I’m writing this from Johannesburg, where I’ve been for the past few days on a shoot. When I landed, I did something we should do more often when we get to a new place: I put a call out asking what stories we should be looking at.
And when I did, we got a huge amount responses (thank you!). Both mine and Zandland’s Insta account got flooded with messages mostly asking us to make the same documentary. People telling us we needed to look at gender based violence and what was happening to women in the country.
If you haven’t seen the news or social media, here’s the short version. Over the past two months, the bodies of nine women have been found in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, not far from where I’m writing this. Most were in their twenties and thirties. One of them, Elizabeth Moselakgomo, known as Tsontso, was a 38-year-old mother who went out for her usual run and never came home, it was her young daughter who raised the alarm. Three people were arrested over the weekend in connection with the most recent killing, but police still haven’t established whether the nine cases are linked. As a consequence, there have been memorial runs, protests, and a wave of anger at a government that declared gender-based violence a national disaster last November and, in the eyes of a lot of women here, has done very little since. South Africa’s femicide rate is thought to be five to six times the global average, one in three women will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, and only about one in ten murders is ever solved. And speaking to women on the ground here, they’re understandably very worried right now, and the precautions women take just to say safe are unbelievable.
The police also haven’t exactly helped… their response to the killings was initially to advise women not to run alone.
And this is a story we definitely want to do. We did a bit of filming on the ground over the last couple of days, but we want to dig much deeper, and that takes time, access and the right people. So given you guys are as passionate about this as we are, we thought we’d put out a call for some help. If you’re in South Africa, or you know people who are, and you have contacts, information, experience, or a story you think we should hear on this, use our new tipline at zand.land/tips. Everything is treated in confidence, and we’ll be careful with anything you share. Zandland’s best films have started exactly this way, with someone on this list saying “you should talk to...”
In reality we wouldn’t be shooting this one again until Nov/Dec and releasing it early in the new year, so there is time for us to tell it properly.
And if you want to help in another way, there’s more below on becoming a Zandland member.
Why this is our kind of story
If you look at what we’ve made over the past year, a huge amount of it is about the same thing: the experience of women and men in society, the different ideas people have about how they should live and treat each other, and what happens as a result. Incels, rent-a-girlfriend, gooning, AI companions, and most recently trad wives, where the two films have had nearly three million combined views on YouTube in just a few weeks.
Those films are about the stories people tell themselves about gender, and the strange places those stories lead. What’s happening in South Africa this month is the far end of that same spectrum, the point where ideas about what men are owed and what women are for stop being a debate and become a terrifying news cycle. It’s a subject we really care about, and one we’re going to keep making films about.
A way to support what we do
Which brings me to something we’ve just launched and the lamest part of my job which is asking for support...
Everything we do is pretty expensive. Getting a crew around the world, spending weeks on the ground, doing it safely and doing it properly, dealing with legal fees (😭), costs real money, and we don’t have anyone paying us to make most of what you see on our YouTube. We fund it ourselves, which is why we can cover what we want and what a lot of people aren’t covering.
We’ve actually had a load of people become paying members, across YouTube, Substack and Patreon, but we’ve now built a simpler, more streamlined way to support. So THE destination to become a Zandlander is now at zand.land/join. On the site you will get exclusive members-only content, be able to find all of our films, give us tips, and even get 15% off our merch. But honestly the main thing you get is knowing that films like this exist because of you. This is now the single best way to support Zandland if you want to (thanks to those who do).
Tens of thousands of people have followed and subscribed in the last few days off the back of the trad wives films, which is amazing, and if even a fraction of you become members, it massively changes what we’re able to make. If you can, please do. And if you can’t, do not worry, watching and sharing helps massively.
Thanks as always, Zandlanders. Speak soon.
Ben Z
Thanks for the work you are doing! I find your content so interesting. I love watching and listening to you.