Docs showing at this year’s Festival

A succession dispute unfolds in South Africa’s Balobedu Kingdom, as Queen Masalanabo and her brother Prince Lekukela contend for the throne, challenging the long-standing matriarchal tradition of the Rain Queens.

A son revisits his fractured childhood shaped by political violence, exile and absence, uncovering the emotional legacy of his parents’ activism and the deep scars left by Egypt’s brutal Abo Zaabal prison.

Ahmad Alive follows Gazan vlogger, Ahmad Ghunaim, who uses his phone to document Israel’s genocide on Gaza, capturing the daily realities of survival, displacement and conflict in Palestine.

A poetic portrait of Albie Sachs, anti-apartheid icon and constitutional court judge, whose experiences under the apartheid regime and visionary ideals helped forge South Africa’s path to justice and transformation.

In an intimate portrayal of the complexities of womanhood, sisterhood and youth, Eisha and Seema’s summer dieting pact spirals into a life-threatening battle with anorexia for Eisha.

Through family archive, archives and reenactments, a daughter traces her mother’s journey from apartheid activist to feminist writer, showing how storytelling became both inheritance and revolution.

Through the lives of Laiz and Joselito, At the Edge of Skin explores the challenges of living with albinism, highlighting themes of health, marginalisation, and the quest for community and acceptance.

Brave, tender and honest, Before 16 reflects on the profound emotional challenges of raising and loving a child who is the product of rape.

Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story is a siren song to the act of writing and its transportative powers, for both writers and readers.

Four African undergraduate students at MIT navigate academic pressures, culture shocks and shifts to their identity, as they grapple with the weight of carrying their dreams across continents.

With voices from the frontline, Capturing Water examines the water crisis in Cape Town, exposing the numerous threats to accessing water, driven by politics, profit, and environmental neglect.

In a powerful story of healing across generations, Didy explores a son’s journey to Rwanda to uncover his late mother’s legacy, amidst the backdrop of a genocide and AIDS pandemic.

Echoing the history of Mozambique’s revolution, guided by archival footage and personal reflection, Dreams of a Revolution explores the legacy of colonialism in the ongoing pursuit of justice and equality.

Facing Forward is an uplifting journey into the world of para surfing, celebrating the strength and resilience of physically challenged athletes as they ride the waves toward healing and empowerment.

Fear Fokol explores South Africa’s private security industry in Johannesburg, revealing the illusion of safety amidst inequality, paranoia and mistrust in a society driven by fear.

Fitting in spends a year with the residents of Eendrag, a male residence, which, like the rest of the campus, is steeped in colonial traditions—something that many of the new generation think needs changing.

As the world fractures under war and climate collapse, a father finds beauty in his son’s gaze, weaving together global chaos and digital saturation with quiet moments of reflection and hope.

Guardian of the Well is a concise and insightful look at a community affected by climate change struggling to survive.

How to Build a Library is a timely and engaging look at the power of individual action and the constraints to progress so often imposed by supposedly democratic structures.

Intercepted blends these phone calls with static shots from war-torn Ukraine, dropping the viewer directly into the aftermath of the violence of war.

Kabul Chaos captures the historic collapse of the Afghan government, and the urgent evacuation of civilians trapped inside the French embassy, revealing the true cost of foreign intervention in Afghanistan.

In the heart of the Bronx, a single father and his daughter seek healing and connection through beekeeping, but their world shifts when he receives a cancer diagnosis that changes everything.

Khartoum follows the group as they leave Sudan for East Africa, and collectively re-enact their personal stories of survival and freedom through imaginative and delicately calibrated use of multimedia.

This delicately observed film tells a powerful story of one man’s search for healing in a country still reckoning with the weight of its past.

In a society that punishes silence and shame, three Egyptians with HIV conceal their diagnosis, revealing unseen lives shaped by fear, stigma and the quiet strength of survival.

This tenderly directed film looks at the lives of the mothers whose children were abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Northern Nigeria.

Mr Nobody Against Putin tells the story of Pavel Talankin, a school videographer in small-town Russia whose deep engagement with his students is interrupted when the country invades Ukraine, and a soviet-style propaganda programme is suddenly instituted at the school.

A moving account of a young boy’s life on the mean streets of Cape Town’s ganglands, where he quickly progresses from selling drugs to getting involved in gangsterism, before being shot in the foot and sent to a home for ‘rude children’, where he suffers further trauma and violence.

Normal To Me celebrates the lives of adults with intellectual disabilities at the Joyce Chevalier Centre by challenging stereotypes within the community through stories of love, ambition and everyday triumphs.

In the dazzling incandescence of an unknown desert, three donkeys discover an abandoned astronomical observatory and the universe. A sensorial, cinematic exploration of what a story can be.

Pouring Water on Troubled Oil explores Dylan Thomas’s journey to Iran in 1951, revealing the disparities between British oil propaganda and the harsh realities of poverty and exploitation in the region.

