The history of Capitol Cinema

GOTHATAONE MOENG
Staff Writer | Monday July 30, 2012 00:00

The Capitol Cinema, predecessor to the multi-screen theaters of the New Capitol Cinemas in the Game City and Riverwalk malls, opened across from the President Hotel, itself built on the eve of independence.  On its official opening programme, the cinema boasted of 'opulence' and 'incomparable luxury'; today the building known as AKD House, accommodates two banks, clothing stores and some government offices. It was the many days spent in the darkened theatre of the Capitol Cinema that fertilised his dream to become a filmmaker, says Moabi Mogorosi, well known as the director of Hot Chilli and The Phakalane Story. Mogorosi says when he was young, he would sometimes walk past the Capitol Cinema, plastered with promotional movie posters, he would tell people that one-day it would be posters for his movies that would beadvertised.

'They always told me 'wena Moabi o rata go lora (Moabi, you like dreaming),' he remembers. 'My favourite film of all time is Cinema Paradiso.  It's a love story, but also a story about the love of cinema. It resonates well with me because it reminded me of Capitol Cinema, it reminded me of my love for cinema,' he told Mmegi.Movie going was a culture back then; The Desai family, who still run New Capitol Cinema, said it has always been a hugely successful business. Mogorosi figures the reason it was so often packed at the cinema, was because only a few households had television sets then. He still remembers how, what is now the entrance to the Ministry of Lands and Housing, used to be the ticket office. He recalls how a queue would meander from there and extend to Kings (now Hungry Lion). The theatre itself had an upstairs and a downstairs floor, as well as a Presidential Box which was for the use of presidents.  The upstairs seats cost more than those downstairs, and Mogorosi says only the 'rich kids' could afford these seats and buy popcorn and sweets.'Some of us were just happy to be inside the theatre,' he laughs.  The cinema was open every day; it showed one film a day at 8pm during the week and two on weekends, the Desai family says. Weekends were the prime time for children because they did not have to go to school. They watched the popular action movies of the time, more concerned about the flying fists and the star actors than the actual story. They memorised the fights, and when the show ended, they re-enacted the fight scenes.

'We named ourselves after characters like Silverfox, Jackie Chan, Shaolin, Rradipunch. I was Shaolin,' he laughs.  With so many kids frequenting the cinema, there was always the possibility of chaos- but Mogorosi says the Desai's, particularly the father, were very strict.'If you were unruly, they suspended you. And they knew us, so if you tried to sneak in, they would tell you that you were still on a three week suspension.' More than just a place of entertainment and socialising, historian and Mmegi contributor, Sandy Grant writes the Capitol Cinema also became central to first President Seretse Khama's dream of making Gaborone a non-racist capital city. He writes that in the years following independence, the new city had few places where people of different races, cultures and ages could mix comfortably.

The New Capitol management remembers that they were able to show Ghandi and Cry Freedom, movies that were banned in apartheid South Africa at the time they were released. Ghandi ran for over two weeks to full houses and many people from South Africa crossed the border into Botswana to watch both these films. 'It was such experiences that made cinema-going at the time such an invigorating experience,' Grant says.'Once in their seats, absolutely everyone enjoyed a shared experience - and that included Seretse and Ruth in the Presidential Box. For those few hours each day, no one in that cinema was more important than anyone else, the Christian sat next to the Muslim, the pauper next to a millionaire, the young next to the old. Perhaps no other cinema in the world could have fulfilled such an extraordinary role. What made the difference was the time and the place. When it was demolished, the city lost one of its few iconic buildings,' Grant writes. Mogorosi concurs, he said he was heartbroken upon returning home from his filmmaking studies in America, to find the iconic building that housed his dreams was no more. The cinema was closed in 1996, to reflect the worldwide trend of the multiplex cinemas in big shopping malls, the Desai's say, and to offer more movie choices to their customers.'It was one of the iconic buildings in the city. It was in the same league as Parliament and Orapa House and of course the cinema was my favourite,' Mogorosi says.

'Of all the changes that took place in Gaborone, that was one that affected me the most.  I wanted to show my film there, I came back and the building was destroyed. I am of the opinion that it should have been preserved.  It was iconic - because Gabs does not have a face. Cities are made by their architecture, and here things just change, they forget that buildings have memories and energies; and that people become attached to them,' he says.But of even greater importance, Grant writes, in demolishing the cinema, the cinema lost an understanding of how a mere cinema was such a huge factor in realising Seretse's dream of a new kind of community untainted by racism.