The Encounters South African International Film Festival held a press launch recently in Cape Town and offered an opportunity to meet the festival’s new director Darryl Els. It also introduced the first six films selected for screening at the event, which takes place from 2 to 12 June at the Labia in Cape Town and the Bioscope in Johannesburg.
Portraits, human stories and activists are all part of the new-look Encounters and submissions include all kinds of topics from international arms dealing to the late great American poet /writer Maya Angelou.
“We showed excerpts of some of the films at the launch,” says Els. “These included: Action Kommandant, Alison and Walking in My Shoes – a film which takes us to the heart of the current educational crisis. There were also international entries including Maya Angelou – And Still I Rise, Requiem for an American Dream and Shadow World (based on the best-selling book by Andrew Feinstein, who will be at the festival). It was great to talk about the six films and the new additions for the 2016 programme – and also to give insight into where the festival is going.
“I am very pleased with the quality of films we have been able to programme. We will be locking down the line-ups, and also moving into other areas, taking a more expanded approach to non-fiction storytelling. I am interested in exploring how documentaries can operate across different disciplines – as an example this year we have live music, a virtual reality (VR) exhibition and a live podcast event.
“This year Encounters will be moving beyond the screen and will tap into different mediums. For me ‘the documentary’ is a malleable concept in a way, and the genre fits into different forms. I think this approach certainly makes for a more contemporary experience, and one that should attract a wide-ranging audience to the festival’s screenings and events.”
As an audience-centric festival, Encounters is about people having that unique festival experience. “I valued this highly when I was an audience member attending Encounters,” says Els.
“The festival is also about brokering new opportunities for filmmakers. We’ve seen new growth areas, for example the rise on popularity of short online documentaries – and so I think there is an interesting opportunity around shorter content that can be shared more widely and offer greater visibility and impact for filmmakers.
“Similarly, we’ll be launching the Virtual Encounters exhibition at the festival and this will be a space dedicated to non-fiction VR and interactive documentaries. Ingrid Kopp (Tribeca) will be curating the programme and we’re really excited to have a dedicated space to new media at Encounters and we’re looking forward to growing and expanding this in the coming years,” adds Els.
Encounters will be bringing a VR producer to host a masterclass on producing VR content. “We’ll be screening a feature documentary that also has a VR aspect and will be premiering both at the festival this year. These are made by different producers working together.”
He concludes: “I really like the idea of programming in this way as once again it offers up a range of new possibilities to both audiences and filmmakers in terms of watching and making documentaries.”
