Unmasking gentrification
GENTRIFICATION is a word award-winning film-maker Kurt Orderson uses a lot when speaking about his documentary Not in My Neighbourhood, which screens tonight at the Encounters International Documentary Festival.
People the world over have suffered from gentrification – or as Orderson says, the atrocities of gentrification and the displacement which comes about as a result of “urban renewal”, “architectural apartheid” and what he terms “spatial violence”.
Orderson comes across as an impassioned proponent for those who have been affected by this often heartless and seemingly irreversible phenomenon.
Orderson was born in Mitchells Plain and his parents, he tells me, were affected by gentrification.
“Gentrification has been constantly, falsely, perpetuated as a process of affirmative social renovation.
“However, despite these forced agendas, the controversy of displacement, conflict and loss of affordable housing has led to one communal response: resistance,” says the film-maker.
By spending time in his home city, as well as Sao Paolo and New York City, Orderson says he explores the parallels of their environments and displacement in three seemingly disparate cities.
But wherever you may be, as sneak previews of the movie demonstrate, it’s a highly poignant portrayal as ordinary citizens speak about their cities and their rights to be in them.
Orderson explains: “It’s easy to cross from one city to the next to showcase this common ground. Poverty’s a global phenomenon and the lines are very thin.
“I grew up in Mitchells Plain and in tackling historical narratives it becomes very clear what architectural apartheid is all about. It becomes a discourse in history and is part of the legacy of colonialism.”
Orderson says his parents were working class and the centre of Cape Town was the place they used to visit only on special occasions.
“As a kid I did not see myself as part of the city. There’s a chronological timeline and all its artefacts relate to its colonial past – the statues, for example, of Jan Smuts and Rhodes.
“When I was a schoolboy for me they were European men, they didn’t look like me.”
He continues: “Making the movie, I took cities that were global in the true sense of the word – Sao Paolo has a massive population of about 20 million and New York, it’s globalisation on steroids.
“We focused on these cities and Cape Town. We followed individual characters for four years – one, for example, in Brooklyn, New York. From 20 to 24 years of age, we followed his evolution and how he grew, and is now a hero in his own community.”
But Orderson adds that the movie is also a very personal story placed within the context of his own background.
“My father is from Salt River, on the border of Observatory, and had to move to Bonteheuwel.
“My mom was from one of the suburbs and also had to move.
“This is almost my redemption song to redress some form of injustice – how people mobilised themselves over three continents, crystalised into an 87-minute film.
“It looks at the correlation between apartheid spatial planning and urban regeneration that is still being perpetuated, and asks how we can build a cohesive society.”
Orderson says until there is greater access to wealth by all, and creation of a more inclusive society by discussion of the issue of land, the system will be perpetuated.
“My key objective is that I want to keep having these conversations so that we can stop reinforcing gentrification.”
‘Not in My Neighbourhood’ from Azania Rizing Productions screens at V&A 6 Nouveau today at 8.30pm. Visit www.encounters.co.za