Chasing Lines

Synopsis

adventure  - an unusual, exciting or daring experience. In the world of adventure, map makers are considered the old guard, the original explorers, paving the way for a generation of adventurers. In South Africa, Peter Slingsby is the OG. Having drawn 203 Touring and Hiking maps in South Africa in a career spanning more than 60 years, he's been "chasing lines" for decades.

In 2020, adventure photographer Simon Pocock, armed with a Slingsby map and a sense of curiosity, set out on a journey of the Western Cape, seeking new experiences and stories to tell. What he found, however is that usually the best stories come from the people you meet along the way, and they happen outside the lines of a map...
'Chasing Lines', explores the Western Cape, its places, and its people. It positions adventure not simply as a journey of extremes, but as an immersion of one's self in the cultures of others, of uncovering the stories of a place and the people that live there. Central to the film is the desire of people to connect with one another, something that is more important now than ever before.

Objectives

The end-goal of Chasing Lines is to inspire people to travel to the Western Cape, to explore the lesser-known, off-the-grid areas of the province, and to immerse themselves in the culture and heritage of the region by interacting with the locals who live there. The film is an ode to the adventurers, to those people that harbour a natural curiosity, but it is also aimed at telling the stories of the Western Cape, told by the people that have lived here for generations, some with ancestry dating back to the First People to inhabit this land.