Manenberg has become synonymous with gang violence and crime but residents want to change this, one movie night at a time.
Cape Town, South Africa (18 November 2025) – Every second Saturday, a small street in Manenberg, Cape Town, is turned into an open air cinema for young children.
Manenberg has become synonymous with gang violence and crime but residents want to change this, one movie night at a time.
“Art can transform lives”, says Darion Adams, founder of The AIM Society (Arts In Manenberg), a community arts organisation. Adams says that he started the movie night to bring something “wholesome” into the community. He wanted to bring “joy and comfort” to the space.
The movie night started in 2013 as an annual event where they showed Cape Town-based films by independent filmmakers like Nadine Cloete and Adrian van Wyk. He says it was important to start showing films which people could identify with. More recently the movie night has become a biweekly treat for children.
Adams says that the movie night is a collective effort. The screen is set up on the side wall of a neighbour’s home. “We use the neighbour’s power cable. We use another aunty’s white cloth and another neighbour’s mats. Everyone is involved,” he says.
The projector and speakers are owned by Adams. “We don’t need much”. He says people shouldn’t be discouraged by lack of resources.
He says that events like these won’t eradicate poverty and won’t change much economically, but it can create a people’s economy where “collectively we are transforming our spaces and the way we perceive it”.
In 2019, the situation in the community reached a critical point and the army was deployed to Manenberg to quell ongoing gang violence. Adams says he hopes that hosting movie nights will help change the negative perception of Manenberg.
In the future, he hopes to see the movie night become a full-fledged film festival with panel discussions, screenings and training for aspiring filmmakers. He hopes it will create jobs for young people in the area.
Manenberg is a community where “people are finding their way and it’s a really important space for me because it’s home”, says Adams.
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