Africa's biggest retail and healthcare buyers head to Durban for Engage Trade Africa

Takealot, Amazon, Woolworths, Panda Saudi and Choitrams among the hosted buyers meeting African exporters at the Durban ICC, 6 to 8 October.

Some of the continent's and the Middle East's most influential retail, hospitality and healthcare buyers will be in Durban next month for Engage Trade Africa (ETA) and Engage Services Africa (ESA), returning to the Durban International Convention Centre from 6 to 8 October 2026.

The hosted buyer line-up includes South African retail heavyweights Takealot, Pick n Pay, Clicks and Woolworths, alongside global e-commerce giant Amazon. They will be joined by Panda Saudi, Choitrams Dubai and Lulu Supermarkets from the Gulf, and Kenyan retailers Quickmart and Naivas. The buyer group also spans the hospitality and healthcare sectors, with Good Life Pharmacies, Delta Pharmaceuticals and Luton Hospitals Kenya confirmed to attend.

Through pre-arranged B2B meetings, these buyers will sit down with African producers, exporters and service providers who are looking for new routes to market. The platform is built around hosted buyers who are flown in and accommodated, so exporters meet decision-makers with real purchasing authority, without the cost and uncertainty of prospecting new markets alone.

"This year's buyer delegation is one of the strongest we've assembled," says Rex Bowden of Catalyze, organisers of Engage Trade Africa. "Having Takealot and Amazon in the room alongside specialist importers from the Gulf and East Africa gives our exporters a genuinely rare mix of scale and reach in one place. For African producers, that's the difference between a good meeting and a market-changing one."

The programme goes beyond matchmaking. Confirmed speakers include Odirile Ramasodi of the Export Credit Insurance Corporation of South Africa (ECIC), Farha Goolam of InvestDurban and Akash Singh of PUM Netherlands, who will share insights on export finance, investment and building export-ready businesses. Takealot & DHL Go Trade will also take part in the speaker programme, with its representative to be confirmed.

The event reinforces Durban and KwaZulu-Natal's position as a gateway for trade into and out of the continent. Previous editions have drawn more than 350 buyers and partners from over 30 countries, more than 250 African producers, and delivered upwards of 4,000 pre-scheduled meetings.

Registration to exhibit, attend as a delegate or apply to the Hosted Buyer Programme is open at www.engagetrade.africa.

Durban FilmMart Industry Programme Goes Live for 2026 Edition

The Durban FilmMart Institute (DFM) has announced that the industry programme for its 2026 edition, taking place from 9 to 12 October in Durban, is now live. This year's line-up brings together sessions on equitable co-production, film financing, advocacy and lobbying, artificial intelligence and emerging formats such as vertical drama, alongside dedicated Impact and Animation Day strands and its partner-programmed offering.

 This programme reflects where the African film industry is currently: expanding audiences, growing co-production pathways and new capital arriving in new forms, but also asks real questions about advocacy, technology and who gets to shape the future of the sector,” says Magdalene Reddy, Director of the Durban FilmMart Institute.

Khosie Dali (financing panel). She is the award-winning South African producer behind Sons of the Sea, which won Best South African Film at DIFF. 

Sessions dealing with finance and film include Talking Cents: Where's The Change: Co-production Beyond Financial Collaboration which brings together filmmakers and organisations to reflect on collaborative methods grounded in collective responsibility and interconnectedness, while interrogating the future of collaboration. Then Talking Cents: More Than Making Cents: A New View on Financing Film explores non-traditional financing approaches, including cooperative ecologies that lead to greater creative control, narrative sovereignty and the retention of intellectual property.

Sam Soko (film financing panel). Soko's debut documentary Softie premiered at Sundance 2020 and won the Special Jury Award for Editing. His company LBx Africa produced the 2018 Oscar-nominated short Watu Wote. He has awards credentials and is a pan-African, activist-filmmaker.

African film industries are growing, but growth without protection is fragile. Who Is Fighting Our Corner? Film Advocacy and Lobbying on the African Continent is a panel featuring representatives involved in active advocacy and lobbying work across the continent, from guilds and professional associations to filmmaker collectives and civil society bodies. Here they will examine what advocacy looks like in practice, where it has succeeded and failed, and how audiences fit into the advocacy picture.

Marie Lora-Mungai (Advocacy and Lobbying). She is an investor and advisor whose firm has worked with IFC, Proparco, Afreximbank, Netflix and Warner Bros. She is outspoken on AI, having urged African filmmakers to use AI tools to create content independently. She's a quotable, business-press-friendly voice on "where the money is going”.

One of DFM Alumni success stories features in an inspiring case-study: From the DFM to the Croisette: Samantha Biffot on Producing "Ben'Imana". Producer Samantha Biffot traces the years-long journey of Ben'Imana, Marie Clémentine Dusabejambo's Rwandan-Gabonese drama, from its early development as a work-in-progress project at the DFM to its celebrated premiere in Un Certain Regard at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where it went on to win the FIPRESCI Prize and the Caméra d'Or. Biffot will discuss the realities of financing and packaging an international co-production across Rwanda, Gabon, France, Norway, and Ivory Coast, and what it takes to carry a story about memory and survival after genocide from a market pitch to the world stage.

Samantha Biffot (Ben'Imana session). Ben'Imana was the first feature from the African continent to win the Caméra d'Or, and it was also the first film by a Rwandan director in Cannes' official selection. It also took the FIPRESCI Prize. Biffot is the Gabonese producer who presented the project at La Fabrique Cinéma in 2022 with the director, and the DFM connection makes it a "from the market to the Croisette" success story. 

Artificial intelligence continues to be a hot topic across the film landscape, and animation filmmaking may be the most affected, given how integral the intersection of art and technology already is to the creative process.  In AI and Animation panellists interrogate what AI means for the world of animation filmmaking, the opportunities, the risks, and the long-term effect on a developing sector such as African animation

Hamid Ibrahim (AI and Animation). He is the CEO of Kugali Media, and the Disney+ series Iwájú he co-created earned three Children's and Family Emmy nominations. It was Walt Disney Animation's first collaboration with an independent company. Hamid's creative journey spans some of Hollywood's most iconic productions, including The Lion King (2019), Dumbo (2019), The Predator (2018), The Darkest Minds (2018), and Dolittle (2020).

Vertical dramas have exploded onto the international scene, reshaping how stories are consumed on mobile-first platforms and unlocking new revenue models for creators. In Short Form, Big Impact: The Rise of Vertical Dramas panellists examine the format's rapid global rise and its emerging footprint on the African continent, and whether it could become a viable new pathway for content and commerce.

Flavia Motsisi of Both Worlds Media, Development Executive and Creative Producer, brings with her over a decade of experience shaping award-winning African television and film. An International Emmy nominee and a Forbes Africa honoree for her contribution to scripted content.

These sessions feature as just a small part of the Durban FilmMart’s extensive four-day industry programme. This year's Industry Programme is built around a single conviction: that the African film industry's future depends on the strength and honesty of its relationships — with capital, with audiences, with partners abroad, and with itself.

The Co-production Focus stream interrogates what genuine partnership looks like in practice, from sessions like Fruits of Labour: Service as a Form of Coproduction, which asks whether South African service companies deserve recognition as true collaborators, to South Africa as Coproducing Partner, which confronts the administrative turbulence currently testing the country's long-standing treaty network, through to Brazil-Africa: Building Bridges Through Coproduction, which looks outward to new South-South alliances.

Minnie Harris Head of MTN Group Digital Service Verticals and Markets

That same spirit of scrutiny runs through The Power of Programming stream, where sessions on industry programming itself and the pressures facing the international festival circuit ask what infrastructure the sector still lacks and who is being left out of it, while two closed-door think tanks on distribution and audience design push past diagnosis into practical strategy for reaching African audiences on their own terms.

Sector-specific strands deepen the picture with CTIAF's Animation Day, tackles the business of building a sustainable animation industry; Doc Society and its partners' Doc Day: Impact Edition reframes impact producing as a discipline as rigorous as directing or financing; and NEWF's Beyond the Wild sessions push natural world storytelling toward questions of spirituality, authorship and ownership.

Threaded through all of it is a set of international partnerships- most visibly the Canadian delegation and the Cross Continental Forum's 25th-anniversary panel, that embody DFM's core mandate to be the meeting space where shared interest across continents becomes something built together.