Onthou vi Fredo? honours the memory of a beloved queer icon, Alfredo, exploring his legacy in Malmesbury’s queer community, and the quest for justice and healing after his murder.

Going behind the lens, Sam Nzima’s life unfolds against one of history’s most recognised photographs, the haunting image of Hector Pieterson during the 1976 Soweto Uprising.

In the violent Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a group of women are met with the dilemma of accepting the children born as a result of their rape.

Set at Elon Musk’s Starbase, this film explores shifting environmental baselines through the eyes of those witnessing what they believe are humanity’s first steps into space.

The film celebrates diverse and queer joy as a form of resistance, while exemplifying the vital role that radical safe spaces such as Slut Club play in a world where LGBTQ+ people continue to face oppression.

Spirits of the Land explores the enduring legacy of colonialism and land dispossession in South Africa, tracing three unresolved land claim disputes in Hilton and Koubad (KwaZulu-Natal), and Wakkerstroom (Mpumalanga).

Sprouting explores the complex relationship between South African women and their hair.

This intimately-made film follows a crew of young street performers in Southern Egypt who are intent on challenging the harshly proscriptive gender roles imposed upon Egyptian women.

A forgotten diary reveals the shadows of Assam’s past, where memories of accused witches echo through silence, stitching together trauma, resistance and the fragile act of remembering.

Discover the soul of Amsterdam’s Turkish fries baker Abi, as he struggles with the demolition of his beloved snack bar. Abi is a neighborhood father, a poet and an entertainer.

Ruth and her mother go back to Ethiopia and explore her mother’s story as a survivor of the Red Terror genocide. Amidst a new civil war, the two revisit a country bursting with history and culture.

The Other Side of Beauty follows Sudanese photographer, Mohamed Nabil, who exposes the genocide in Darfur through his lens and learns the cost of truth under an oppressive regime.

Through a blend of AI, archive and poetic narration, the buried voice of rock extracted from Congo’s cobalt mines exposes the violent core of modern technology and neocolonialism.

Blending |xam folklore, animation, and spoken word, The Sending of the Crows reimagines the story of the |xam wives who sent three crows in search of their lost husbands.

The Shadow Scholars takes an in-depth look at the contract-cheating industry, which involves tens of millions of students around the world submitting essays provided by online academic writing services.

Told from inside DeepMind’s London headquarters, the film chronicles the journey of Hassabis and his team as they relentlessly pursue an artificial intelligence that matches or surpasses human abilities on a wide range of tasks.

In Sammy Baloji’s meditative film, a forest giant bears witness to centuries of colonial violence and environmental destruction in the Congo.

Amal, a 12-foot puppet representing a Syrian refugee girl, embarks on a transformative journey covering 8,000 km across Europe, whilst raising awareness on the struggles of displaced children amidst a global refugee crisis.

While a mining company drills into the earth to extract rock salt, a gang of teenagers plan to break the machine responsible for the tremors and sinking of the ground.

This moving documentary provides a window into the world of Brazilian drag, where the culture of voguing has blossomed into the hugely expressive ballroom culture of contemporary Rio de Janeiro and its suburbs.

Through a story of legacy and conservation, iNkosi Mabaso embarks on a mission to reclaim his ancestral land in the Mabaso Kingdom of eMgundeni in order to fulfil his prophetic vision.

Undercurrent follows the daily life of subsistence fishermen along the Western Cape coastline, exposing the devastating impact of commercial trawling on local subsistence communities and the environment.

Union is a deeply human drama about the fight for agency and dignity in a globalised world.

From radio star to sex educator, Bahati Ngazi undergoes a transformative journey exploring sacred Swahili traditions that encourage female pleasure and autonomy through intimate rituals, cultural wisdom, and bold self-discovery.

After escaping abuse, Victoria, a single mother in Nairobi, rebuilds her life through a helium balloon business, navigating the complex journey of healing, independence and redefining self worth.

Through the inspiring story of a gynaecologist and cancer survivor, Dr. Aisha Mustapha, What I Do Not Know Will Not Kill Me explores the issue of cervical cancer and women’s healthcare in Northern Nigeria.

Set on the rice paddies of Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo, Where Zebus Speak French explores the ongoing resistance of subsistence farmers, against exploitative developments on their land, fuelled by modern colonialism.

Womxn Working documents the ongoing attempt by a group of women in the industry to legalise and destigmatise prostitution in South Africa, while providing rich insights into the lives of the women and their personal struggles.

Areeba connects with Ahmed on social media, and as their relationship develops, she gets to explore the landscape of her memories through the eyes of her young friend and his crew of parkour enthusiasts.

Yintah follows Howilhkat Freda Huson and Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, the leaders of two clans from the territory, as they struggle to prevent the Canadian government and fossil-fuel companies from building a pipeline across it.