8 May, 2018 - 08:03 Now in its 20th year, The Encounters South African International Documentary Film Festival celebrates the power of womanhood, reflected by the fact that over half of the 40 films selected have female directors and many focus on women who have made an indelible mark on history, from Thuli Madonsela to Vivienne Westwood.
The opening night film, coming just weeks after it won the Special Jury International Documentary Prize at Hot Docs, Toronto's holy grail of documentary film festivals, is Whispering Truth To Power, human rights lawyer Shameela Seedat's powerful breakthrough as a filmmaker. This vital film tracks Thuli Madonsela, South Africa's first female Public Protector, as she builds her second case against erstwhile President Jacob Zuma. Through the story of Madonsela, her office and children, the film carefully navigates the major forces at play in South Africa today, charting various contested lines in the dual battle against corruption and inequality. Post-apartheid South Africa has thrown out a messy and complex reality that we, here at home, are keen to confront, director Seedat says. I am keen to bring another type of African character to the international documentary audience. A strong, super-lawyer-woman in a position of power.
From Ombud, mother, mediator and public hero to Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist, video-artist Lorna Tucker's first film, a definitive look at the life, fashion and activism of one of Britain's most iconic and original designers. The film, which premi red to acclaim at this year's Sundance, is a vibrantly entertaining yet intimate and poignant homage to Dame Vivienne Westwood, following her rollercoaster journey from failed housewife to outsider to leading designer and Green activist. With complete access to her private moments, it blends archive, beautifully crafted montage and insightful interviews with her fascinating network of collaborators - guiding us from a childhood in post-war Derbyshire to the runways of Paris and Milan.
Changing the history of British fashion required the strength of a woman; the 1956 march on the Union Buildings to protest the Pass Laws took 20,000. This is the starting point of Xoliswa Sithole's Standing On Their Shoulders, which has its premiere at the festival after being a participant in Encounters Rough Cut Lab last year. Exploring the legacy of the women's movement, it features the poignant presence of surviving member of the March's organisers, Sophia Williams De Bruyn, leading the film's reverential, inspiring and necessary message. Once the backbone of resistance, did women become invisible after South Africa's transition and are the Remember Khwezi' and Fallist campaigns re-igniting the legacy of activists like Charlotte Maxeke?
Also receiving its world premiere will be Sisters of the Wilderness, Karin Slater's inspiring film set in the iMfolozi, the oldest game park in Africa, where five young Zulu women from underprivileged backgrounds go for the first time in their lives on a journey of self-discovery, which offers them an opportunity to grow and heal, and serves as a reminder that we are intimately linked to nature and what we do to her we do to ourselves.
Another journey of self-discovery is found in Matangi/Maya/M.I.A., the fascinating fly-on-the-wall story of the British-Sri Lankan hip-hop star best known for her song Paper Planes, that featured in the film Slumdog Millionaire, earning her an Academy Award nomination as well as a Grammy nom in the same year. She also made headlines in 2012 for flipping the bird at the camera while performing for the Super Bowls halftime show, invoking the legal wrath of the NFL. Building her career on a thrillingly mercurial blend of sonic experimentation, media provocation and impassioned political activism, she planned to be a documentary filmmaker. Close friend, director Steve Loveridge, uses archive material from the last 22 years, most of which was shot by Maya herself, to affectionately reveal in mash-up style how she uses pop music as a political mouthpiece while not shying away from being an outsider.
Not In My Neighbourhood is an explosive film that was born in Cape Town several years ago when filmmaker Kurt Orderson documented residents facing eviction in Woodstock and Salt River to make way for development and gentrification. The project grew and is a truly impressive piece of film activism. Over three years, Orderson followed the anti-gentrification and police brutality monitoring collective #copwatch in New York, the rise to power of real estate mogul Donald Trump, the Occupation movements in Sao Paulo and the legacy of Apartheid spatial planning to modern-day gentrification experienced by communities in Woodstock. Making connections through the inter-generational stories of people fighting for the right to their city, Not In My Neighbourhood takes the viewer on a journey into the everyday lives of these characters and how, daily, they experience and battle spatial violence.
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Violence of another kind is confronted in the vivid and propulsive This Is Congo, photojournalist Daniel McCabe's stunningly beautiful, brutally immersive and unfiltered look into the worlds longest continuing conflict and those who are surviving within it. Through four compelling characters - a whistle-blower, a patriotic military commander, a mineral dealer and a displaced tailor - this award-winning film, that premi red in Venice last year and is the hot ticket on the festival circuit, captures a moment of time and, simultaneously, an entire history with blistering and tragic effectiveness.
Another current hot ticket on the DocFest circuit, which premi red
