A VERY DEEP JOY: NICK’S STORY

Seeing opportunity where others don’t: film editor Nick Lear with wife Cate and children Willow, Lily, Leo and baby Noelle  |  Photo: Ronelle de Villiers

I DABBLED IN FILM MAKING at university and knew that film editing was my passion but I had to get in the door first. I visited every film company in London I could find to drop off my CV, trying to get onto the bottom rung of the ladder as a runner.

After leaving Cambridge with a masters in theoretical physics, Nick Lear entered the film industry on the bottom rung. ‘I knew editing was my passion but I had to get in the door first,’  he says

As luck would have it, someone had just left a company and I got my chance. For the next 18 months I mostly made tea and learnt everything I could, waiting for my opportunity. I rose up the ladder to become a tape op, and eventually started getting editing work.

My career started to take off. Before too long I was doing really well, owned a nice flat and lived quite a privileged life. My name was getting out there and it felt good. I worked with some big names in the film world and earned trust. Amazing documentary projects were on the cards.

borderline atheist

But all along, I was feeling a pull to work with underprivileged people that I believe came from God. Growing up, I’d been a borderline atheist until my life changed at a school camp. Here, I heard stories from people who said their lives had been changed by God that were so compelling I put my faith in Jesus.

So, while still in the film industry, I started getting involved in a charity called The Besom that bridged the gap between churches and people in need.

It was there, in 2008, that I met Cate, the love of my life. She’d given up her degree to serve the poor, was hanging out with drug addicts, and wasn’t the least bit impressed with film. The first time I met her she said, ‘I hate TV.’  I said, ‘I work in TV!’

An exciting film career was unfolding but Nick was feeling a pull in a different direction. He started volunteering at a charity called The Besom, where he met Cate, soon to be the love of his life!

Eventually, after longer than I’d have liked, she said yes to a first date. After dinner, we spent the rest of the date talking to a homeless guy. I was both inspired and gutted, and spent the next day in tears. My career was going places, but I felt God calling me away.

Cate and I married in 2009 and went to work for four years at a Mozambican NGO called Iris Global, running a kitchen that fed 2 000 people a day.

Engaged: Nick with his parents, new fiancée Cate, and… a ring 🙂

Nick and Cate married then moved to an NGO in Mozambique, where for four years they ran a kitchen that fed 2 000 vulnerable people a day

Despite a challenging start (we needed to learn Portuguese and Makua, and the staff went on strike during our first week), it was an amazing time. The people were full of joy, and even though the unrelenting heat made things tough for this northern hemisphere couple, we learnt to be reliant on God. These lessons would be needed in the future because in the back of our minds, always, was Manenberg.

Lily, the Lears’ first child, was a distinct point of interest in Mozambique. Its people were ‘full of joy,’ says Nick

We’d heard about Manenberg through friends, Pete and Sarah Portal, who were doing work through a church there called Tree of Life that inspired and compelled us.  We absolutely loved the idea of living in the community you’re trying to serve.

Each time we went to Cape Town from Mozambique for one of our children to be born we visited the Portals, and our heart grew for their community.

lack of hope

As many will know, Manenberg is a township created by the apartheid government for ‘Cape Coloured’ families that it had forcibly removed from their homes for white people to move in. It was a dehumanising strategy that destroyed families and communities, and its legacy is lack of jobs and opportunities, lack of hope and the very real issues of gangsterism, drugs and violence

‘At the back of our minds, always, was Manenberg,’ says Nick. Manenberg was created by South Africa’s former apartheid government for ‘Cape Coloured’ families it had forcibly removed from their homes. The legacy of this strategy in this vulnerable community is lack of opportunities and hope, gangsterism, drugs and violence  |  Photo: Freddie Reed

After four years in Mozambique, Nick and Cate moved into Manenberg with their children. ‘It took a long time to come round to this idea and it was scary,’ says Nick

Cate with Sarah Portal, a South African who had moved several years previously from Cape Town’s suburbs to share life in Manenberg with the Tree of Life community (read her story)

Nonetheless, in 2016, after our season in Mozambique was up, we moved with our first two children, and Cate pregnant with our third, to be part of Manenberg’s Tree of Life community. It was scary and had taken a long time, particularly for Cate, to come round to the idea, partly because everyone in Cape Town we spoke to said, ‘Don’t go to Manenberg and 100% don’t live there, especially with young children!’

When we moved in, most of the community were incredibly welcoming to us, really loved and looked out for us. Cate launched Skatties, a crèche for vulnerable children, in our house, while I felt a call to use my film skills to show the other side of Manenberg, the side that involves joy, laughter, community and hope.

‘Most of the Manenberg community were incredibly welcoming to us, really loved and looked out for us,’ says Nick

Cate (second left) launched Skatties, a crèche for vulnerable children

So I started making films that told those stories and, as time went on, I felt a pull to pass on my skills to the people around me. In 2018, I founded Manenberg Films, a non-profit social enterprise. I prayed for support and not long after a huge answer to prayer came in the form of Freddie Reed.

Nick felt a pull to pass on his film skills to the people in his new community and founded Manenberg Films, a non-profit social enterprise

Nick prayed for support with Manenberg Films. ‘A huge answer to prayer came in the form of Freddie Reed,’ a director of photography from London, he says  |  Photo: Charlotte Simon

Freddie was a brilliant director of photography in London who’d felt a call to come to South Africa and contacted me after he arrived. Together, we started running intensive free ‘boot camps’ in Manenberg for aspiring film students. We got a lot of interest and to date we’ve trained around 70 students. The school lasts a week and we screen the students’ films at the end of it and share them on our social media. A recent film clearly resonated with people and had over 100 000 views.

Nick and Freddie launched a free film school for young people from Manenberg and other communities that lack opportunity

The film school is funded by the commercial side of Manenberg Films and runs an intensive, week-long ‘boot camp’

The students’ work is screened at the end of the week

Vinhardynli ‘Vinnie’ Scheepers, a graduate of Manenberg Film School, has been filming some videos for us here at Thislife Online. ‘He’s got a really bright future ahead of him,’ says Nick

Cate at the wedding of friends in Manenberg. The Lears lived there for over three years

Ultimately, living in Manenberg with a young family proved ‘just too difficult,’ says Nick. His film partner Freddie stayed in Manenberg but Nick and Cate made the ‘tough call’ to move to the Cape Town suburb of Claremont  |  Photos: Ronelle de Villiers

‘I believe in a God who delights in bringing flourishing,’ says Nick  |  Photo: Ronelle de Villiers

Nick Lear: ‘I think we need to be part of the work to put poverty and injustice right’  |  Photo: Ronelle de Villiers