Alive in Joburg

Today marks the opening of District 9 in box offices across America, and from what I've heard, it's getting rave reviews. We may even have a sci-fi classic on our hands. I really want to see it - it looks fantastic.

A little known fact about District 9 is that it all started out as a short film by director Neil Blomkamp in 2005 known as Alive in Joburg (or Johannesburg, whichever it was supposed to be.) It's a six-minute short about a peaceful group of aliens who land in South Africa around 1990, only to be met by xenophobia and intolerance (insert not-so-subtle apartheid reference here.) But this was the project from which the supposed gem that is District 9 stemmed. For all I know, it might even be sort of an extended trailer, four years in advance. Either way, it's a fun, interesting little short.