Tarha McKenzie

Tarha McKenzie is a Cape Town–based programme and distribution manager whose work sits at the intersection of storytelling, systems, and social impact. Since 2011, she has contributed to the growth and circulation of African cinema through a practice grounded in care, collaboration, and precision. With a foundation in Film and Media Production from the University of Cape Town, where she graduated with distinction, her path has evolved from production into shaping the infrastructures that allow stories to travel, endure, and resonate. Her career spans key roles across the continent’s film and immersive media landscape. Tarha has long been embedded in the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, where she has served in multiple capacities including Festival Manager, programmer, and mentor. She has worked with Electric South as a Programme Manager, contributing to distribution strategies and innovative business models. Her work extends to Climate Story Lab Africa, where she programme manages and consults on storytelling approaches to climate justice. Earlier in her career, Tarha played a key role at Big World Cinema, helping to strengthen pipelines for African content, and later managed international catalogues for TechRow. She has also served as a jury member for the Afrika Film Festival and Rough Cut Lab Africa, and was selected to participate in the International Forum on Cultural Management and Cultural Policy 2016, representing South Africa among an international cohort of cultural managers. Known for her ability to streamline database reporting, build procedural systems, and align complex moving parts, Tarha brings clarity and structure to dynamic environments. She approaches management as a form of stewardship, tending to both process and people with equal intention. Guided by deep empathy, her work reflects a belief that meaningful change is built not only through bold ideas, but through the careful, often unseen labour that allows those ideas to take root.