Patriarchy is not just

In the documentary film The People vs Patriarchy, one would have hoped that the fast-paced introduction to the film was not a précis for its general tone and scope. Unfortunately, in many ways it is.

So, even as musician and actor Nakhane distinctly outlines the spectre of Christianity as the overriding rationale for persisting patriarchy, this perspective is soon drowned out by the overall tone of the film — which seemingly posits patriarchy as a primarily black phenomenon.

The People vs Patriarchy, directed by Lebogang Rasethaba and produced by Jasmyn Asvat, is the second in MTV Base’s series of films looking at urgent South African sociopolitical issues, with the first one being The People vs the Rainbow Nation.

Though it uses a similar narration-free format and meticulously stitched-together visuals, this film’s marked departure is the lack of narrative profiles — making it more talkdriven than its predecessor.

Although, mostly visually, some effort is made to represent patriarchy as a globally occurring, powerrelated malaise, the context we are presented with in the intro is mostly that of the Western world.

This perpetuates the idea that South African white people are not really needed at the roundtable when the issue is being addressed — a thread running through the film.

Visually, The People vs Patriarchy has its moments of aesthetic beauty. It is briskly edited, communicating with visual pacing as much as it does through tightly focused group conversations. But one soon realises that this context is selectively weighted, with only a handful of individual white participants and none in the group settings that give the conversations in this film much of their drive and urgency.

Gendered group conversations in a controlled setting dominate the film. One, taking place in what looks like a corrugated-iron hair salon among a cross-generational selection of black women, grows intense as they discuss patriarchal tropes steeped in religion or interpretations of culture. They talk transactional sex, the stereotype of the obedient, enduring wife