friends really didn’t give a damn! In recent years I searched the internet in an effort to find out more about the documentary (and to possibly get a copy of it on DVD), but found absolutely nothing about the film.

However, as I also worked at the CSIR between 1985 and the early 1990’s, I knew how the place worked and was certain that there would be a copy of the movie in the library or in the archive. So, I contacted my father’s successor in Public Relations who put me in touch with Ms. Annette Joubert, an Archivist with CSIR Information Services. Annette did some great detective work and eventually managed to trace the film as well as the Diploma di Medaglia d'Oro in the CSIR archives!



This was a great breakthrough, and Annette went out of her way to facilitate the migration of the film to DVD (using the same facility in Pretoria used by the National Audiovisual Archives), and arranging for colour copies of the diploma. I put up cash, but Annette must take credit for doing all the work and for delivering the final product to my mom’s place in Lynnwood Manor.

It’s interesting to note that the Diploma from Venice is attributed to Hugh Whysall who, in the film, is credited as Writer & Director. And rightfully so. My father, Beau Pautz, was the Associate Producer, and he retained the gold medal that I inherited following his death.

It pains me that this award winning movie is never mentioned in the annals of SA film history, has probably never been shown on television in South Africa, and that (in this era of environmental awareness) it has not been given the credit that it is clearly due as an early attempt to alert people to global warming more than 30 years before “An Inconvenient Truth”. As far as I am concerned, in the South African context the achievement of “Two Rivers” should rank up there with Charlize Theron’s Oscar and Gavin Hood’s blockbuster movies! It has been all but forgotten and that’s one of the reasons I’m writing this blog. Perhaps I’ll send the link to Al Gore at climatecrisis.net and to the environmental programmes 50/50 and Veldfocus on South African television to see if they want to give it some exposure.

Here’s a photo of Beau working in his studio at the CSIR in late August 1979:



I miss my father – he was a complex and fascinating man, and a great role model. But his written, audio and visual works live on. I have been researching my family history for almost three decades now, and the rediscovery of this film is certainly one of the crown jewels in my family history collection! I am proud to have resurected “Two Rivers” and am pleased to finally be able to give credit where credit is due. So here it is for your viewing pleasure. The old film has acquired tones of sepia with age, and the style and commentary is typical of the seventies, but the message remains a good one...



My late father's 15 minutes of fame - decades ahead of its time!

MARK LYNDON PAUTZ ©