To find more information on the sessions above, the rest of the Durban FilmMart Industry Programme and so much more, go to https://durbanfilmmart.co.za/

The 17th edition of Durban FilmMart, in association with MultiChoice and principal funding from the National Lotteries Commission, is supported by the following funders and partners:

eThekwini Municipality, Durban Film Office, Ford Foundation, National Film and Video Foundation, Hollywood Foundation, MTN Group, KwaZulu-Natal Tourism and Film Authority, Expertise France and GIZ, The International Emerging Film Talent Fund, NEFTI, Industrial Development Corporation, Netflix, CNC, Arab Culture Fund, Avalon Group, French Institute of South Africa, Animation SA, African Producers Accelerator, Berlinale Talents, Canada High Commission of South Africa, Caribbeantales and the Cross Continental Forum, Chiriseri Studios, Climate Story Labs Africa, Cape Town International Animation Festival, Department of Communication and Digital Technology, Disabled Audio-Visual Worker's Network, Documentary Filmmakers Association, Durban International Film Festival, Doc Society, Documentary Africa, Durban University of Technology, Eastern Cape Development Corporation, Embassy of Cote d'Ivoire, European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs, FIVA, FIPRESCI, Gauteng Film Commission, Independent Black Filmmakers Collective, IMPACT (Canada), Independent Producers Organisation, Habesha Creative, Ladima Foundation, Nature Environment Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF), South African Audio Visual Cluster, South African Guild of Actors, South Africa Guild of Editors, Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, Storyboard Collective, Sisters Working in Film and Television (SWIFT), Palestine Film Institute, Tunga Media Afrika, WGSA, WiC.  Media Partners include Arena Holdings and Variety.

Four African Screenwriters Selected for the AuthenticA Series Lab taking place in Ethiopia, France and Switzerland)

The Realness Institute, in partnership with The StoryBoard Collective and supported by the Canada Media Fund and the Series Mania Forum, has announced the four African participants for the 2026 AuthenticA Series Lab, the fifth edition of the programme which gives screenwriters a unique opportunity to shape their original concepts into episodic storytelling across any genre.

The cohort includes Lagos-based writer, director and cinematographer Lateefah Mayaki; award-winning Ghanaian-Canadian writer and filmmaker Lindsey Addawoo; acclaimed South African writer/director Phumi Morare; and multi-hyphenate Cameroonian-born writer, filmmaker and cultural entrepreneur Sahndra Fon Dufe.

AuthenticA is designed to give participants what they need to take their projects to market: a professionally developed pitch deck and completed pilot script, each built to international industry standards. Writers retain full intellectual property rights over all material they develop through the programme.

The programme opened with an 8-day in-person residency in Ethiopia from 17–25 September 2026, followed by online sessions running until 14 January 2027. A second in-person residency follows in Geneva, Switzerland, from 19 January to 21 March 2027. The final residency takes place in Lille, France, from 22–26 March 2027, where the fellows will pitch their projects as part of the African Series Pitch at Series Mania Forum — Europe's largest co-production series market and festival, attracting talent scouts, sales agents, broadcasters, investors and distributors.

Throughout the six-month journey, the fellows will be mentored by Mehret Mandefro as Director of Producing and Showrunning and Selina Ukwuoma as Director of Writing Programmes.

“Going into the fifth year of this lab, offering writers the time, mentorship and industry access to turn an original idea into a market-ready series seems even more important in light of what is going on in the world,” says Mehret Mandefro. “We need to write a new world and that begins with supporting fresh voices that have something to say.”

“We continue to build on the work of the last four years showcasing the multiplicity of original African voices. This year’s unprecedented all-female group of storytellers gives us a glimpse into four more fascinating worlds we have not yet encountered on screen. I’m so looking forward to delving into these rich and rewarding stories with them,” says Selina Ukwuoma

“Through AuthenticA, we are proud to support African storytellers whose diverse voices and bold stories strengthen the global conversation and bring truly international content to the fore,” says David Rimer - Founder of The StoryBoard Collective.

Submissions this year came from 144 applications, over 27 countries, covering over 20 genres of television series.

For more information visit the Realness Institute website at: www.realnessinstitute.com

Durban FilmMart Welcomes Canadian Delegation

The Durban FilmMart Institute (DFMI) will welcome a delegation of Canadian film professionals to this year's market that takes place from 9 to 12 October.   The delegation's presence, presented in partnership with the High Commission of Canada Trade Office in South Africa, is anchored by a dedicated speed-meeting session connecting Canadian filmmakers with DFM delegates.

“Canada has long been one of South Africa's strongest coproduction partners, and this delegation builds on a relationship with the Canadian High Commission that we've been growing year on year,” says Magdalene Reddy, Director of the Durban FilmMart Institute. “South Africa's co-production treaty with Canada gives our filmmakers real, practical access to Canadian financing, expertise and markets, and vice versa. Durban FilmMart exists to be that meeting space; a hub where international delegations like this one can sit across the table from African producers and turn shared interest into actual projects.”

SPEED MEETINGS: MEET THE CANADIAN FILMMAKERS

Presented in partnership with the High Commission of Canada Trade Office

Durban FilmMart delegates will have the opportunity to meet selected film professionals from Canada, with the opportunity to finance, distribute, co-produce and collaborate. The Canadian delegation brings together an award-winning, genre-spanning group of 17 producers, writers and directors working across documentary, fiction, animation and factual formats - with slates spanning genre and elevated-genre features, impact-driven documentary, BIPOC-led storytelling and international co-production, from across Canada.

Alex Bogomolov, is CEO/Producer, at Apsis Pictures (British Columbia) an independent production company handling full-cycle development, financing, production and delivery for genre and elevated-genre features.

Amy Miller, is a Producer, with Wide Open Exposure Productions, who has for more than two decades, produced bold documentaries investigating the political, environmental, historical and cultural forces shaping the world, screening at 150+ international festivals. The company is now focused on expanding international collaborations through documentary co-production.

Annette Clarke is a Producer, at Ruby Line Productions Inc, and a National Film Board of Canada veteran who has produced or co-produced 100+ films.

Chibie Louis-Okoye, is Founder/Producer, at Colo Studios who is also a media entrepreneur whose work is shaped by spirituality, Africa and social themes. She produced KOFA (2024), which debuted at Number 1 in Nigeria on Amazon Prime Video and won Best Feature Film at AFRIFF.

Danilo Reyes, is Founder/CEO, Blue Maroon Media, and is also an actor and musician striving to diversify the voices and faces on screen. An alumnus of Reelworld's BEP Producer's Program and the CMPA Producer Mentorship Program, Danilo is currently developing a slate of television series and feature films.

Eritrean-Canadian filmmaker Feven Ghebremariam, is Founder/CEO of Zantana Media who is working at the intersection of cinema and community engagement, whose work explores diaspora, colonial legacy and belonging. Feven is a co-founder of Black on Black Films, a collective supporting Black filmmakers in Quebec.

Ian Mark Kimanje, is a Producer at Film Garage Studios that develops premium documentary and impact-driven content connecting culture, identity, science and social change, with relationships spanning Canada, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and the US.

Katia Café-Fébrissy, is Producer/President, KaFé Productions Inc., a bilingual production company dedicated to telling bold, intimate stories that amplify fresh and underrepresented voices.

Letay Williams, is a Writer/Producer, at A Little Happy Media. She is the Founder of a production company amplifying BIPOC talent for global audiences.

Nina Dube, is Trade Commissioner, High Commission of Canada Trade office in South Africa. The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service helps Canadian export-ready companies navigate the complexities of international markets. Representatives from the Canadian Trade Office will be available throughout Durban FilmMart to facilitate introductions, support networking opportunities, and explore potential partnerships and co-production opportunities between Canadian and South African industry stakeholders.

Patricia Sims, is the President/Producer at CanazWest Pictures which has produced award-winning documentaries and factual series for CBC, Discovery Channel, ARTE, NHK and others. Patricia is also the Founder of World Elephant Day, a global awareness campaign reaching over 2 billion social media impressions.

Roble Issa, is Producer, Gobez Media Inc.an Ethiopian-Canadian production company creating documentary, fiction and digital content rooted in Africa and its diaspora. Recent projects include Finding Sally and the Emmy-nominated Made in Ethiopia, with work screened at Cannes, TIFF, Tribeca and FESPACO.

