Pervy films and other thoughts

I just came home from watching The Pervert's Guide to Cinema at the Encounters documentary film festival taking place in the swanky northern suburb of Randburg, near Sandton.

I saw Jesus Camp at the same fest last night, which would've been kind of funny if it wasn't so horrifying. I always ended up choking on my laughter as the horrible reality of the scenes sunk in, and then it was upsetting. It also feels kind of uncomfortably smug to laugh at the earnest faith of others. But still, talking in tongues? Seriously?

The Pervert's Guide is an academic exploration of how to use films to psychoanalyze ourselves, I think. Maybe. It was definitely a thinker. The only character in the film is a philosopher and psychoanalyst, with a thick Slavic accent and the archetypal flair of an eccentric genius, who examines 80 years of popular international cinema through a mostly-Freudian lens. Running longer than two and a half hours, in three parts, it's a good thing director Sophie Fiennes has some clever cinematic ideas; it could've been a real bore without the moments of levity. When the narrator is discussing a particular film, whether The Matrix or Solaris, he is actually inside the film, either through CGI or by filming in the actual setting (as he does to discuss The Birds and The Conversation, among others).

Anyway, I definitely recommend it to any film or psychology geeks and super-fans of Hitchcock, Lynch, or the psychological thriller/horror genre in general. And any Freud geeks, too; you sickos.

As I said, the fest was being screened at a big box movie theatre inside a mall in one of Jo'burg's rich northern suburbs ...

The intense inequalities of this city can really get you down. I live in a fairly mixed neighbourhood, in terms of both income and race (at least it seems relatively mixed to me), but if I travel 10 minutes west towards the city centre, there's intense overcrowding; dilapidated homes; stark, visible poverty; and clear desperation. You travel the same distance north, as I did today and yesterday (except it was more like 20 mins - the further north you go, the more affluent the neighbourhoods seem to become), and it's a life of luxury, which seems to be on a different planet - that is, until you drive past a group of black people huddled around a fire on a street corner.

And tonight I realized that my frustration with the city's lack of formal public transport is one tangible expression of this inequality. I'll explain ...

The Pervert movie I went to see was playing at 6:45, so I figured I had enough time to take the cheap minibus taxis (or kumbis, if you're talking to a white person) to get down there, because they stop running around 6:30 or 7. So I took a minibus taxi from my neighbourhood to the main taxi rank downtown. I'd never been there before - I've been told I should stay away from it - but I've been feeling pretty comfortable on the taxis and wasn't carrying much money on me, so I thought I'd give it a shot. When I got to the rank (a massive, multi-level parking lot-type building that is the transport hub for the majority of Jo'burgers; it's where most people head to their homes outside the city in Soweto or neighbouring townships, north or south of the city) at the height of rush hour. The place was packed and I was the only white person. But strangely enough, sometimes I'm more conscious of my backpack than my skin colour; nobody in South Africa seems to carry backpacks and I always feel like I stand out when I'm wearing mine. Anyway, I ask a few people and find the taxi to take me up to the movie mall.

Total travel costs for two taxis to take me across the city = R12, which is less than $2.

Now, it wasn't the most comfortable travel; on the ride up north, I had to lean forward the whole time because although my waist fit snugly into the seating space, there wasn't enough room for my shoulders. (ha, because I'm so fuckin' ripped.)

But since the taxis stop running after dark, to get home I had to call a regular cab, which cost R125, or about $20.

There's no in-between. There's no middle ground. I'd love to be able to pay $5-$10 to get around town, but there's no option to do that.

And the worst part is that there doesn't seem to be much demand to improve the current system. Those wealthy enough drive cars or don't mind paying cab fare. And everyone else seems to be already at their limit paying for the minibus taxis.

Then again, I'm sure they've got some improvements planned in time for 2010, and it's likely that the emerging black middle class will start to demand better public transport from the gov.

And considering that it's only been 13 years, I should probably cut them some slack.

But really, you can check out the Metrobus site yourself. Most routes only have a few buses each day and they all stop by about 4 pm. Outside of people working 8-4, it is completely useless. Seriously, it acts more like a school bus than viable public transport; get people to work, take them home.

Ahh.

I've also got a blog in me about the frustrations of cycling in this city, but I'll save that for another day.

In short, Jo'burg's a car's world ... and the massive wealth gap is depressing.