These stories range from fashion, archival queer love, dark satire, the illusory reality of the internet in South African families, and healing through dance. This collection has been curated by Brighton-based PhD researcher, Anna Sephton, and Cape Town-based Film and Creative Director, Robyn Phillips to share the varied and visionary work currently expanding visual storytelling in South Africa.

There will be a chance to view one of the film's corresponding photographic archive, and the films will be followed by a post screening discussion with researcher Sephton and filmmaker Phillips.

Programme, 2hrs:

Hyperlink

Directors: Mzonke Maloney, Evan Wigdorowitz, Nolitha Mkulisi , Julie Nxadi

In four short films, young South African makers reflect on the seductive, and at times treacherous, illusory reality of the internet. Using humour, suspense and social criticism, this collective production sketches a society dominated by idealised projections of the dreamt self.

Interval

Monde Gumede - VIMBA!

VIMBA! is a tongue-in-cheek fashion short film set in Dunusa, the thrift capital of Johannesburg, where bales of fast fashion from Europe and America are dumped and sold in an open market. The word Vimba, meaning “block” or “stop them!” is a call to action. Not a sermon or manifesto on the evils of fast fashion, VIMBA! rather celebrates the little swindles pulled to cut through the noise in a city where having a schtick is what pays. In a city where all do the dance and live for the spectacle, there are no heroes.

Jack Markowitz - Deadstock

Deadstock is a hybrid documentary that follows four people from four iconic South African subcultures. A taxi driver, a reclaimer, a football fan, and a femme doll discuss why they dress the way they do. This collective voice is a renewal of sorts. An embrace of the instinctual truths that form the country’s sartorial identity.

Bathandwa Ngwendu - Khangela

In this experimental and emotive piece, Bathandwa (Director and choreographer) describes Khangela as a journey of overcoming fear. The film represents a safe return back to who you are.

Emilie Badenhorst and Kanya Viljoen (co-directors)- Ekstasis

Ekstasis is a short film about a young woman that discovers intimacy, and the loss thereof, through an intricate relationship with her best friend and the dissipation of her parents' marriage.

Andrea Katzeff - Hotel Hopefield

Hotel Hopefield is a quirky satirical fashion film set in the 70’s and based in a small town in the Western Cape of South Africa called Hopefield. It centres around the concept of value and how different people find disparate worth through their own lived experiences.

Robyn Phillips - Seasons of Longing

Seasons of Longing, a biofiction short film, is about a queer love that took place long before our time. From 1930s South Africa, Irene ‘Freddie’ Heseltine’s photographic collection reveals the hidden world she shared with her partner of almost sixty years. The film imagines the moments before and after each photograph was taken, showing the emotional navigation of belonging and un-belonging: feeling free in the wild, open landscapes, but constrained in the house with the family.