Just Another View

District 9 opened on August 14, 2009 with massive success, ranking #1 in its first weekend at the box office with an opening gross of $37,354,308 and is currently up for 19 Emmy nominations. As of August 30, 2009 it has grossed an estimated $90,813,000 in the United States and $105,149,708 worldwide. The film also did extremely well in South Africa, grossing five times better than the award winning film Tsotsi. But Nigeria was not so thrilled about the film’s release. Throughout the film the Nigerians are depicted as gangsters who live among the aliens, selling them cat food, and other paid services such as weapons and prostitutes. Dora Akunyili, the information minister for Nigeria, expressed his concern in a recent CNN article by Faith Karimi, he said, "Why do they want to denigrate Nigerians as criminals, cannibals and prostitutes who sleep with extra-terrestrial animals? We've had enough with the stereotypes they have branded us with ... we are not going to sit back and allow people to stigmatize us." Akunyili also expresses concern about the name of the top gangster which is Obesandjo the last name of former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo. Because of outcries like Akunyilis the film will not screen in Nigeria unless Sony apologizes or edits any Nigerian references. But not all Nigerians express the same view as Akunyili like actor Eugene Khumbanyiwa who played in top gangster in the film. He suggested that he was just playing his character to the best of his ability and was surprised by the reaction of many Nigerians because his Nigerian co-stars had no problem with the film or their roles. Others argue that Nigerians are such a minuscule part of the film it is pointless to get upset. The Nigerians only make up around 10 minutes of the 113 minute film. Again, this is just another example of looking at a film from other perspectives and the wide range of views that are expressed.

Polysemy

Like any great form of media many texts are open for interpretation. Polysemy is when a sign or a text is open to many different levels of understanding and often has certain levels of ambiguity. The film, district 9, has underlying themes that are not ambiguous but how they are interpreted can be. Being an American, the first time I saw the film I instantly thought of immigration problems in the United States and I later learned more about the apartheid and saw strong ties to that as well. Blomkamp had a desired message for the film that was mainly directed to be about the apartheid but because it is a fictional, sci-fi action film, it only contains underlying messages that are left to be interpreted by the viewer. Does this film also have something to say about racism or segregation in general? Absolutely, it need not be constrained to a single countries struggle or a societies problem. General message like xenophobia can be interpreted many different ways and can pertain to many different situations throughout time.
There are many ways this film can be interpreted even among South Africans. Steve Sailer for Takimag.com believes that Blomkamp made the film in order to show, “black South Africans saying the same intolerant things that his own people were universally condemned for saying…” He goes further quoting Blomkamp as saying, “Another part of recent South African history that isn’t world news is that the collapse of Zimbabwe has introduced millions of illegal Zimbabwean immigrants into South African cities. Now you have this powder-keg situation, with black against black … [W]e woke up one morning to find out that Johannesburg was eating itself alive. Impoverished South Africans had started murdering impoverished Zimbabweans, necklacing them and burning them and chopping them up.” Sailer believes the film can mean a number of things but one thing he is getting at is that Blomkamp may have made a relation between the black South Africans and the aliens to historical events between Zimbabwean immigrants and black South Africans. This can easily be seen in the film from its documentary style of shooting. Almost all of the civilian actors that interact with the aliens (the Nigerian gangsters) as well as the general public are black. I personally don’t know if this is right but it is an interesting view of the film and proves the point that all texts are polysemic and can be interpreted a number of different ways.

Sailers article can be read at http://www.takimag.com/article/alien_nation/.

District 9

It is my personal opinion that the new film District 9 is a revolutionary film of our time because of how its filmed and its politics. The way in which district 9 is filmed is revolutionary because of its style. It is filmed in a documentary fashion and contains many actors who are unknown to the American public but yet still evoke emotion and the responses they want from the audience. Having no name actors allowed Blomkamp to focus most of the finances on the graphics and other visual aids. For instance, a main focus of the film are the aliens which Blomkamp wanted to make look insectile but bipedal as well. He did this so people would be able to relate to the aliens. Although the aliens look nothing like humans they still are two legged bipedal creaters that speak their own language, allowing humans to relate to them more so than say an animal. The documentary film style of District 9 lets the characters evolve and become more loveable. Like most critics the characer Wikus and the aliens arent the most lovable characters to begin with but the documentary style allows the characers to talk directly to the audience and really let them know what their thinking. This was done in order to create a connection between Wikus and the audience as well as allow the slow change of opinion about Wikus and the aliens throughout the film. The second reason why District 9 is a revolutionary film is because of its story and underlying political themes. The film was shot in Johannesburg, South Africa which has had a long history of racial tension. South Africa is also where Blomkamp is from making the underlying themes a bit more personal. Between 1948 and 1994 the National Party of South Africa implemented a "apartheid" or racial segregation. Some 60,000 residences were forced from their homes and moved to an area called district 6. The government segregated education, medical care, and other services providing blacks with services inferior to whites. Blacks were also denied citizenship and were not allowed to urbanize or move into white areas. Because Blomkamp was from this area he found it fitting to create a film about it. It began with his short film "Alive in Joburg" and after Blomkamp became more renouned he was able to make the story into an actual Hollywood movie. It has been a little while since a film has come out with so many underlying political themes and thats why Distict 9 is a revolutionary film. What I hope to do with this blog is to further research the film and political themes, explaning and theorizing on them.

Here is a link to his short film Alive in Joburg.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3bN64ISyUA