Samantha Kaine, is an activist, mentor and speaker; founder and CEO of IMPACT (Independent Media Producers Association of Creative Talent). She is a Jamaican-Canadian producer working at the intersection of AI, cultural policy and economic inclusion. Samantha leads IMPACT's accelerator programmes supporting Black mid-career producers across Canada and the diaspora, and serves on the AI Committee of the Coalition for Diversity of Cultural Expressions. IMPACT is also a co-partner of the 2026 Canadian delegation to DFM.

Sarlota Csete, is Director, Mentorship, International Development & Board Secretary (CMPA (Canadian Media Producers Association).  Sarolta leads international development initiatives at the CMPA, fostering global partnerships and co-production opportunities for Canadian producers. A co-partner of the Canadian delegation to DFM 2026, the CMPA is Canada's leading advocacy organization for independent producers, dedicated to helping Canadian producers establish international partnerships and bring their content to screens around the world.

Shane LaTouche, is Founder/CEO, Toronto Black Media Productions, a producer and cultural creative focused on projects for Black and Caribbean communities. He also volunteers as Executive Director of the Toronto Black Media Association.

Shannon Walsh, is Producer/Director at Last Songbird Productions, and is an award-winning filmmaker and Guggenheim Fellow producing documentary and fiction features, shorts, VR works and music videos centred on bold, underrepresented voices.

Sylvester Ndumbi, is Founder/Producer, at Simba Creative, and leads an award-winning production company creating scripted, documentary and unscripted content for global audiences, with fifteen years of Canadian broadcast credits and productions screened at UN events worldwide. Simba Creative is actively expanding its international co-production slate.

The Canadian delegation's presence at Durban FilmMart demonstrates, a growing interest in building sustainable co-production pathways between the Canadian and South African audio-visual industries, with opportunities spanning documentary, fiction, genre and digital content.

To find out more about the Canadian delegation as well as others attending the 2026 edition of the DFM, go to https://durbanfilmmart.co.za/.

Mother City Brings Groundbreaking Documentary to the Big Screen in Nationwide Cinema Release

Acclaimed groundbreaking indie documentary Mother City, set for screenings at Ster-Kinekor, giving audiences across South Africa the opportunity to experience the film on the big screen.

Documentaries have long played second fiddle to fiction on the big screen, but that's changing. Audiences worldwide are increasingly choosing the cinema for non-fiction storytelling, and Mother City, directed by Miki Redelinghuys and Pearlie Joubert, is riding that wave with a nationwide release at Ster-Kinekor Cinemas from 1 October.

The documentary will screen at selected Ster-Kinekor cinemas nationwide, with ticket prices at R50. The release marks a significant moment for local non-fiction filmmaking, bringing an acclaimed South African documentary to a wider cinema audience at an accessible ticket price. 

March to Woodstock Police - Credit: Barry Christianson

Mother City followed Cape Town’s Reclaim the City activists' six-year fight for affordable housing on public land, and the story is centred on the iconic old Tafelberg School site, situated in the Atlantic Seaboard. The film kept the case in public view and amplified the voices of activists and the Ndifuna Ukwazi legal centre, turning the documentary into a tool for sustained pressure. In July 2026 the Constitutional Court ruling declared the Tafelberg sale unlawful, affirming the movement's core argument that the government has a constitutional duty to provide affordable housing within the inner city, and that high property values or land scarcity can't be used as an excuse to avoid that duty. The ruling ignited audiences’ urgent requests  to see Mother City that follows - blow by blow - the thrilling courtroom drama and bold activism. 

Told with raw honesty, fearless journalism, a cinematic eye, and genuine edge-of-your-seat tension, Mother City is exactly the kind of documentary changing what audiences expect from the genre.

Occupy Rondebosch Golf Course - Credit: Barry Christianson

Mother City’s journey to South African cinemas is itself part of the story. Since premiering at Sheffield DocFest in 2024, the film has screened more than 180 times at festivals and venues around the world, picking up numerous awards along the way. Its festival success and international screenings have built strong momentum ahead of its South African cinema release.

“We made Mother City to be seen, not just at festivals, but by the communities whose stories it tells. Having Ster-Kinekor bring the film to cinemas nationwide is proof that South African audiences want to see their own realities reflected on the big screen. Land and housing activism in South Africa is uniquely powerful, innovative, reflecting our shared humanity” says Pearlie. 

Miki concurs “This isn't just a milestone for the film; it's a milestone for what a local documentary can achieve by bringing these urgent and evocative stories of ordinary people to the big screen.”

DATES

Thu 1 Oct 17:00 / Sat 3 Oct 14:30 / Sun 4 Oct 14:30 / Thu 8 Oct 20:00

Western Province: V&A Waterfront, N1 City, Blue Route Mall, Somerset West Mall

Gauteng: Rosebank Nouveau, Eastgate Mall, Brooklyn Mall

Kwazulu-Natal: Watercrest Mall

Eastern Cape: Baywest Mall

For tickets : https://www.sterkinekor.com/f/mother-city/722

Durban FilmMart expands 2026 line-up with animation, impact producing and natural world storytelling partnerships

Durban, South Africa – September 2026 – The Durban FilmMart (DFM) has announced an expanded partner programme for its 17th edition, running in Durban from 9 to 12 October 2026. Three new industry strands - developed with the Cape Town International Animation Festival (CTIAF), a coalition of documentary impact producing organisations, and the Nature, Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers organisation (NEWF) - bring animation, impact producing and natural world storytelling into DFM's core programme.

"This year's partner programme strands reflect exactly the kind of collaboration DFM exists to enable,” says Magdalene Reddy, Director of the Durban FilmMart Institute. "We are always open to working with organisations who share our commitment to strengthening the African film ecosystem, and these partnerships allow us to bring specialist expertise into the DFM programme for the benefit of the filmmakers and industry professionals we serve."

ANIMATION DAYS - with Cape Town International Animation Festival (CTIAF)

The strand moves the conversation beyond talent to infrastructure: financing, studios, audiences and IP. 

"Animation is often talked about as if the only question is whether Africa has the talent," says Dianne Makings, Festival Director of CTIAF. "We know we have the talent. The bigger question is what happens next; who commissions the work, who finances it, who builds the studios, who develops the audiences and how do we create an industry that allows African creators to keep making African stories." 

Sessions include Innovate. Animate. Elevate.: From Cape Town Studio to Global Market, on building a real studio cluster; Beyond the Festival Circuit: Who Is Watching African Animation?, tracing the pipeline from commissioning to audience development; and Too Big for Grants, Too Small for Investors: The Missing Middle, on financing the jump from small teams to scalable studios. The programme also features a WATA Creative Workshop for women in African animation and gaming, plus studio networking and a screening of CTIAF's Best of 2026 selection.

IMPACT DAY - with Documentary Africa, The StoryBoard Collective, Perspective Fund, Real Reel Impact, Doc Society, Climate Story Labs Africa, Tunga Media Afrika, UCT Centre for Film and Media Studies, Climate Story Lab ZA, Climate Story Lab Lagos, South x Sul Network and UMI Fund

A full-day working forum on impact producing across the filmmaking lifecycle - not just at delivery. Highlights include a case study on Children of Honey, presented by Odera Onyore Nyambok II (Documentary Africa); an Impact Hackathon building live strategies for three documentary projects; case studies on Get Reel and Murder in Paris; a fishbowl discussion on impact financing with Doc Society, DocuBox and Documentary Africa; and The Climate Cine-bar, a screening-and-dialogue session on films that move audiences beyond the screen.

