Men of Gold

The black South African filmmaker Vincent Moloi spent a year following the white scrounger Leonard Johnson and his friends as they roam the streets of Johannesburg. News footage from other times intercuts this impression of life on the underside of modern South Africa. Johnson has led a tough life, and he just manages to keep his head above water by begging and hawking fake jewelry. But as his drug-addict buddy Arthur points out, at least Johnson is fortunate enough to be able to afford even a shabby room – he doesn’t have to sleep on the street. Johnson tries to take life as it comes, pausing only to express his displeasure about all the changes, the crime and the corruption. Occasionally this prompts a brief discussion between himself and Moloi behind the camera. We discover just how fragile this way of life is when Arthur suddenly disappears without a trace. Indirectly, this melancholy and hard-bitten portrait also paints a picture of the new Johannesburg, the megacity once praised as the City of Gold.