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Alive in Joburg
By Jason Sondhi | May 23, 2007
dir: Neill Blomkamp, 6:24- Here at Short of the Week, we try to bring a wide variety of outstanding shorts to your attention. That said, short film has over the years become by and large an indie medium, so it gets kinda hard. But if your preferences lean more towards 4th of July blockbusters than say… Miranda July, we offer up Alive in Joburg for your consideration.
This impressive short takes a documentary form, but it’s definitely no Christopher Guest style mockumentary. Instead it’s got aliens—really realistic looking ones, with mech-style “bio-suits”. Set in an imaginary South Africa where aliens have landed and taken up residence, Alive in Joburg poses as a documentary intent on examining how life has changed for residents there, interchanging interviews with realistic CG. The visuals are excellent and while the film’s attempt to equate the aliens reception by locals with South Africa’s Apartheid era are somewhat transparent, any attempt at social metaphor earns kudos from me.
The director, Neill Blomkamp, is celebrated for his advertising work, and won for himself—based largely on this short I would presume—the directing gig for the new Halo film. I must say, based on this film, it looks like a truly inspired choice.
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