Africa Is a Country

Staying Alive in Johannesburg

Staying Alive in Johannesburg

By
Sean Jacobs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiGmfPMxDng]

Part 1, above, of the Dutch TV documentary film, “Staying Alivein Joburg.” The film is limited in its focus–its primarily a walk through inner city Johannesburg ahead of the 2010 World Cup. We get no sense of life in the city’s richer, and whiter, northern suburbs. But it is definitely a must see and a thousand times better than the hysterical nonsense published on the World Cup in the British media, whether R W Johnson’s rants about withcraft in the London Review of Books, journalists confusing Cabinda with South Africa, the nonsense reported on Channel 4 or Louise Taylor’s fictions on the The Guardian’s website.

Above, is the part 1 (the documentary was broken into parts on Youtube). Then watch part 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Further Reading

No one should be surprised we exist

The documentary film, ‘Rolé—Histórias dos Rolezinhos’ by Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Vladimir Seixas uses sharp commentary to expose social, political, and cultural inequalities within Brazilian society.

Kenya’s stalemate

A fundamental contest between two orders is taking place in Kenya. Will its progressives seize the moment to catalyze a vision for social, economic, and political change?

More than a building

The film ‘No Place But Here’ uses VR or 360 media to immerse a viewer inside a housing occupation in Cape Town. In the process, it wants to challenge gentrification and the capitalist logic of home ownership.