In June 2018, the American Film Showcase (AFS) hosted 9 teams of emerging documentary producers and their filmmaker partners from Anglophone African countries for a six-day workshop focused on documentary film producing. Produced in collaboration with the U.S. Consulate in Cape Town and the Encounters (the oldest and leading documentary festival in Africa), participants travelled to Cape Town, South Africa to learn the ins-and-outs of producing a feature length documentary film with the support of American film experts. The workshop was led by Roger Ross Williams and Heidi Fleisher.

In 2021 with the support of the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP), Encounters launched a new 3-month paid internship opportunity to support students seeking careers in Festival Management and Film Curation. The Programme ran in tandem with our production of the 23rd Encounters Festival (10 – 20 June 2021), giving interns invaluable practical experience. An emphasis was placed on curating African cinema, digital platforms, audience development, industry event planning and outreach.

The Encounters Doc Activate Season is a comprehensive event, enabling participants to plan and execute a two-day film festival from pre-production through to completion, including reporting. Candidates become skilled in areas of festival management and production, industry curation and film programming, audience design and development, building partnerships, technical coordination and logistics, marketing and communications, public speaking, and moderation, Inreach and outreach facilitation, budgeting, and reporting.

A perennial virtual editing lab that supports filmmakers in the editing, story construction phase of their films. RCLA gives African filmmakers an opportunity to have their films in dialogue with intelligent and caring expert readers. Consultants range from editors to directors to academics to programmers, recognising that to ‘read story’ is not just an editorial discipline. This space allows the collaboration of filmmakers and consultants to be open to experimentation and practical solutions at a time when new and fresh thinking is invaluable. RCLA is a Pan-African continental wide network of filmmakers and film readers dedicated to supporting African stories.