The 27th Encounters South African International Documentary Festival includes a bold, diverse, and boundary-pushing selection of 31 short films in this year’s programme, packed with features, panel discussions, and community screenings in Cape Town and Johannesburg from 19 to 29 June.
The Shorts Section comprises 11 themed short film blocks featuring documentaries from 20 countries offering personal narratives, socio-political commentaries, and defiant accounts that hold a mirror to the lived experiences of a distinctive range of voices.
This year’s short documentaries have directors confronting issues that span climate justice, gender identity, ancestral land rights, queer desire, and revolutionary memory. Whether poetic or investigative, introspective or confrontational, these films provide deep insights and speak to the world of “now”.
“Shorts by their nature succeed on their creative brevity—the filmmakers can distil powerful stories into concise, impactful experiences, providing us with fresh perspectives and a kind of freedom that often sparks bold innovation,” says Mandisa Zitha, Director of Encounters. “Our shorts programme is not only a celebration of form and creativity, but a reflection on our world, and they are fierce and courageous contributions to the documentary form.”
Survival against the climate crisis, elements, capitalism, and political forces are traced in the theme “Currents of Resilience” in the documentaries Guardian of the Well (Dirs. Bentley Brown and Tahir Ben Mahamat Zene, Chad), Undercurrent (Dir. Luca Smith, SA), Pouring Water on Troubled Oil (Dir. Nariman Massoumi, UK/Iran) and Keeper (Dir. Hannah Rafkin, USA).
Imposed layers dictating and defining beauty are peeled back in “More Than Meets the Eye” with Sprouting (Dir. Lilitha Baartman, SA) and Am I the Skinniest Person You’ve Ever Seen? (Dir. Eisha Marjara, Canada), challenging narratives around the body and cultural perceptions.
The “Death by Discrimination” theme faces, head-on, the deadly consequences of systemic prejudice, with The Flow of Resilience (Dir. Pranami Koch, India) and Onthou vi Fredo? (Dir. Cleveland Hopp, SA) offering poetic elegies of memory and defiance.
Women’s struggles, resilience, and strengths across Africa and the diaspora are the focus of the theme “In Her Name” with the shorts Before 16 (Dir. Loic Niyonkuru, Burundi), Victoria (Dir. Sam Soko, Kenya/USA), and Seeds from Kivu (Dirs. Néstor López and Carlos Valle Casas, Spain).
“Fragments of a Forgotten Land” unearths buried pasts and living landscapes with poetically rendered documentaries The Rock Speaks (Dirs. Francois Knoetze and Amy Louise Wilson, SA), The Sending of the Crows (Dir. Judith Westerveld, SA/Netherlands), and Flowers / Flores (Dir. Jose Cardoso, Ecuador/SA).
Powerful South African reflections on land with ancestral memory and identity feature in the theme “The Land’s Silent Witness” with Umhlaba Wokhokho (Dir. Nondumiso Masache, SA) and Spirits of the Land (Dir. Tsogo Kupa, SA).
Fear, trauma, and the hope of transformation on opposite ends of the economic spectrum are explored in “Between Fear and Forgetting” with They Dug a Grave in My Heart (Dir. Ulisses Arthur, Brazil), Never Come Fetch Me (Dir Jessie Ayles, SA/UK), and Fear Fokol (Dir. Tuva Björk, Sweden).
Breaking taboos and reclaiming sexuality are spotlighted in the theme “Redefining Desire: From Fear to Freedom” with Slut Club (Dir. Zoey Black, SA), Unyagoni (Dir. Saitabao Kaiyare, Kenya), and What I Do Not Know Will Not Kill Me (Dir. Annabelle Ayangbade, Nigeria).
“Unmasking the Self” is a reflection on identity, towards self-acceptance in the films Message from Anonymous (Dir. Loai Galal, Egypt), At the Edge of Skin (Dir. Danielle Villanova, Brazil) and Facing Forward (Dir. Eugene Alhers, SA).
Voices of survival, and resistance against brutal colonialisation are heard in “Roots of Resistance” with Ahmad Alive (Dirs. Yusuf Omar and Aurelia Driver, Palestine/South Africa), Medallion (Dir. Ruth Hunduma, UK/Ethiopia), The Other Side of Beauty (Dir. Sami Saif Sirelkhatim, Morocco/Sudan), and Dreams of a Revolution (Dir. Pedro Neves, France/Mozambique/Portugal).
“Between the Ordinary and the Uncanny” embraces the seemingly ordinary made extraordinary with The Fries Philosopher (Dir. Janna Grosfeld, Netherlands) and perfectly a strangeness (Dir. Alison McAlpine, Canada).
Encounters takes place at the Labia Theatre and V&A Waterfront Ster-Kinekor in Cape Town and The Bioscope and The Zone @ Rosebank in Johannesburg from 19 to 29 June 2025.
For the full schedule of films and to buy tickets, visit https://encounters.co.za/festival/schedule/.
Encounters is supported by the Bertha Foundation, National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa, City of Cape Town, Film Cape Town, Urban Movement Innovation Fund, Netflix, Al Jazeera Documentary, Astraea Foundation, Wesgro, Rough Cut Lab Africa, South African Guild of Editors, Documentary Filmmakers Association of South Africa, French Institute of South Africa, SWISS Films, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, German Films, DOK.fest München, Ster-Kinekor, Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape, University of Cape Town and UCT TV, Climate Story Lab ZA, Heineken Beverages, Durban FilmMart Institute, Cinema Solidarity, Modern Times Review, Kamva Collective, Goethe Institut, Mail & Guardian Venues: Labia Theatre, Bioscope Independent Cinema, Sunshine Cinema, Bertha Movie House, Isivivana Centre and Bertha House Mowbray.
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