Top Row (L-R): Mohamed Saïd Ouma (Documentary Africa), Miki Redelinghuys (Plexus Films), Matamba Kombila (Dougantsi Films), Dr Liani Maasdorp (UCT Centre for Film and Media Studies, Climate Story Lab ZA, RRI Mentor)

Middle Row (L-R): Enver Samuel (EMS Productions), Khadidja Benouataf (Impact Social Club and RRI Mentor), Julian Etienne (Doc Society)

Bottom Row (L-R): Wanja Emily (Doc Society), Cindy Makandi (Tunga Media Afrika), Anthony Ochieng Onyango (TonyWild Foundation), Susan Mbogo (DocuBox)

NATURAL WORLD STORYTELLING - with NEWF

"So many of the stories emerging from the continent remind us that nature is not separate from people," says Pragna Parsotam-Kok, Executive Director, NEWF. "Social, environmental and climate justice intersect, conservation films explore people and place, and stories about the natural world can move between documentary, fiction and natural history. Now more than ever, it matters that African voices are part of global conversations about our environment, nature and wildlife. Together, we hope to invite filmmakers who may not yet see themselves as nature world storytellers, to bring their voices, craft and perspectives to the wild side; and to expand what natural world storytelling can be, who gets to shape it and how these stories are shared with the world.”

Sessions include Beyond the Wild: Representing Nature and Spirituality on Screen, with Pippa Ehrlich, Zolani Mahola, Dr Gcina Mhlophe and Gogo Lindi Dlamini; Beyond the Wild: Getting the Shot, on wildlife cinematography with NEWF Fellows; and Beyond the Wild: Expanding Stories About the Natural World. Delegates can also explore The NEWF Room, an immersive exhibition featuring 360° VR from Zululand to Sodwana Bay's reefs and the multiplayer game Aquabots, alongside The Wild Side, a curated shorts programme.

Top Row (L-R): Thihangwi Ramutsindela (Nga Maanda Awe Film Festival and NEWF), Nondumiso Masache (Zenkosi Films), Matamba Kombila (Dougantsi Films), Anthony Ochieng Onyango (TonyWild Foundation), Sewela Mutileni (Beat of Africa Productions)

Middle Row: (L-R): Pippa Ehrlich, Zolani Mahola, Dr Gcina Mhlophe, Gogo Lindi Dlamini

Bottom Row (L-R): Nkosikhona Mthembu, Carlos Norhona, Elshadaye Temesgen, Nathan Rice, Chisomo Kawaga

Registration for the DFM can be done on the website: durbanfilmmart.co.za

For inquiries: info@durbanfilmmart.com

The 17th edition Durban FilmMart is funded by the Durban Film Office, eThekwini Municipality, Ford Foundation, the National Film and Video Foundation and IEFTF.

SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Fast 5’s Netball Durban North Regional - Ashton International College: Saturday 12 September

Danville Park Girls’ High School gave a rock-solid performance, claiming their third title in the Durban North Regional of the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Fast 5’s Challenge hosted by Ashton International College on Saturday 12 September.

The defending champs met one times regional winner, Our Lady of Fatima in the regional final where the ‘Danville Diamonds’ sparkled, finishing off their spectacular efforts, winning 13 – 10. Danville topped the log after their seven games, victorious in all of the round robin games, finishing on 21 points. Fatima ended the first phase in third place, 3 points behind hosts Ashton who finished on 18 points. The visitors went down to Ashton in the opening fixture of the day, followed by a narrow defeat by Danville, in their second fixture. Thereafter, they refocused, claiming victory in all of their remaining matches.  

Fatima met Ashton in the second semi-final, and in the all-to-play-for game, Fatima upset the home team’s intentions, dominating the game knocking in 15 to Ashton’s 10. Ashton advanced to the regional final last year, going down narrowly to Danville by 1 point. Danville took on Curro Salt Rock in the first semi-final, securing a comfortable win 19-5. 

Hand up! Our Lady of Fatima’s Zoe Quigley secures the ball during the final against Danville Park Girls’ High School, as Rachael Shea falls into a defensive role at the Durban North Regional of the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Fast 5’s Netball Challenge that took place at Ashton International College on Saturday 12 September. Pic by Val Adamson.

In the final, Fatima tipped off and wasted no time to earn their first point, after only 23 seconds of play. Danville replied on the other end, levelling the score. Fatima was next to surge forward, but an unsuccessful attempt gave Danville the ball, wasting no time to net their second goal, followed by their third 90 seconds later. Fatima replied with two well-crafted attacks that got them level again at 3 all. In the final three and a half minutes of the first 8-minute half, the game flowed to all corners of the court. Danville managed to add only 3 more goals to their tally, having to work hard with creative plays to get around the sturdy Fatima defence. The half-time score was 6 – 3. 

In the second half, Danville were first to add to their account. Fatima responded 33 seconds later. A determined Fatima worked hard, creating opportunities for their forwards, but the slick team of Amy Walhuter and Gianna Gaillard didn’t allow the Fatima forwards any room to get under the pole, forcing them to try land looping shots from near the 2-point circle. In a tightly contested second half, Danville had successfully added 7 points with Fatima having manufactured the final attack of the game. As the final seconds disappeared, Fatima’s captain Zoe Quigley, perched mere centimetres outside of the 3-point line, floated the ball for a perfect 3 pointer, the only adventurous long shot of the entire day; levelling the second half’s points to the same as Danville’s 7. The final score was 13 – 10 in favour of Danville. 

Brilliantly guided by Baby Proteas coach, Precious Mthembu, Danville have featured in all but one of this regional’s finals, the only year that Danville didn’t make the final two, Fatima was boldly successful in 2024. Fatima has vied for the title three times, going down twice to Danville and defeating Curro Salt Rock two years ago. 

The tournament heads inland for the penultimate challenge, Pionier Hoërskool hosts teams for the Northern KZN Regional next weekend (Saturday 19 September), before Epworth hosts the final challenge shortly when schools return from holidays in October. 

Results

Regional Final

Danville Park Girls High School 13 vs Our Lady of Fatima 10

Semi-Finals

Danville Park Girls’ High School 19 vs Curro Salt Rock 5; Ashton International College 10 vs Our Lady of Fatima 15

Round Robin

1 Danville Park Girls’ High School 21pts; 2 Ashton International College 18pts; 3 Our Lady of Fatima 15pts; 4 Curro Salt Rock 12pts; 5 Danville Park Girls’ High School’s Invitational 9pts; 6 Crawford International College La Lucia 6pts; 7 Crawford International College North Coast 3pts; 8 Ekwazini High School 0pts

Mad Solutions Boards Second South African Film ‘God’s Work’ for Worldwide Sales

MAD World, the global sales arm of Cairo-based MAD Solutions, has boarded South African feature God’s Work, written and directed by Durban-based filmmaker Michael James, for worldwide sales.

The deal marks the second South African title represented by MAD World in collaboration with Mojo Entertainment, following the company’s partnership on Zamo Mkhwanazi’s Laundry (Uhlanjululo). The latter marked MAD Solutions’ first acquisition of a non-Arab title, as the company continues to expand its international activities and build relationships with filmmakers and production companies beyond the Arab world.

Produced by Sithabile Mkhize under Maverick Resistance, God’s Work is a 2025 South African feature set in the streets of Durban, where six unhoused men find fragile refuge in a crumbling building while navigating violence, indifferent authorities and a society that has pushed them to its margins.

Blending social drama with psychological and surreal elements, the film moves between the characters’ external reality and their memories, visions and inner worlds. Through this shifting perspective, James explores the ways in which imagination, myth and memory can become intertwined with the experience of survival.

The film had its world premiere at the Durban International Film Festival and subsequently screened at the Luxor African Film Festival, marking its Arab-world premiere.

“God’s Work is exactly the kind of bold and distinctive filmmaking that we believe deserves to travel beyond its country of origin,” said Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab, Co-Presidents of MAD World. “Michael James has created a socially urgent yet formally adventurous film, using surrealism and fiction to take us inside the realities, memories and inner worlds of people living on the margins. Our collaboration with Mojo Entertainment on Laundry introduced us to a South African filmmaking ecosystem that we found incredibly exciting, and God’s Work allows us to continue that relationship while taking on a film whose voice is deeply rooted in its local reality yet speaks to universal questions of inequality, power, dignity and survival. We are very pleased to bring this second South African collaboration with Mojo to the international market.”

Sithabile Mkhize, Producer of God’s Work, said: “We are thrilled to have MAD Solutions come aboard. Their understanding of and enthusiasm for the film give us great confidence as God’s Work begins this important journey to audiences around the world. We believe MAD’s international reach and commitment to distinctive cinema will help the film connect with audiences and partners far beyond South Africa.”

