MARCH 16, 2016

Excuse me,

While I Disappear,

A chinese city

in Africa

“..the film is concerned with the visual mechanics of mid- century European ethnographic cinema, African science-fiction, the ‘Metropolitan Picturesque’ and Chinese visual perspective.”

Written, directed, filmed and edited by Michael MacGarry
HD video on BluRay (boxset)
19 minutes 10 seconds
Colour, stereo, 25 fps
2014
Edition 5 +2 A.P

Excuse me, while I disappear is written, directed, filmed and edited by Michael MacGarry. Michael MacGarry is a multi-award winning visual artist and filmmaker based in Johannesburg.

The film was shot in Kilamba Kiaxi, a new city built outside Luanda, Angola. The city was built by Chinese construction company CITIC for 3.5 billion US$ and financed by Hong Kong-based China International Fund. The new city is to be home to more than 250 000 people, and is the single largest investment project by China in Africa. The film’s narrative follows a young municipal worker who lives by night in the old city centre of Luanda and works by day as a groundskeeper at the new city of Kilamba Kiaxi far away.

We see him on his morning commute and daily routine sweeping the new city streets. He daydreams and stares at the new buildings. Unable to contain his curiosity, he sneaks into an apartment block, and in turn breaks into an unoccupied apartment. He watches Australian cricket on television. Following the lunch hour siren he climbs to the roof of the building and quietly disappears.

>via: http://africandigitalart.com/2016/03/excuse-me-while-i-disappear-a-chinese-city-in-africa/