The Philipstown WireCar Grand Prix documentary was screened this week, following the game's global launch days before.
From a simple kids’ pastime in the Karoo to turning that hobby into a global game, the wire car is changing lives in Philipstown.
“All the graffiti on the walls of Philpstown are inside the game, all the streets and main icons are inside the game,” said Philipstown WireCar Foundation vice-chair Alistair King, speaking at the screening of The Philipstown WireCar Grand Prix documentary.
The film and the game are by-products of Philpstown’s annual wire car race that has taken place for more than 14 years.
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Philipstown WireCar Grand Prix doccie
The film is predominantly in Afrikaans with a bit of Xhosa here and there, with subtitles for those who don’t understand the languages.
“Although the story is quite niche, this foreign language niche subculture, anyone with a human sensibility will connect with it, that’s probably the human story that is much broader than if you can speak Afrikaans or you know wire cars,” said the director, Paul Ward.
Philipstown is one of the most impoverished communities in South Africa and like any person living in testing circumstances, imagination plays a huge role in how one gets out of that situation.
It’s evident in the film how much the kids see themselves actually driving these cars as they push their wire cars.
“It’s one of the very first things I noticed when I arrived in Philpstown. Guys were driving their cars around and were hooting their imaginary horns, making the squeal of the tires,” said Alistair King speaking to media after the screening.
“You know, they completely channel themselves into these cars, and it struck me as a very profound moment to realise that for many of them, they may never drive a car because of their circumstances.”
The annual race involves athleticism and machinery: the kids have to ‘drive’ their wire car with one hand while running as quickly as possible to become champion.
It took about three years to put together the film, which debuted on Amazon Prime a week ago.
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Celebrating Philipstown’s kids
King said they didn’t set out to make this a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative.
“This wasn’t actually the mission. The mission was to celebrate and make these children heroic and to represent them as heroic in a race,” he shared.
The documentary follows eight kids from Philipstown as they share their unique stories while preparing for the annual race.
“These are eight kids, but there are hundreds and thousands of them in Philpstown. It’s sad we only had to pick eight,” he said.
Director Ward, who works on some of the most significant projects in the world, said spending time with the kids made him reflect on the essentials of life.
“These kids just reminded me of what’s important in life, what’s important as a human, how they respect each other, how they care for each other,” said Ward on spending time with the kids.
Springbok captain Siya Kolisi makes a cameo in the film; this is when he spent the whole day with the kids in the community, even participating in the wire car race against them.
In one part of the film that shows the actual race of 2024, the kids see themselves in actual cars through computer-generated imagery (CGI), as though they were part of the Dakar rally or the F1.
“Their reaction to the actual race and them inside the car was one of the more powerful moments in my life any way, to witness that” shared King.
The eight kids will benefit from the game and the film through the development of an education trust fund.
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Support for the project
The recently launched Philipstown WireCar Foundation does not have the financial muscle to produce such a film and also create a game from the race.
Giant Films and Accenture Song produced the Philipstown WireCar Grand Prix documentary.
As the creative lead on the whole project, King took it to his former employer, global company Accenture, and asked for their assistance.
“And I said to them, you’ve got talent around the world, you’ve got the best Oscar Award-winning CGI company in Hamburg, I’d like to use them, you’ve got gaming teams in Hungry and London, I’d like to us them and you have the best coding teams in South Africa and you back this with your people and your resources. Shout out to them because this is a result of that,” said King.
Accenture is a partner in the film.
The game has a whole storyline: you can start as a basic wire car builder, and as you get better at driving the car, you move onto higher levels and take on some of the kids from Philpstown.
“We’ve merged everything from the film into the game wherever possible. You can dip into another game, you can have random races, you can play against multiplayers, you can challenge people everywhere in the world, there’s a global leader board,” shared King.
King added that they are in conversation with several companies that would like to collaborate with them and be part of the game.
Former F1 commentator Alex Jacques’ voice is part of the game as a wire car commentator.
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