For James, the film grew out of his experience working with unhoused communities in Durban during the COVID-19 lockdown. Invited initially to document people living in government-established camps, the filmmaker began participating in weekly workshops with a group of young people who identified themselves as filmmakers. The experience ultimately led him away from a conventional documentary approach and toward a fictional narrative that could explore the intersection of lived experience, imagination and memory.

James is a filmmaker, writer, academic and artist based in Durban whose work explores the intersections of myth, history, identity, race, gender, class and religion across film, theatre and academia. His previous feature, Dreams of Gomorrah, won three Simon Sabela Awards and two African Rising Star Awards in 2020. His documentary Free Education: The Story of Bonginkosi Khanyile premiered at the Encounters Documentary Film Festival in 2018 before receiving three awards at the African Diaspora Cinema Festival in Italy.

Producer Sithabile Mkhize is a screenwriter and creative producer based in Durban. Her previous feature, Dreams of Gomorrah, was acquired by MultiChoice/M-Net and received several award nominations. She has also produced documentaries for South African broadcaster e.tv and participated in international film-industry programmes including the Berlinale, Cannes Film Festival and the Trajectory training programme.

The film features Thobani Nzuza, Mbulelo Radebe, Zenzo Msomi, Nduduzo Khowa, Omega Mncube and Siya Xaba. Cinematography is by Jared Hinde, editing by Dionysios Xenos, with an original score by internationally acclaimed composer and musician George Acogny.

God’s Work is produced by Maverick Resistance, with co-production by Marco Orsini and executive production by Toni Monty and Gary Springer. The film was made in association with the KwaZulu-Natal Film and Tourism Authority, the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa, Amafrika Films and Mojo Entertainment LLC, with support from the Durban Film Office , MAD World is handling worldwide sales.

Kings of Lesotho - The Royal Succession Story: Immersive VR Experience Brings Basotho Royal History to Life

A ground-breaking virtual reality (VR) experience charting nearly two centuries of Basotho history is set to give audiences a first-of-its-kind experience of the Kingdom of Lesotho's story - not by reading about it, but by stepping inside it.

Kings of Lesotho - The Royal Succession Story is an immersive 360-degree VR experience that takes viewers on a cinematic journey through the history of the Basotho nation, from the founding of the kingdom by King Moshoeshoe I in 1824 to the reign of the current monarch, His Majesty King Letsie III, the ninth in the royal succession. This VR experience will be launched at the Royal Palace Banquet Hall in Maseru, Lesotho, on Thursday 17 September, with Their Majesties King Letsie III and members of the Royal Family, and invited guests. Thereafter, the experience will be open to the public to experience at the Alliance Française de Maseru (AFM), AFM Library, as well as through a series of free touring exhibitions at selected locations around the country.

Through 360-degree storytelling, spatial sound, archival references, traditional music, and historically inspired landscapes, the experience transports audiences into the living memory of Lesotho.

Still from the Kings of Lesotho VR experience of Mount Qiloane the famous conical mountain near Thaba Bosiu in Lesotho that inspired the design of the traditional Basotho hat, the mokorotlo.

"The core of the story begins atop Thaba-Bosiu Mountain, where an historic village, the stronghold of King Moshoeshoe I and the birthplace of the Basotho nation, is brought to life through everyday activities, oral storytelling, music, and historical narration. From there, audiences travel through significant royal sites and beautiful landscapes across Lesotho, including Menkhoaneng, Matsieng, Likhoele, Mokhotlong, Kome Caves, Katse Dam, ’Maletsunyane Falls, Makeneng, Phamong, and Makoanyane Square in Maseru. The journey introduces the life and contribution of each monarch in the royal succession while experiencing the country's natural beauty and cultural identity.

Kings of Lesotho is created in collaboration between the Royal Archives, Museum and Information Centre, in collaboration with MP Multimedia Pty Ltd, a dynamic creative-media company based in Lesotho that specialises in advanced multimedia production, digital storytelling, immersive visual experiences, and innovative content creation, with the Royal Archives providing the historical archival material and MP Multimedia developing and producing the virtual reality experience.

“This project has given us the chance to place our nation's history in front of audiences in a way that has never been possible before, using technology to honour our heritage rather than replace it,” says the artistic team’s Project Lead, Mokhethi Phohlo, of MP Multimedia Pty Ltd, "We hope every Mosotho who steps into this experience walks away with a deeper connection to where we come from."

“The Royal Archives exists to safeguard the history and heritage of royalty and chieftainship in  Lesotho for generations to come. Collaborating with MP Multimedia has allowed us to take those stories out from behind glass and archive boxes, and into a format that speaks to audiences today, while remaining grounded in the historical record. Importantly, the experience can also travel, allowing this history to reach people beyond the archive itself,” says Maneo Ralebitso, Project Lead, of the Royal Archives.

Still from the Kings of Lesotho VR experience – a Basotho man holds up traditional Basotho hat, the mokorotlo, in homage to Mount Qiloane the famous conical mountain near Thaba Bosiu in Lesotho that inspired the design of the hat.

Kings of Lesotho is one of six immersive works developed through Futures_Past: Amplifying Memory with Immersive Technologies, an initiative of the Embassy of France in South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi and the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS), in partnership with Electric South, with funding from the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

Futures_Past began in July 2025 and will run until March 2027 at venues in South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi. The project has brought together artist teams from the countries of six selected archives across South Africa, Lesotho, and Malawi, pairing each team with an archive to co-create an immersive digital work exploring the stories held within its collection. Together, the projects explore how immersive technologies can open new ways of encountering and sharing Southern African histories.   

“Kings of Lesotho is a powerful example of what Futures_Past set out to achieve: giving archives new life through the hands of local artists and technologists. Seeing this project reach the point of a launch at the Royal Palace, with the King and Royal Household present, is a testament to what is possible when heritage institutions and creative industries work hand in hand,” says Jean Spiri, Director of IFAS.

Electric South, Ingrid Kopp says, "Working with this project has been a privilege. It shows how immersive technology, when approached with care, can deepen rather than dilute our relationship with history. Kings of Lesotho is not just about looking back at the royal succession; it is about giving audiences, particularly young Basotho, a new way to feel part of that story."

Still from the Kings of Lesotho VR experience – a drone shot of the dramatic Lesotho Highlands.

Kings of Lesotho is the second of six Futures_Past exhibitions and immersive experiences opening across South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi between September and December 2026.

The Official Launch, by invitation only, takes place on Thursday, 17 September 2026, at the Royal Palace Banquet Hall, Maseru. The launch will mark the formal introduction of the completed immersive experience before it opens to the wider public.

The exhibition will be available free to the public from 23 September to 4 December 2026 at the Alliance Française de Maseru (AFM), AFM Library. In addition to the main exhibition at AFM, the project will also undertake a series of free touring exhibitions at selected locations around the country.

Follow the Royal Archives, Museum and Information Centre on Facebook and @_mpmultimedia on Instagram for upcoming touring dates and locations, and to find out where you can experience Kings of Lesotho – The Royal Succession Story.

For further information on Kings of Lesotho, view their  website, and for the wider Futures_Past programme, visit https://www.futurespast.co.za/ 

Durban FilmMart Introduces Equitable Coproduction Programme with EAVE Experts

The Durban FilmMart (DFM) has announced a new Equitable Coproduction programme for its 2026 edition, designed by EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs) and  is bringing four leading EAVE experts to Durban to address one of the most pressing issues in international filmmaking: how to build coproductions that are fair, transparent and sustainable for all partners involved.

Top Tamara Dawit (Gobez Media – Canada & Ethiopia) (Left) , Amil Shivji (Kijiweni Productions – Tanzania) (Right) Bottom: May Odeh (Odeh Films – Palestine & Germany) (Left) and Linda Mutawi (Fikra – Sweden) (Right)

Taking place under the theme “Shifting Worlds: Turning Towards Ourselves,” the 17th Durban FilmMart, scheduled from 9 to 12 October 2026, continues to expand its Industry Programme to meet the practical needs of producers navigating an increasingly global production landscape. The Equitable Coproduction programme, delivered across a masterclass series and a dedicated clinic, gives delegates both the frameworks and the individual guidance needed to structure partnerships that share power, risk and reward more evenly.

