Deer Dies After Lion Attack Inside National Zoo
WTOP: Fenty Using Police Escort for Cycling Team Rides
'Trun' on to the 15th Street Contraflow Bike Lane
D.C. Foster Kids Are in Need of Christmas Presents
Goodbye Fixie, Hello Tweed!
There is a pool that sits by the ocean in Sea Point, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. Like most public pools, it is a place where a diverse cross-section of the community come together to relax and to play. Unlike many other locations, however, South Africa is a place where the concept of "coming together" is still taking some getting used to.
The difficulties of a country reversing years of forced separation is the subject of François Verster's new documentary, Sea Point Days. Verster isn't interested in telling this story in the manner most documentarians might, though. He's barely interested in telling it at all, in fact. While modern documentaries might often seem exempt from that old chestnut of storytelling advice, "show, don't tell," Verster tries to avoid the usual methods of "telling" &mdsah; narration, endless interviews, strictly linear structure — in favor of a more impressionistic approach.
He doesn't abandon the usual devices entirely. Characters do talk to the camera as we follow them around in their day to day lives. But Verster punctuates these passages with long stretches free from words or any direct narrative link. This is a picture of modern South Africa, he says with his camera, make of it what you will.
And in this coastal town, with its idyllic weather, vast ocean and mountain views, and wide seaside promenade, all is not as well as it might look on the surface. Verster pulls us into the town's malaise ever so slowly, starting out with gorgeously shot sunny days of people lounging poolside, children running and playing, elderly residents enjoying leisurely walks. But gradually, he introduces, piece by piece, the signs of growing pains within the community: entrenched racism among the otherwise charming retirement community residents; hopelessness among the city's community of (mostly black) homeless, who are regularly harassed by the (mostly white) police force, who seem more concerned with maintaining a pristine outward image of the town by getting these people out of public sight than with getting them off the street for their own good or safety.
These points are never pushed hard, and never presented as absolutes. Verster avoids moral proclamations, preferring to portray his subjects as merely human: never wholly bad, never wholly good, and always struggling. The abstraction of the director's position combined with the languid pace and frequent flights of visual fancy might frustrate some, striking them as a meandering lack of focus. But the film has a mesmerizing allure, a hypnotic beauty. It is as engrossing as it is subtly thought-provoking.
Sea Point Days screens Sunday at 10:30 a.m. at SILVERDOCS.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Post a comment (Comment Policy)