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.
17 Articles by:
Dylan Valley
Dylan Valley is an editorial board member of Africa is a Country. He is a filmmaker and is on the television studies faculty of Wits University.
Trapped by history
Mexican American director John Gutierrez new film, set in Cape Town, South Africa, touches on colonialism, displacement, and man’s complicated relationship with nature.
Drake’s Plan
The plot of Drake’s music video for “God’s Plan” is him giving him out money to the poor. What was he trying to say?
Still doing the right thing
It is eerie (and tragic) how relevant the themes of racial tension and structural violence of Spike Lee’s ‘Do the right thing’ still is–both in America and South Africa.
Shadow and Axed
The latest installment of our film news series, #MovieNight.
It’s good for the future of cinema that Africa exists
Reviving our #MovieNight feature: A fortnightly feature rounding up movie news.
Awkward is the New Black
Our short film of the creator and star of “Awkward Black Girl,” Issa Rae, whose father is Senegalese and mother is African American and who spent part of her childhood in Dakar.
Africa, in a state of constant self-discovery
Afripedia is a visual guide to contemporary urban culture on the continent.
Unlike Anything I’ve Seen Before
The Sudanese film, “Beats of the Antonov,” explores the connections between the bombs of oppression and the resilience of culture.
It’s time to drop the “world music” label
The progressive rock of The Brother Moves On is a great case study for why the category of “world music” is at best dated, and at worst problematic.
It’s Time to Stop Laughing
In neoliberal global capitalism, anything can be monetized, even the criminal exploits of a marginal schizophrenic.
Cape Town hip-hop got interesting again
The difference between Isaac Mutant and Die Antwoord is that Mutant is the real deal.
Somewhere between folklore, memoir and modern fiction
Reading Yewande Omotoso’s novel “Bom Boy,” just when you think you’ve figured the characters out, the author opens them up a little more, and our perceptions change.
Cape Town African Swag
Youngsta built a reputation on doing “straight up Cape Town hip hop,” but his recent output suggests he is now appealing to mainstream audiences.
How to make a movie about Muslims
The South African comedy drama, “Material,” portrays Muslims and Islam without resorting to the regular comedic clichés and slapstick.
Cape Town’s make-believe politics
Cape Town remains one of the most racially and economically segregated cities in South Africa, and there aren’t many signs of things getting better.