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Sunday Times Combined Metros 14 - 01/11/2016 07:13:35 PM - Plate: 14 The Times Wednesday November 2 | 20 1 6 OUT AND ABOUT CINEMA PRIVÉ T his club’s the reel thing Jozi venue is a haven for film buffs, writes Ufrieda Ho JOZI after dark is full of hidden secrets, and one insider favourite is a 12-year-old club t h at consistently attracts film buffs. The Atlas Studio Film Club in Milpark was started in 2004 by Jonathan Gimpel, John Barker and Ziggy Hofmeyr as an informal gathering of film industry types. The monthly screening proved to be a hit and soon attracted a wider audience than STUDIO OF DREAMS: Jonathan Gimpel runs a cinema evening on the first Wednesday of every month at Atlas Studios Picture: ALON SKUY just the filmmaking community. Joburgers showed that they appreciated films that aren’t just big-screen CGI dramas and G i mp e l says he’s been blown away by the holiday and tidies them up. “The film club is not a highbrow arthouse regurgitated sequels. range of films he’s seen at the club. G i mp e l ’s collaborators in running movie thing, we’re very informal. Movies The club has been an opportunity for “Some of those stories stay with you. the club are Akin Omotoso, an actor and are, after all, about people’s stories.” networking and collaboration and is a venue There was a Korean film I can’t even filmmaker, and Katarina Hedrén, a film Showing under-represented films and to premiere films. programmer. films from Africa supports the evolution of Gimpel notes that t h ey ’ve never done Omotoso and Hedrén, who are responsible the medium. That’s a plus, as is the fact that additional advertising for club events and We use a sticker for curating the films, open each screening the club is jam-packed every month. It still they fill up. with an introduction to the film and means Joburgers are happy to venture “We use a sticker system and a first come, system and a first sometimes have the director present to add out at night during the week and can first served basis because we sometimes extra insight. appreciate films that are more interesting, have to turn people away.” come, first served basis Afterwards there is a post-screening provocative and thought-provoking than The theatre can accommodate up to 250 discussion. H o l ly wo o d ’s same ol’, same ol’. people, and Gimpel says: “The only thing Hedrén says: “The interaction from the ý The Atlas Studios Film Club gathers you need to appreciate film is to start remember the title of, but the plot was so audience is always so energetic. It’s every first Wednesday of the month. watching local content. You’ll start noticing intriguing.” brilliant. In the club the audience can For more information: ‘The movie was 3 - I ro n , about a man who react more and enjoy cinema as the h t t p s : // w w w . f a c e b o o k . c o m / g ro u p s / the quality of the films when you’re not glued to what they show on TV.” breaks into people’s homes while they’re on visceral experience that it is. 24379658211/ ON THE R EC O R D The vinyl resting place for the spirit of Brenda Fassie SANDISO NGUBANE DAVE Durbach, more commonly known as DJ Okapi, is spinning a vinyl record of the old African electronic music that is a large part of what’s on sale at A f r o sy n t h . Located in the lively Maboneng precinct, the store is right in the heart of the bustle of a regenerating downtown Joburg. Among its neighbours are the Museum of African Design and the newly opened Cosmopolitan building. “I was born in the ’80s, so I was too young at the time to really be exposed to a lot of this music, except maybe what one would hear on the radio, like Marcalex or Brenda Fa s s i e , ”says Durbach, adding that his taste for bubblegum and Afro-synth disco has evolved since he began DJing 10 years ago as a student in Cape Town. “When I started, I was playing more American funk and soul, but through foreign DJs could be a direct DJing and digging over the years, I’ve result of the world becoming more accumulated quite a big collection of old interested in South African and African South African and African music.” music in general. On his blog, afrosynth.blogspot.com, NEEDLE PARK: Dave ‘DJ Okapi’ Durbach at his vinyl store, Afro Synth Picture: ALON SKUY Durbach gives readers an educated Afro-synth disco and perspective into the music mostly lost in time — South African artists who were not bubblegum has hit big popularity across the world, particularly in Nozinja, the musician and producer as popular as the likes of Yvonne Chaka E u r op e . credited with the popularisation of Chaka or Chicco Twala. at European festivals This could be because new sub-genres — Shangaan electro, for example, played at His DJ sets these days consist mostly of like Durban’s popular gqom sound — h ave Sonar 2016 in Barcelona in June, and more such music, which he says sometimes been on high rotation in European clubs local artists are being booked for gigs in elicits confusion or disinterest from Durbach says many of his customers are and festivals as DJs have taken to it, even places as far-flung as Berlin and To kyo . younger crowds more familiar with collectors from overseas, mostly DJs and making stars of young producers and Durbach agrees that the increasing contemporary house — but also sometimes promoters,‘ at a time when South African originators of the sound such as DJ Lag popularity of the older genres such as tears from older people for whom the electronic music is experiencing a surge of and R u d e b oy z . bubblegum and disco, even kwaito, among sound evokes memories of their youth..

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