Coming Home is a new documentary set in a town in South Africa following the lives of a group of men whose lives revolve around racing pigeons.
Award-winning film maker Julia Jansch hones in on how the pigeon farmers are like their beloved birds and the idea of home for the town’s residents ties in with the birds.
Coming Home is playing as part of Doc Edge, screening online until 10 July.
Still from documentary Coming Home Photo: Julia Jansch
Jansch tells Kathryn Ryan she was inspired to make the film after meeting pigeon farmer Emile, who loves his birds but dreams to see the world and to work as a musician.
“I was more curious about why these birds, who live in cages and very small cages, when released 800 miles from their homes why they wouldn’t kind of take the opportunity to stay free, but what do they do, they race straight back to their homes which are also their cages.
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“There’s that saying that if you keep someone in a cage long enough, they’ll always come back to their cage because that’s what they know.
“And so when I met the owners of the pigeons, they were also all too used to their homes and situation in the small town of Malmesbury and when you ask them, would you ever want to go somewhere else or do this or that? [The answer is] no, why would they want to do that when they have everything they need here.
“But the one man did want something more, and he did yearn for something more, and so it’s actually Emile, who is the lead, who got me the most inspired because unlike all the other birds and people conditioned to do what they used to, he wanted to go a new way and that’s why I actually think it’s a story of freedom at the end of the day.”
She says when she asked Emil why he thinks they return home, he said it was because of love.
“In his mind, it’s a place where the birds know that they’ll receive food and they’ll receive water. In many pigeon fanciers’ minds, that’s why the birds do return.”
But more than the birds, Jansch wanted to observe the fanciers and their relationship to ‘home’ at a time when Covid-19 restrictions forced us into tighter boundaries.
“[When the lockdown came] everyone started to really ask themselves and interrogate, what is home? What does home mean?
“I think a lot of people formed a new connection to their homes and immediate communities and their little bubbles. So it’s an interesting time be playing and toying and really grappling with this idea and theme of home and what home means.”
Still from documentary Coming Home Photo: Julia Jansch
Freedom is a common thread through the work of Jansch, who won Best Documentary Short Film at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2020 for My Father The Mover.
“When I look for stories and I look for characters, I look for things that I think people might themselves have been going through or gone through and weirdly, thematically, they’re usually stories about freedom, because I think we are all chained by our demons in one way or another.
“So I love to enable audiences to meet a character, see how they’re chained, let that reflect back on them so they can ask themselves ‘how am I chained?’ and hopefully by the end of the film or the experience they’re inspired to think about a new to get free.”
She says she always knew she wanted to be telling stories that could make a difference, after working for a long time as an executive in media companies.
“Making a movie is also a way to explore what you’re grappling with, it’s cathartic and it’s a wonderful thing to do because if you have revelations, by making it a film that is engaging and can move people, you might help someone else have the same revelation.”
Jansch also has a diploma from The New York Film Academy and an MBA and Masters in Global Governance from the University of Oxford.
Another recent project of hers tells the story of internet sensation Elsa Majimbo who finds beauty in the freedom to be herself.
She’s also working on another documentary with Disney+ relating to sailing and the ocean.
