Unhinged: Surviving Jo'burg is a South African documentary produced by Loveland Plant Hire and written, directed and starring Adrian Loveland about Johannesburg, South Africa's biggest city and the world's gateway to Southern Africa, which tells a slice-of-city-life story.
The film premiered at the 12th Encounters Film Festival in Cape Town in August 2010. It is an hour long.
Unhinged: Surviving Jo'burg aired on TopTV's Fox FX channel on Saturday 23 October 2010, at 20h30.
Repeats
Sunday 24 October: 03h35, 22h10
Monday 25 October: 04h55
Synopsis
Unhinged: Surviving Jo'burg is an honest, quirky and sometimes frenzied documentary about Johannesburg, South Africa's biggest city and the world's gateway to Southern Africa.
With rapid narrative, dry humour, trivial factoids, insightful observations and a highly enjoyable soundtrack, the film tells a slice-of-city-life story.
It's a personal video snapshot of today's city, providing a unique opportunity for viewers to get a glimpse inside a place that the world has a very fuzzy sense of.
The film aims to give the audience a small taste of Johannesburg, using the city itself as the principle character. Adrian Loveland, an entrepreneur who was born and raised in Jo'burg, is the slightly eccentric tour guide.
Insights are provided through a selection of conversations with an engaging group of Jo'burgers, including Robbie Brozin (CEO of Nandos), Ferial Haffajee (editor of the City Press), Justice Malala (political analyst) and Victor Kgomoeswana (MoneyBiz founder).
Johannesburg has often been portrayed in the world's media as a death trap, or marketed as the ultimate place of gold and opportunity.
In reality the city lies somewhere in between and, although Unhinged doesn't dish up all the answers, it gives a representation that enables viewers to get closer to the truth of what Johannesburg really is.
In some parts the film feels like a documentary and in others a travelogue. There are also segments, such as when Loveland delivers his impressions of wild animal calls, which are pure comic relief. Johannesburg itself is somewhat unhinged and so is this movie.
Unhinged acknowledges the scary aspects of Johannesburg, yet it leaves the viewer feeling extremely positive and excited by the obvious energy and potential of a city that has a lot of work ahead.
In the words of Robbie Brozin, one of the most charismatic of the interview subjects: "You feel like, you're here, so let's, like, fix this place. You can't fix Paris, you can't fix London, you can't fix Sydney, but you can fix Jo'burg".