Cape Town’s 90s house music scene captured in new community memory project

A new multimedia project is set to document Cape Town’s house music scene of the 1990s and early 2000s – not as a nostalgia exercise, but as a record of a rare moment of social change.

Local documentary filmmaker Colin Macrae says the scene played a crucial role in bringing South Africans together in the early years of democracy, at a time when social spaces remained deeply divided.

Speaking on CapeTalk, Macrae explained that his project, The Politics of Dancing, aims to preserve memories of a period he describes as a ‘freedom decade’.

A dancefloor without barriers

Macrae was closely involved in the Cape Town house music scene as it emerged in the early to mid-1990s. He says it became one of the first spaces where people from different racial and cultural backgrounds mixed freely.

“House music was the one thing that really broke down barriers,” he said. “People were listening to the same music in different venues, and slowly they started feeling each other out. Then it just exploded.”

Long Street, he added, became the epicentre of the movement, functioning as a cultural hub where clubbing, coffee shops and bookstores existed side by side.

From documentary to living archive

Originally conceived as a traditional documentary, the project evolved after Macrae realised how little visual footage exists from the era.

“It was an underground scene. We didn’t have camera phones, and we weren’t posing – we were dancing,” he said.

Instead, The Politics of Dancing is now being developed as a multimedia, immersive exhibition and a community archive. Macrae is calling on the public to submit flyers, photographs, record sleeves and written memories from the era.

“What matters most are the stories,” he said. “Don’t just send a flyer – tell us what it meant to you.”

No VIPs, no superstars

Macrae says the values of the scene are central to the project. House music, he explained, grew out of Black and gay communities internationally and carried a strong ethic of inclusion.

“There were no VIPs. No superstar DJs. The DJ was a guide, not a celebrity,” he said.

He believes those values are worth revisiting today, particularly in a social landscape dominated by influencers and exclusivity.

Old house, new generation

In December, Macrae hosted a reunion-style event titled Back to the Old House, recreating the ethos of the original scene. The party drew a packed crowd – including the children of original club-goers.

“The younger ones stayed the whole time, and they loved it,” he said.

“They didn’t even take out their phones.”