Fantastic Finds at the Film Flea Market

Martha Mukaiwa

PROPS... From 'Dead River'

For others, it recalls pressing play on their family’s VCR on a hazy day in 1995 to find that their prized copy of ‘Supergirl’ (1984) plays for exactly one minute before becoming a grainy copy of the 19h00 news.

Though everything beyond that point has been traumatic, blocked by a red mist, the truth is, the name Auntie Maria still prompts a tightness in my chest when I recall the domestic helper who taped over ‘Supergirl’ (1984) and ‘It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!’ (1966) to record information she could acquire in all of the five minutes she used to spend gabbing at the bus stop.

However, as one without a Norman Bates disposition does, to end the affair, I simply muttered terrible things while kicking a can down the street and then forgave her.

And by that, I mean I almost burst into tears and seriously considered dismantling the voodoo doll I have in her image when I found a copy of ‘Supergirl’ (1984) just hanging around Namibia Film Week’s Film Flea Market held at Garlic and Flowers last Saturday.

Though the person who put it up for sale has clearly suffered some kind of concussion and the filmmakers who walked by it for an entire hour have sadly been struck with a bout of blindness, these afflictions are the best thing that ever happened to me.

And if you tend to foam at the mouth about movies, the Film Flea Market would have been the best thing that ever happened to you... If you or anyone had bothered to attend.

Though the event was just a few tumbleweeds short of the rapture, the initiative has the makings of a formidable film festival should anyone brave their babalas and seek some cinema on a Saturday morning.

Surprisingly stocked with films like Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ (1963) for classic hounds, family friendly films like ‘Free Willy’ (1993) for those in need of nostalgia, as well as fanboy favourites like ‘The Fantastic Four’ (2005) and ‘Hellboy’ (2004), the film flea market had something for everyone displayed on genre specific tables just waiting to be the scenes of knife fights.

In terms of my own haul, I was ecstatic to get my hands on ‘Supergirl’ (1984) ‘Sister Act’ 1 and 2, ‘Interview with a Vampire’ ‘(1994), ‘Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves’ (1991), ‘Free Willy’ ‘(1993) and the original ‘Police Academy’ (1984.)

All this scooped up at around N$20 a pop while eyeing Marinda Stein’s copy of ‘The Birds’ (1963) and ‘The Secret Garden’ (1993) and hatching a plan to drug Senga Brockerhoff before relieving her of her double disk of John Travolta’s ‘Saturday Night Fever’ (1977) and ‘Staying Alive’ (1983).

Also on offer were film week T-shirts sold by Cherlien Schott as well as local films by Joel Haikali and Ultimate Films who had Andix Haitota, the star of one of their 27 films, in attendance and keen to talk about ‘Nakiinyangele’ Part 1 and 2 which he described as local films about “the daily struggle to put bread on the table.”

Just as lekker and local was film director Tim Huebschle’s prop sale manned by the lovely Queen Ndaponah.

Selling items from his films ‘Looking for Ilonga’ (2011) and ‘Dead River’ (2012), Huebschle offered visitors an opportunity to buy some cool keepsakes including the flute played by David to the tune composed by the legendary Alessandro Alessandroni. Of course, I bought that but gave Huebschle’s vials of fake blood a miss only to bump into Malkovich grinning like Count Dracula at the thought of his bargain of a bloody buy.

In case it’s unclear, my point is keep watching the press for details on the next Film Flea Market because it’s going to be a thing. A thing where there are bidding wars on some spectacular cinema. A thing where you bring your films and I buy your films like bankruptcy is a preferred state of being.

A thing where you find Senga Brockerhoff pumped full of sedatives while I update my Twitter status as: “Now Watching: ‘Saturday Night Fever’.”

– marth_vader on Twitter and

martha@namibian.com.na