Nostalgic dystopia in Neill Blomkamp’s District 9: an emerging idiom of Johannesburg as landscape in film, photography and popular media, 1994-2018

This doctoral thesis proposes the emergence of a visual idiom for representing post-apartheid Johannesburg in film, photography and popular media from 1994 to 2018 – a period over which the city is consistently depicted as dystopian, yet curiously also nostalgically. Whereas earlier research examined these qualities in isolation from one another, this study argues that they are part of a distinctive visual vocabulary, a visual idiom, for the city. The thesis reveals the presence of this idiom, termed ‘nostalgic dystopia’, which is for the first time considered as a coherent set of techniques, conventions and aesthetic effects.

This study identifies Neill Blomkamp’s 2009 science fiction film “District 9” as the most emblematic example of nostalgic dystopia. Concentrating on the film’s visual qualities enables a better understanding of how the idiom works from both the perspectives of techniques of making and their resultant aesthetic effects. This thesis also addresses the work of David Goldblatt, Mikhael Subotzky, Patrick Waterhouse, Santu Mofokeng and Andrew Tshabangu, as well as amateur fashion photography collectives. The work of these practitioners demonstrates a convergence around the idiom of nostalgic dystopia.

Ultimately, this research suggests that it is the contradictory nostalgic-and-dystopian appeal of the idiom that makes it so compelling. Its unresolved, untransformed, contradictory character opens up possibilities to subvert geopolitical structures that still govern the city. Nostalgic dystopia, 1994-2018, therefore marks a moment of pending transformation in the city’s history, which will continue to captivate both practitioners working in Johannesburg and viewers of visual representations of the city.