Behind the Falls
Producer: Sydelle Willow Smith
Director: Rowan Pybus
Country: South Africa
Behind the Falls is a documentary film that follows the lives of conservation
activists living and working in Livingstone, Zambia. Their aim is to curb rampant
deforestation of Zambia. The film follows their efforts to create micro nurseries,
shift mindsets, approach government on their exorbitant electricity prices and
educate ignorant consumers on the destruction caused by the buying of rare
woods. Director, Rowan Pybus runs the production company Makhulu. Shot for
Ogilvy, his Adidas Three Stories Campaign video won a Loerie Award.
Accomplished photographer and videographer, producer Sydelle Willow Smith
has a keen eye for detail and a passion for telling vivid, visual stories that
celebrate the strength of the human spirit.
Blindness
Producer: Jean Meeran
Director: Sarah Ping Nie Jones
Country: South Africa
Every aspect of life in apartheid South Africa was determined by skin colour. Yet
what if you couldn’t see skin colour? Blindness follows the stories of three blind
South Africans trying to make sense of the society around them without the
privilege of sight. Cape Town-based Jean Meeran is a co-member of the creative
trio named Team Tarbaby and, is the recipient of several awards. With an MA in
film, the young filmmaker is an accomplished writer, director and producer. Sarah
Ping Nie Jones completed a fellowship in film at Harvard having produced
content for a range of NGOs including seven films documenting youth work
across SA.
GITI – Paradise in Hell
Producer: Yves Montand
Director: Yves Montand
Country: Rwanda
GITI – Paradise in Hell tells the story of Edouard Sebushumba, who was
appointed by the government from 1982 to 1994, as mayor of the GITI district.
Like any other senior leader, he was, during the mass genocide that rocked
Rwanda in 1994, supposed to execute the government’s plan to exterminate
Tutsis – a plan that he opposed.
The film was directed and produced by Yves Montand, is a Rwandese film
director, whose debut short film was Maibobo. That film was selected as part of
International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Forget Africa project in 2009.
Miners Shot Down
Director/Producer: Rehad Desai
Producer: Brian Tilley
Producer/Writer/Co-Director: Anita Khanna
Country: South Africa
With the Lonmin Marikana Mine massacre still fresh in the South African memory,
Miners Shot Down, delves into the numerous historical and sociological truths
that speak to the fault lines in South Africa’s democracy, gaining access to
mineworker strike committees and mining communities. Producer / Director,
Rehad Desai serves as the chairman of the Human Rights Media Trust and has
conceived and produced over 20 documentary films. Writer and co-director, Anita
Khanna has written and directed several documentaries, including Looting the
Nation, co-directed and produced with Brian Tilley.
Not Just a Stripper
Producer: Izette Mostert
Director: Izette Mostert
Country: South Africa
Not Just a Stripper takes the audience into the world of the dancers, viewing it
from their perspective and asking what has brought each of these women to
this world. Was it desperation? Was it a lack of education? Was it just the
wrong choice or was it a deliberate choice? With award winning documentaries,
The Black and The Fight under her belt Izette Mostert delves into the word of
the female stripper. Izette Mostert obtained an Honours degree in Theatre and
Drama at the University of Stellenbosch. She has directed and edited various
programmes for the national broadcaster, e-TV, M-Net, kykNET and DSTV.
Searching for Janitou
Producer: Anusha Nandakumar
Co-Producer: Claire Mazeau-Karoum
Director: Mohamed el Amine Hattou
Country: Algeria
The 1980s Bollywood film, Janitou, holds an important place in the collective
memories of the Algerian people. The film became an overnight, unexpected
sensation and permeated all strata of society. Searching for Janitou is a road
film, a journey undertaken in Algeria, going into people’s homes and asking
them about their stories of love. Anusha Nandakumar graduated from the
Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute. She was awarded the prestigious
national award, The Silver Lotus by the President of India for her short
documentary The Boxing Ladies in 2011. Mohamed el Amine Hattou directed the
short fiction Down to Earth and is an alumni of Berlinale Talent Campus and
Talent Campus Durban.
Unearthed
Director / Producer: Jolynn Minnaar
Producer: Dylan Voogt
Fracking, a controversial gas extraction process, is threatening the town in
which director/ producer Jolynn Minnaar grew up. Although previously optimistic
about what shale gas could do to alleviate poverty and ease the national
energy crisis, an anonymous call leads the 24-year-old South African to dig
further, unearthing deadly findings. Dubbed “the next generation Erin
Brokovich’, Jolynn Minnaar has presented her findings at national conferences
locally and abroad. She graduated with a distinction from UCT with a triple major
BA degree in Film, Media and Media Production. Dylan is a member of the South
African Independent Producers Organization and was recently invited to be part
of the 2013 Berlinale Talent Campus.
We Want Development
Producer: Atieno Odenyo
Director: Phillipa Ndisi-Hermann
Country: Kenya
We Want Development explores the extent to which the land and space we
inhabit influences who we are. Lamu is a remote Islamic island on the coast of
Kenya and it is here that the audience meets Bibi and several other characters
that include a hotel owner and a fisherman. Philippa Ndisi-Hermann studied
filmmaking and her short film Gubi – The Birth of Fruit, premiered at The Brooklyn
International Film Festival. Film producer, life coach and international
development consultant, Atieno Odenyo produced Score for Sasja, a short
documentary on a girls’ soccer initiative in Nairobi’s slums
