ABSTRACT
This Chapter examines the effects of professional migration from the developing South to the developed North, tourism commercialisation, and new media technologies upon artistic creativity. It focuses on District 9's two rumoured inspirations: Blomkamp's early documentary on South African post-apartheid realities of migration and Peter Jackson's award-winning Bad Taste. Blomkamp's documentary is analysed (a) as a personal pilgrimage that presents apartheid's discrimination policies as an alternative science fiction reality and (b) as his introduction into a global network of professional artworkers, which would prove pivotal for the completion of District 9. The chapter investigates imitation of Blomkamp's filmmaking as embodied dark tourism in Soweto, a heritage destination for the global African diaspora. The chapter uses a digital guide to Soweto designed in District 9's image' as a journey into the slum's dark pasts. It concludes with reflections on the ethics of colouring other communities' pasts of suffering, suggesting parallels in commercialised manipulations of them in the West/Europe and Africa.