“Coproduction has always been positioned as a route to bigger budgets and wider access, but we have often identified that those partnerships are not always fair,” says Durban FilmMart Institute Director, Magdalene Reddy. “By presenting a programmatic element-based EAVE’s recently developed Equitable Coproduction research and report DFM is equipping producers with practical tools to negotiate equitable creative, financial and legal terms from the outset, not as an afterthought.”

“The EAVE Impact Think Tank on Equitable and Inclusive Production Practices was created to examine the structural realities shaping independent production and develop practical responses. DFM was a natural partner in adapting and delivering this comprehensive, hands-on programme for African producers,” says EAVE CEO, Kristina Trapp. “Together, we aim to provide clear steps, best practices and practical tools for integrating inclusive production and coproduction practices into professional workflows, empowering producers to create meaningful and lasting change across the continent.”

Four Masterclasses on Equitable Coproduction

Presented in the DFM Industry Programme and open to all delegates, the masterclass series combines best-practice techniques with case studies drawn from the EAVE experts’ own experience, covering the full production lifecycle from development through to delivery. The four EAVE experts who will be present in Durban are Tamara Dawit (Gobez Media – Canada & Ethiopia), Linda Mutawi (Fikra – Sweden), May Odeh (Odeh Films – Palestine & Germany) and Amil Shivji (Kijiweni Productions – Tanzania).

Developing with an Inclusive Lens positions the development phase as the critical point at which to embed equity, care and intentionality into a project. Participants will explore care-based development frameworks, including collaborative story design and consent-driven research, to build a transparent roadmap from concept to production.

Inclusive Financing & Budgeting introduces budgeting tools and financing strategies that promote equity across a production, including fair compensation and practical approaches to shared ownership, transparent practices and community benefit. The session also addresses how to navigate currency imbalances in international coproductions.

Inclusive Co-Productions examines how to build partnerships that uphold creative equity, financial fairness and shared IP ownership and revenue participation, particularly across regions with differing resources. The session covers negotiating fair terms, drafting inclusive contracts and navigating legal frameworks that support long-term, respectful collaboration.

Inclusive Production Practices offers practical guidance for managing productions across diverse cultural and geographic contexts, including inclusive hiring, cross-cultural crew coordination, ethical casting, safer set protocols and culturally sensitive scheduling. The session also addresses production and post-production workflows that prioritise access, consent and psychological safety.

Equitable Coproduction Clinic

Recognising that many challenges are specific to an individual project and cannot be fully addressed in a masterclass setting, DFM will also host an Equitable Coproduction Clinic. The clinic gives delegates direct, one-on-one access to the EAVE experts behind the masterclass series.

Delegates can book a dedicated 15-minute slot with an expert to work through concerns specific to their own project, from navigating power dynamics to structuring fair creative and financial partnerships. With four experts running concurrent sessions, the clinic can support up to 50 to 60 delegates individually, ensuring the guidance on offer is tailored rather than generic. Bookings are coordinated by the DFM team to make access straightforward.

Register now: durbanfilmmart.co.za

For inquiries: info@durbanfilmmart.com

The 17th edition Durban FilmMart is funded by the Durban Film Office, eThekwini Municipality, Ford Foundation, the National Film and Video Foundation and IEFTF.

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Durban-based initiative targets 13,000 tonnes of plastic recovery across KZN

East Coast Recycling Partnership, a Green Corridors-managed initiative, targets 13,000 tonnes of plastic waste recovery across KwaZulu-Natal.

Durban, South Africa: The East Coast Recycling Partnership, a project managed by Green Corridors NPC aims to recover 13,0000 tonnes of plastic waste from landfills, streets, open spaces and waterways across KwaZulu-Natal, over a 14-month period.

Set up in March 2025, the ECRP is a regional collaborative that aims to strengthen South Africa’s waste recovery value chain, focussing on the development of Buy Back Centre enterprises (BBCs), which are vital economic hubs in the recycling supply chain. In the month prior to the ECRP, the initial seven BBC partners collected 261 tonnes of plastics. By February 2026, the Partnership grew to eleven BBCs that collected 703 tons based on verified sales records.  A combined 6,260 tonnes of plastic was recycled over the 12 months to February 2026- an average of 522 tonnes a month, doubling the output.

The programme supported more than 600 informal reclaimers who recovered more than 1,376 tonnes directly from landfills, streets and open spaces and invested R5.6 million into BBCs, sustaining more than 140 permanent jobs.

The next phase commenced in May 2026 with five BBCs from the first phase and a collective baseline of 308 tonnes of plastic recycled, 124 jobs and 680 reclaimer livelihoods supported. The ECRP has expanded its footprint covering Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Newcastle, Empangeni, Ladysmith, Eshowe, Scottburgh and Margate. Working with these 10 established BBCs and start-up mini-BBCs at three Durban informal settlements, the Programme targets over 13,000 tonnes of plastic recycled, 1950 informal reclaimers livelihoods impacted and 275 permanent jobs sustained, through a combined investment of over R11 million by June 2027.

“Our main sponsors the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) and Unilever South Africa, working alongside Producer Responsibility Organisations and other plastics recycling industry partners, are enabling the ECRP to integrate the entire waste recovery chain,” explains Gary Cullen, ECRP Project Manager. “The Partnership links informal reclaimers directly to industry and establishes a unified system that is inclusive, scalable, data‑driven, and designed for sustainability.”

“Every tonne recovered through BBCs in the ECRP is tracked through a digital reporting system, giving funders, partners and municipalities verified data on volumes recovered, incomes generated and reclaimers paid,” says Cullen

“A central focus of this phase is commercial sustainability,” says Cullen. “Our Enterprise and Supplier Development partner, Sigma International, has developed Business Support Plans with all thirteen BBCs and will provide mentorship over the next year, for which Corporate Enterprise Development funding is to be raised. These plans will guide the investments by Green Corridors and PRO partners into financial and data management, purchasing from reclaimers and infrastructure and equipment to grow and sustain their businesses.”

“This initiative demonstrates how collaboration across industry, communities, and local partners can build a recycling system that is both inclusive and commercially sustainable. The project reflects the Alliance’s strategy to drive system-level change by supporting solutions that address barriers to plastic circularity. By connecting informal reclaimers to the broader value chain, ECRP is not only diverting plastic from landfills and waterways, but also creating livelihoods, strengthening the circular economy in South Africa, and demonstrating the kind of locally grounded, commercially viable solutions needed to build more effective waste management systems,” says Kirchlin Simhadri, Senior Advisor, South Africa, Alliance to End Plastic Waste. “

“We believe we have a responsibility to invest in solutions that support the circular economy,” says Yase Godlo, Sustainability & Partnerships Manager - Unilever South Africa. “The ECRP model that links informal reclaimers directly to Buy Back Centres and industry, is exactly the kind of inclusive, data-driven system we need to scale if South Africa is going to build a truly circular economy. We are pleased to see the Partnership's growth into this next phase, and remain committed to supporting the reclaimers and BBC enterprises who make this recovery work possible.”

The ECRP is seeking partnerships with corporates that are interested to engage with mentored waste recovery SMMEs through their Enterprise and Supplier Development programmes.

Organisations, industry players and investors interested in playing a part in this collaborative partnership building a viable circular economy for SMMEs in KwaZulu-Natal can contact the project directly on ecrp-admin@durbangreencorridor.co.za.

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13th European Film Festival South Africa Returns to Durban

The 13th European Film Festival South Africa presents the latest award-winning, critically-acclaimed and star-studded European films for local audiences to experience in cinemas around South Africa from 17 to 27 September. And eight top-end films will be screened at the New Noise Courtyard, on Durban’s Point, over the weekends of 18 to 20 September and 25 to 27 September.

As the world faces ever faster and enormous changes, the festival’s offerings from across the continent paints intimate, human portraits of family in all its different forms as vital to personal, psychological and social survival. 

The 13th European Film Festival South Africa brings eight exciting titles to Durban, showcasing an exceptional selection of contemporary European cinema. The programme includes new work from Oscar-winning directors Pawel Pawlikowski and Paolo Sorrentino, social-realist legends the Dardenne Brothers, and BAFTA-winning feature debutant Akinola Davies Jr., alongside intriguing and engaging films from both established and emerging European storytellers.

