The festival will take place at venues in Cape Town and Johannesburg from June 20th to 30th, 2024.
By Hope Ibiale
The organisers of the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival have unveiled the films slated to screen at its festival. The festival will take place at venues in Cape Town and Johannesburg from the 20th to the 30th of June, 2024.
The festival will screen multiple documentaries and films from African and non-African countries. It will feature 32 feature-lengths and 14 short films. 27 African films and 19 international films will be screened. Also, 43 films will have their South Africa premiere at the festival, while 37 films will have their first African premiere and 14 films will world premiere at the festival.
Some of the films set to screen at the festival include A Fidai Film, 6Sense, Black People Don’t Get Depressed, Catching Fire, Defectors, and many others. While unveiling the festival films for this year’s edition, the festival’s opening film has also been revealed. Miki Redelinghuys and Pearlie Joubert’s Mother City is the opening film.
While speaking about selecting the South African film as the opening film, Festival Director Mandisa Zitha, stated, “Mother City has been selected as our opening film, as it represents the heart of what documentary film-making is about. Dedicated, tenacious, and vociferous in its approach to following a group of activists over a long period, to capture their challenges and frustrations, and indeed their successes. It speaks to the power of film in exposing the arduous journey so many in this world have to embark on to effect change. It is also a universally powerful story of the triumph of the collective”.
The Encounters South African International Documentary Festival is an annual documentary festival created in 1999. Since its inception, the festival has screened contemporary South African and international features and short documentaries.
The festival is supported and funded by the City of Cape Town, Bertha Foundation, National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa, University of Cape Town and the Centre for Film and Media Studies, Mail and Guardian (Media Partner), Al Jazeera Documentary, Known Associates, Refinery, Goethe-Institut of South Africa, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Heineken Beverages, Documentary Filmmakers Association, German Films, South African Guild of Editors, anima, and Pressure Cooker Studio.
Check the selected films set to screen at the festival here.