One Table Two Elephants

WHEN: Friday 2 Feb 2018, 13:00-15:00, and Saturday 3 Feb 2018, 13:00-15:00

WHERE: Neville Alexander Lecture Theatre 1A, Upper Campus, UCT (venue lies between the New Lecture Theatre and Leslie Social Science building)

The film is based on work in Cape Town by Jacob von Heland and ACC-based researcher Henrik Ernstson. These two screenings have been especially organised for the ACC IUC 2018 delegates and UCT film students. Each screening will be followed by a Q&A with Henrik Ernstson. RSVP not needed.

ONE TABLE TWO ELEPHANTS is a film about bushmen bboys, a flower kingdom and the ghost of a princess. Entering the city through it’s plants and wetlands, the many-layered, painful and liberating history of the city emerges as we see how biologists, hip hoppers, and wetland activists each searches for ways to craft symbols of unity and cohesion. But this is a fraught and difficult task. Perhaps not even desirable. Plants, aliens, memories and ghosts keep troubling efforts of weaving stories about this place called Cape Town.

Situated and grounded in lived experiences across a range of groups, this film follows different ways of knowing and tries to be a vehicle toward difficult yet urgently needed conversations about how race, nature and the city are intertwined in our postcolonial world where history is ever present in subtle and direct ways.

Based on years of research in Cape Town, this ‘cinematic ethnography’ is directed towards a wider audience, from the general public to students and scholars as it brings texture to understand a city like Cape Town, while providing ample possibilities to translate what is happening “there” to conversations about your own city and surroundings.