Featuring outstanding performances from some of Europe’s finest talent—including Mads Mikkelsen, Javier Bardem, Sandra Hüller and Carice van Houten—as well as a host of exciting newcomers taking on demanding and emotionally charged roles, the Festival explores family in all its complexity, examining its realities, relationships and challenges across time, place and genre.

The Last Viking, opens the Festival in Pretoria and the moves to Durban -with Denmark’s biggest star Mads Mikkelsen, leading the star-studded cast of this madcap, blackly comic Danish family-drama/crime-caper-noir about brothers, mental health, past secrets, the Beatles and getting by with more than a little bit of help from your friends. 

Winner of the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut, My Father’s Shadow (UK), British-Nigerian director Akinola Davies Jr’s first feature marks the arrival of a vital, bold new voice in world cinema. Poetically realised with haunting imagery and bustling, vivid, angry life it’s a deeply personal film that’s a tribute not only to its creators’ own father but to all parents who daily face the struggles to keep their families alive and together at all costs. 

Oscar- and BAFTA-winning leading Italian director Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) reteams with collaborator Toni Servillo in La Grazia (Italy). Servillo won a Best Actor statue at the Venice Film Festival for his performance in this elegantly styled, intimate drama about fathers, daughters, love, duty and the eternal question of “who owns our days?”- set against the grubby backdrop of Italian politics. 

Colours of Time (France), directed by Cédric Klapisch is a family drama that weaves together stories from one family’s 19th century past and their 21st-century present. A memorably delightful and touching exploration of art, family and history. 

Porcelain War (Ukraine) directed by Brendan Bellomo and this stunning documentary’s key protagonist, Slava Leontyev, is an inspirational Oscar-nominated film in which Leontyev, his wife, and their friend tell, at great personal risk and with footage they shot, the story of how their lives as artists were brutally upended by the war in Ukraine. Now, with roles as Ukrainian soldiers – they’ve never lost their passion for art and nature as they risk everything for family, nation and freedom. 

In A Family (Netherlands) Dutch director Mees Peijnenburg offers a powerful window on divorce in modern Europe, told empathetically through the eyes of a brother and sister trying to each find their own ways and hopefully a path together through the aftermath of the bitter war between their parents. It stars Carice van Houten (Game of Thrones) and Pieter Embrechts.

Veteran award-winning Polish director Agnieszka Holland offers an energetic and generally bright biopic about the enigmatic literary genius Franz Kafka, in Franz. The film contemplates its protagonist, his difficult relationship with his father, and imagines how his legacy might be celebrated in the future. 

Ireland’s Christy is the debut feature from Brendan Canty that has picked up many nominations and awards at this year’s Irish Film and TV Awards for its tender direction and impressive lead performance from Danny Power as the title character – a teenager with a murkily remembered tragic past, who, after he’s kicked out of his latest foster home, returns to Cork to stay with his estranged brother. As he tries to figure out his future, he rediscovers the relationship with his brother and begins to imagine a home among people in a place he might yet grow to know and love. 

"Working alongside the European Film Festival for the past six years has been a privilege, and hosting screenings at our new event space in Durban marks an exciting new chapter. We hope to build on the incredible foundation laid by Peter Rorvik, continuing to energise Durban’s creative and cultural landscape. Ultimately, this festival is about more than world-class cinema - it’s about bringing people together. We invite the community to join us and be part of it." Steve Jones (New Noise, Founder & Director).

The festival pays tribute to the tireless dedication and vision of a former co-director of the festival Peter Rorvik, who sadly passed away earlier this year. Peter was a passionate supporter of independent films, and nurtured a generation of film lovers and filmmakers across South Africa and beyond for decades. 

The 13th European Union Film Festival South Africa takes place from 17 to 27 September 2026 at venues in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria. In Durban, screenings will be held at New Noise Courtyard, a multi-purpose cultural space that will be transformed into a mini-theatre to present these films at 5 Southampton Street, Point, Durban Secure parking is available at uShaka Marine World.

Tickets are limited to 40 tickets per screening and can be purchased via Quicket. Refreshments and popcorn will also be available to purchase.

For the full programme and schedule follow on social media or go to www.eurofilmfest.co.za

• My Father’s Shadow — Friday 18 Sept, 7:00 PM

• Colours of Time — Sat 19 Sept, 5:00 PM

• Christy — Sat 19 Sept, 8:00 PM

• Franz — Sun 20 Sept, 5:00 PM

• The Last Viking — Fri 25 Sept, 7:00 PM

• Porcelain War — Sat 26 Sept, 5:00 PM

• A Family — Sat 26 Sept, 7:30 PM

• La Grazia — Sun 27 Sept, 5:00 PM

JOMBA! @ The Market Theatre celebrates world-class contemporary dance in Johannesburg

9 – 12 September 2026 / 7pm / John Kani Theatre, The Market Theatre: Following the 28th edition of the Centre for Creative Arts' JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience in Durban (26 August to 6 September), the pioneering festival returns to Johannesburg with JOMBA! @ The Market Theatre from 9 to 12 September with a carefully curated four-night season celebrating exceptional contemporary dance from South Africa, Africa and Europe.

Now in its fourth partnership year, JOMBA! and the Market Theatre continue their commitment to expand access to ground-breaking contemporary dance by bringing a selection of the JOMBA! Festival's productions to Johannesburg audiences, to celebrate innovation, artistic excellence and the transformative power of movement across cultures, generations and borders.

JOMBA! @ The Market Theatre takes place in the John Kani Theatre and features internationally acclaimed artists and companies alongside two of South Africa's most influential choreographic voices.

Celebrating South African choreographic excellence

The season honours two previous JOMBA! Legacy Artists whose work has transformed contemporary dance in South Africa and internationally. Acclaimed choreographer Mamela Nyamza presents her breath-taking ensemble work THE HERD/LESS, a visually arresting meditation on community, conformity, vulnerability and survival. Characterised by Nyamza's fearless choreographic language and uncompromising social commentary, the work powerfully interrogates belonging and resistance.

Internationally celebrated choreographer and performer Vincent Mantsoe, whose deeply embodied artistic practice bridges ancestral knowledge with contemporary performance, presents his compelling new solo Desert Poems. This intimate work offers a profound meditation on endurance, spirituality and transformation through Mantsoe's distinctive movement vocabulary.

International collaboration takes centre stage

Opening this fourth JOMBA! @ The Market Theatre season is the extraordinary HEROES, presented by the world-renowned Dutch company Introdans in collaboration with Uganda's Joseph Tebandeke and guests, Durban's FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY. This remarkable programme spans internationally celebrated choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich, alongside new South African choreography by Zinhle Nzama. The programme also features the inclusive masterpiece IUNGO by Adriaan Luteijn, bringing together performers of different backgrounds, generations and physical abilities in a powerful celebration of humanity, diversity and connection.

Workshops with internationally renowned artists

As part of the season, JOMBA! and The Market Theatre will host two free professional development workshops at the Sophiatown Studio, offering dancers and movement practitioners the opportunity to work directly with internationally acclaimed artists.

On Tuesday, 8 September (4.30–6pm), Giuseppe Calabrese, ballet master with Introdans, leads a repertoire workshop exploring the choreographic language of renowned Belgian-Moroccan choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Participants will engage with concepts of fluidity, musicality, connection and dynamic movement quality, drawing on Calabrese's extensive experience performing Cherkaoui's celebrated repertoire.

On Friday, 11 September (4.30–6pm), Vincent Mantsoe shares his celebrated KOBA Technique, described as a "physical meditation." Integrating traditional and contemporary dance practices, the workshop invites participants to explore identity, presence and embodied expression through Mantsoe's internationally recognised movement philosophy.

Booking Information Performance tickets: https://markettheatre.co.za/ Workshop bookings: 2024jomba@gmail.com. Workshop places are free, but booking is essential as numbers are limited.

