Week 6: Independent Research

While we were discussing the topic of Winnie Mandela's own film I suddenly remembered another movie set to open in theaters this weekend called Chappie. The movie itself isn't very important to my discussion but the director, South African native Neil Blomkamp, is. In 2009, he directed an amazing documentary-style feature titled District 9 that I am just now beginning to see has parallels to the working history of South Africa. The film follows a government agent as he is tasked with evicting the resident aliens of District 9, a slum in Johannesburg, South Africa. I won't divulge more of the plot but it does take a thrilling turn. There are some interesting details involving the development of this film. Apparently, it was inspired by Blomkamp's childhood in South Africa during apartheid (many parallels to apartheid can be seen throughout the film). Even the movie's title refers to more real events. District 6 was a mixed neighborhood in Cape Town during apartheid that was eventually demolished to make room for white suburbs. The shacks used to film in District 9 were actual shacks existing in a section of Johannesburg that were due to be evacuated and torn down. This is not entirely relevant to our current discussion of race and discrimination in South Africa but I definitely recommend watching District 9 if you want to get an artistic perspective from a South African citizen who witnessed apartheid. If you want more information about the movie I posted two links below. Click Watch Trailer through the first link to view a preview.
District 9 - IMDB Page
Critics Consensus
From a Global Media studies class I took last semester we took a look at the phrase Simunye! in South Africa and how this contributed to a cultural identity within the country. According to a peer-reviewed paper we read, sometime in 1996 the South African Broadcasting Corporation promoted the image of South Africa as a rainbow nation and national unity through a marketing campaign centering on Simunye!. The article never clearly states whether the campaign was effective but it does consider the implication of shifting public opinion through the media. I couldn't really find the article on the internet but feel free to research the term yourself and find what you can about it.

Selma and the Long Walk to Freedom

"Uncomfortable, yet necessary viewing." This is the distinction being handed to period pieces lately. Last year's 12 Years a Slave was praised not only for its authenticity and performances but also for the raw power of its brutality. This past year, we were presented with civil rights struggles of blacks in Selma and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (though released in late December I will include this film as a 2014 release), both of which made sure to depict unsettling scenes of violence and injustice. If you've seen Steven Spielberg's Lincoln then Ava Duvernay's Selma might have been a similar viewing experience. Like Lincoln, Selma focused heavily on the political strategy and media leveraging undertaken to bring about structural changes and devoted special care to the main character depicted. I was not able to view the last hour of Mandela but feel I have enough to work off of from several reviews and the context already established within the first 90 minutes. I have read that Mandela was adapted from the departed president's 600 page autobiography which would explain the film's running time and speedy plot. As a whole, the film was not completely impressive. Idris Elba as Mandela and Naomi Harris as Winnie delivered great performances but the dramatization was still week. This is also a point brought up in a review I happened to read but I would like to expand on it. With Selma and Lincoln the films' close examinations of their characters unveiled the men behind the legacies and fleshed out their complexities. David Oyelowo as Dr. King was able to convey the preacher's forceful, charismatic speech and the pragmatic approach to his moral campaign while also handing audiences the allegations of his affairs and trusting on viewer interpretation to judge. Mandela was too idolized a protagonist for Elba to add more dimension to a character the filmmakers could only view as a towering statue of inspiration and legend. His womanizing affairs were approached as supplements to establishing Mandela's back story rather than as opportunities to explore his infidelity. Scenes meant to establish his motivation and elicit audience emotion did not feel as potent as the beating of marchers in Selma. But this is just me and I prefer my films as more gritty and authentic. Selma is a superior film to Mandela within its performances and the startling humanity of its historical characters. Mandela works as an informative biopic but the film maintained a distance in awe from the character and was at a disadvantage with adapting so much material into one enjoyable feature length film.