African Design Magazine April 2017 | Page 74

Reviews BOOK REVIEW Urban Film and Everyday Practice: Bridging Divisions in Johannesburg A lien spaceships hovering over mine dumps or the Hulk smashing the buildings of the inner city – these evocative images linger in our minds when thinking of and living in Johannesburg. Although belonging to the fictional world of cinema these representations of the city are absorbed into our memories and knowledge of the real city. A new book explores the intersection of cinema and the city in the context of Johannesburg. Urban Film and Everyday Practice: Bridging Divisions in Johannesburg by Alexandra Parker (Palgrave Macmillan) provides a historical account of Johannesburg on the silver screen but the heart of the book is an exploration of the ways that films depicting the city influence the everyday lives of its residents. The city of gold is not often considered to be a centre of film production (most often we think of celebrities swanning about in Cape Town) but there are surprisingly a multitude of diverse films set in Johannesburg and this is of course growing everyday. The most prominent of these films, Tsotsi (2005), notable for having won the best foreign language film at the Academy Awards, is thematically and spatially in a chapter on crime and the gangster figure. Other chapters are arranged according to movement, identity and the materiality or landscape of Johannesburg. The book weaves together an understanding of the city with the interpretations of residents in four neighbourhoods – Chiawelo, Soweto; Fordsburg, the inner city; and Melville. If you are interested in the city or its residents the book provides valuable insights. Similarly if you have an interest in film and its context this book surveys a rich and assorted range of films that all have Johannesburg in common. AUTHOR: Alexandra Parker PUBLISHER: Palgrave Macmillan ISBN: 978-1-137-55479-6 PAGES: 242, Hardcover Click here to buy the book 74 africandesignmagazine.com