From 10 July to 25 August 2023, South African broadcast journalist Kgomotso Modise was in France as a part of the Sound Documentary International Intensive Summer Programme. A seven week long incubator designed to nourish the potential of young professionals working in the medium of audio storytelling, the residency involved intensive, hand-on training on writing, interviewing, capturing, editing and pitching stories creatively with nothing but sound.
A programme housed by the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Louis-Lumière, the residency was designed in association with Radio France Internationale (RFI), with the support of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. Through mobility support from the French Institute of South Africa, Modise was able to absorb expertise from this internationally acclaimed pioneer in the radio documentary genre.
A Johannesburg-based journalist trained in broadcast, with experience in several newsrooms, Modise has been telling stories in the medium of sound for almost a decade now. With several community stations and many national radio platforms, sound has maintained its place as one of South Africa’s most accessible means to convey messages across demographic barriers. Acknowledging audio storytelling’s prominence, Modise says one of the realisations she reached while in residency is that in South Africa, stories told through sound often take on a linear approach. “For example when I am reporting a court case, I would often come to court with a ready script that I would fulfill through detailed narration and interviews.” Although a working method, the residency offered her the time, mentorship and access to encounter and imagine sound as a charged and artistic tool when telling non-fiction, and in her case, journalistic narratives. “Instead of telling you that a protestor cried, it’s more moving to let you hear them cry. Instead of only describing how consuming an inferno is, recording the mayhem of screams, sirens and the cracking fire makes you feel like you are right there,” she says. Referencing her journalistic training, Modise says, “it’s showing and not telling the story.”
More than a technical residency, the ENS Supérieure Louis-Lumière residency addressed the ethics of sound-documentary making. “I come from a country where we have 11 official languages and I am comfortable communicating in most of them. Being tasked with learning communities, finding stories and developing enough trust to tell them is another ball game when you don’t speak the same language as the people who hold the stories. There’s so much to take for granted and my time in residency sharpened the sensitivity that I approach stories and the people they belong to,” explained Modise.
Sustainably impactful, the tools, interventions and negotiations Modise learned and developed while in residency can be adapted for her locale. “I was worried that the equipment we would be using was nothing like what I use here in South Africa. They were the same but it was just a matter of finding new ways of using existing tools. I’m excited to put everything into practice.”
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