INSPIRATIONAL STORY: From a Gqeberha bus stop to Spike Lee’s desk, a friendship becomes acclaimed film

Two boys bonded over football at a bus stop in Bluewater Bay in the 1990s, building a friendship across apartheid’s racial divide. Three decades later, their friendship has inspired APART, an animated short film attracting international acclaim, with legendary filmmaker Spike Lee helping bring the story to life.

Since its global premiere at the Tribeca Festival in New York four months ago, the hype around the animated short film APART has skyrocketed.

In four short months it has featured on the official selection of several film festivals across North America, and conversations around its potential as an Oscar contender have grown beyond rumours and whispers.

Later this month, the story of Joel and Themba – two young boys navigating a perilous friendship across the racial divide in apartheid-era South Africa – will be coming home, making its South African premiere at the Fame Short Film Festival in Cape Town.

But long before the story landed on the desk of legendary filmmaker Spike Lee and animators brought the story to life, there were two boys at a bus stop in Bluewater Bay, Gqeberha, waiting for their ride to school and bonding over their love of football – Tim Jones and Lubabalo “Lubhi” Mtati.

“So often Hollywood tells South African stories and it’s not quite authentic, but Lubhi and I lived it. APART is not a paint-by-numbers of our background, it is a story inspired by our friendship. It is the collective story of what it was like being a young boy, growing up in apartheid South Africa,” Jones said.

Both born in 1987, Jones and Mtati spent their respective early childhoods in Durban and New Brighton, but their paths first crossed in the mid 1990s when their families moved to the same neighbourhood in Bluewater Bay, on the outskirts of Gqeberha.

“Our paths mostly crossed at the bus stop and it took us some time to warm up to each other. Walking to the shops I saw some white kids playing football, and I thought: but hey, I also like football so we should be friends,” Mtati laughed.

From there the two boys realised how much they had in common, and their friendship grew throughout high school and when they both enrolled at the Nelson Mandela University (NMU) to become graphic artists.

They subsequently moved to Cape Town where they worked for advertising agencies before Jones moved to London.

However, their friendship stayed strong and they found themselves reminiscing about their childhood a few months ago when Mtati visited the UK for Jones’ wedding.

“We were lucky to be raised in a similar way that racial differences were not taught, and for many years I didn’t even know what my race was. It was only when I went out into the world and noticed we were treated differently, even post-apartheid, that the reality actually sank in.

“Tim and I were told we were different, and other people kept trying to reinforce it by telling us that we can’t be hanging out. Luckily, none of that nonsense really affected us,” Mtati said.

He referred to “the golden thread of love and friendship” that kept them close, and Jones reflected on how they were ahead of the curve and could watch the world adapt to the way they had lived since childhood.