Researcher releases expropriation film
WHILE the debate about land expropriation and restitution rages, a research associate from UCT has released a film about the issue.
The film, Uitgesmyt, is about rural evictions and was recently launched in Cape Town. Dr Siona O’Connell, an academic at the University of Pretoria and a research associate at the Centre for Curating the Archive at UCT, made the film.
She said she was relieved that the film had been released. She said the story was about the cycles of dispossession and inequality in terms of forced removals.
C’Connell said people’s response to the film was a mixture of sadness and anger. “Decades after being evicted and after the first successful restitution case in Elandskloof, no attention has been paid to the trauma and havoc inflicted on people through forced removals,” she said.
She said Uitgesmyt, which means thrown out, differed from her previous film, An Impossible Return, which focused on urban apartheid-era forced evictions.
“This one is about the rural towns and settlements in the Cederberg region, particularly, Citrusdal and Elandskloof, which was the first successful restitution case in post-apartheid South Africa.
“This film also looks at the residents returning to the area 22 years ago, and draws attention to lessons that still need to be learnt about how community is understood.
“It looks at the cycle of poverty and the persistent psycho-social effects of being evicted.
“In some ways, the film speaks about the discarded and the inter-generational effects of being kicked out of one’s home due to the Group Areas Act,” she said.
The film is 26 minutes long and comes after O’Connell did research into land and restitution. It was also a collaboration between the department of historical and heritage studies at the University of Pretoria and the centre for curating the archive at UCT.
“It is relevant because land is at the forefront of social and political debate, and it highlights poverty and the day-to-day realities of groups of people in this area who seem to be forgotten,” O’Connell said.