Alive in Joburg and Landfall.

In 2009, Neill Blomkamp's District 9 was released into theaters. The film is about crash-landed aliens, aka "prawns," living in current day Johannesburg, South Africa which is broken up into multiple, military-controlled "Districts." When an operative, namedWikus van der Merwe, from the corporation Multi-Naitonal United is assigned to investigate District 9, he gets caught in a 3-way war between violent gangs, military units, and prawns. If you haven't seen the movie and you are interested in the science-fiction genre, I highly recommend it! Be warned however, the movie contains gory violence and vulgar language if that bothers you. What many people don't know about this movie is that it was based off of Neill Blomkamp's 2006 short film, Alive in Joburg. 

As you can see, Alive in Joburg is more of an interview podcast of the natives of Johannesburg about what they think of the aliens living among them. While both Alive in Joburg and District 9 cool visual effects, the theme of these films is what is truly impressive. I found it very interesting that African Americans, an ethnic group that was unfortunately oppressed for hundreds of years because of their looks and beliefs, were talking about how the aliens didn't deserve to live among them. Sound familiar? These films are supposed to mirror how people treat others indifferently based upon their looks or beliefs. I find this theme to be very important and intriguing as it reminds us that we, as humans, should treat one another with respect regardless of our looks, traditions, and beliefs. And I bet you thought you were just watching another science-fiction movie.


Speaking of science-fiction...Neill Blomkamp also directed a short science-fiction film called Landfall. While not as thought provoking as Alive in Joburg and District 9, Landfall is based off of the popular video game franchise called Halo. This film is more for the cinematic experience and actually acted as a marketing device prior to the video game release of Halo 3. Blomkamp was in-talks for directing an actual Halo movie but the project was scrapped and he went on to make District 9 instead. Anyways, enjoy Landfall!