Performance Programme

Wednesday, 9 September | 7pm HEROES Introdans (Netherlands) with guests Joseph Tebandeke (Uganda) and FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY (South Africa)

Thursday, 10 September | 7pm HEROES Introdans (Netherlands) with guests Joseph Tebandeke (Uganda) and FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY (South Africa)

Friday, 11 September | 7pm THE HERD/LESS Choreographed by Mamela Nyamza MAM – Mamela's Artistic Movement (South Africa)

Saturday, 12 September | 7pm Desert Poems Choreographed and performed by Vincent Mantsoe

Workshop Programme

Tuesday, 8 September | 4.30–6pm Introdans Repertoire Workshop Led by Giuseppe Calabrese Venue: Market Theatre Sophiatown Studio

Friday, 11 September | 4.30–6pm KOBA Technique Workshop Led by Vincent Mantsoe Venue: Market Theatre Sophiatown Studio

SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Fast 5’s Netball Challenge Durban Central Regionals - Durban Girls’ College: Saturday 29 August

Clutching onto their title, Durban Girls’ College successfully defended the trophy in a nail-biter of a final at the Durban Central Regional of the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Fast 5’s Netball Challenge that they hosted on Saturday 29 August.

College met local rivals, Durban Girls’ High School in the concluding game of the tournament where the game went down to the wire. Girls’ High have featured in the last three Durban Central Regional finals, finishing in second place in all three, two of those games have been against Girls’ College. Last year, College confidently won the regional final, whilst this year Girls’ High were a force to be reckoned with. 

Next step. Intercepting, Durban Girls’ College’s Ndondo Ntombela snuffs the attack by Durban Girls’ High School’s Alwande Ntsele during the final of the Durban Central Regional of the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Fast 6’s Netball Challenge that College hosted on Saturday 29 August. Photo: Rogan Ward

Sitting up on the hill, the picturesque setting was prone to a blustery north easter gusting across the field, giving the shooters an extra challenge to read the conditions as they fired off their shots. 

College got the finals underway and within seconds, Girls’ High had executed the first of many intercepts that had the ball ricocheting around the midfield. The first attempt at goals was made by Girls High with only 50 seconds on the clock, but it was unsuccessful. College had a handful of attempts on the ‘breezy’ end but in similar fashion, the score remained unchanged. The first half was a feast of rapid retaliations as both teams pushed the game to the limits in a tightly contested final. 

It took over 4 minutes before the first goal was netted by Girls’ High with their shooter being awarded a penalty directly under the pole after she was obstructed. 30 seconds later, College had levelled on the other end. Girls’ High worked hard in their attacks led by captain, Tyra Norris, at the 8-minute half time whistle, the visitors led by 4-2. 

The second half got underway with College again tipping off, this time the home team had an air of urgency, within 90 seconds they had sent the ball up to their forwards who were now shooting on the sheltered end, the scoreline was quickly levelled at 4 all with Ndondo Ntombela working hard as the playmaker in the middle. Midway through the second half, College pocketed two back-to-back 1 pointers, giving them the edge. Girls’ High dug deep but only managed to advance by one, which had College replying with another goal on the other end. In the final minute Girls’ High threw everything at College, taking the scoreline to 7-8. In a last gasp attempt, as the final seconds ticked by, Alwande Ntsele was gifted the last chance of the game. Steadying herself, she took an extra second to gage the gusts but her pause for composure unfortunately took too long and as her shot flew goalwards, the umpire’s whistle sounded disallowing the buzzer shot.

College earned their fourth title in the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Fast 5’s Challenge, winning in 2022, 2023, 2025 and 2026. 

In the build up to the finals, Durban Girls College topped their log with newcomers, Madlenkosi High School making a big impact in their first appearance finishing second in the log and advancing to the semi-finals. In Pool B, Durban Girls’ High School topped their log with St Henry’s Marist College finishing second. College took on St Henry’s in the first semi where the result was 12 – 6 in favour of the home team. Special mention to the hard-working Zasembo Mkhize for her sublime aerial assaults in overturning the ball countless times. In the second semi-final, Girls’ High met Madlenkosi in their inaugural top four playoff. Girls’ High claimed victory with an 8-4 win. 

The next regional heads to Hillcrest High School where teams competing in the Highway Regional will be taking to the court in the hopes of dethroning the host school who are vying for their fourth title. 

For more info follow the tournament on their social media pages.

Results

Final

Durban Girls’ College 8 vs Durban Girls’ High School 7

Semi-finals

Durban Girls’ College 12 vs St Henry’s Marist College 6

Durban Girls’ High School 8 vs Madlenkosi High School 4 

Pool A

1 Durban Girls’ College 15pts; 2 Madlenkosi High School 12pts; 3 Phambiti High School 7pts; 4 Igagasi High School 7pts; 5 Port Natal School  / Skool 3pts; 6 Werda Skool / School Seconds 0pts

Pool B

11 Durban Girls’ High School 15pts; 2 St Henry’s Marist College 12pts; 3 Durban Girls' College Invitational 9pts; 4 Werda Skool / School First 6pts; 5 Ridge Park College 3pts; 6 Mowat Park High School 0pts

ISPA's Gabriel YoungStar takes Pick of the Platform at JOMBA! LIVE OPEN HORIZONS 2026

DURBAN, 28 August 2026: Last night (27 August) young Durban choreographer Gabriel YoungStar’s work "The Meeting", featuring students of the International School of Performing Arts, was named Pick of the Platform at JOMBA! LIVE OPEN HORIZONS 2026, the annual showcase for emerging dance-makers presented as part of the Centre for Creative Arts' 28th JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience.

YoungStar's work, The Meeting, took the familiar ritual of the corporate boardroom and transformed it into an arena of ambition, hierarchy, manipulation and survival. Behind the polished language of professional diplomacy, the piece revealed another conversation communicated through gesture, posture, proximity and power - exploring shifting relationships of authority and submission, alliance and betrayal, control and confrontation.

Photo of Gabriel YoungStar's The Meeting at JOMBA! LIVE OPEN HORIZONS. Photo by Val Adamson

Announcing the award, the JOMBA! LIVE OPEN HORIZONS  jury praised the range of work on this year's platform, noting the commitment, discipline and focus shown by the young performers on stage, with each work fully rehearsed and carefully costumed, with attention to good lighting and some wonderful music choices. 

 Of The Meeting, the jury said the piece impressed with precise partnering, risk-taking and an intense energy that elicited spontaneous encouragement from the audience, with an ensemble that was synchronised and well-drilled in its exploration of confrontation, submission and control.

The jury gave a special mention to choreographer Thembani Ngxelo for What Happened to the People of Bantu?, which they described as an evocative and visceral conjuring of cultural memory, drawing on Ngxelo's Xhosa heritage and combining strong visual, live vocal and digital elements. The jury noted that Ngxelo's choreographic voice has much to say and deserves further development.

Thembani Ngxelo for What Happened to the People of Bantu? at JOMBA! LIVE OPEN HORIZONS. The jury gave a special mention to choreographer Thembani Ngxelo for What Happened to the People of Bantu?, which they described as an evocative and visceral conjuring of cultural memory, drawing on Ngxelo's Xhosa heritage and combining strong visual, live vocal and digital elements. Photo by Val Adamson.

The 2026 Open Horizons jury comprised: Clare Craighead (non-voting chair), Drama and Production Studies lecturer at DUT, dance writer and academic based in Durban, Jabu Siphika, Durban-based dancer and choreographer, senior company member of FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY; Tammy Ballantyne, Johannesburg-based dance writer and journalist and Warona Seane, acclaimed South African actor and theatre director, teaching in UKZN's Drama and Performance Studies Programme.

JOMBA! continues until 6 September at venues around Durban. For more information go to https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/

Dr Ismail Mahomed honoured with 2026 JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience Lifetime Achievement Award

DURBAN, 25 August 2026: Dr Ismail Mahomed, Director of the Centre for Creative Arts (CCA) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, was presented with the 2026 JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience Lifetime Achievement Award last night (25 August) at the opening of the 28th JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, at UKZN, Durban.

The award was presented by Dr Lliane Loots, curator of JOMBA!, on behalf of the Centre for Creative Arts and the JOMBA! team, in recognition of Dr Mahomed's sustained contribution to South African and African contemporary dance and to the wider arts sector.

Dr Ismail Mahomed, Director of the Centre for Creative Arts (CCA) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, received the 2026 JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience Lifetime Achievement Award last night (25 August) at the opening of the 28th JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, at UKZN, Durban, pictured here addressing the opening night audience. Photo by Val Adamson.

In presenting the award, Dr Loots paid tribute to Dr Mahomed's decades of work opening platforms for artists and dancers across South Africa, the African continent and beyond. She described him as someone who understood, often before others did, that an artist needs not only a stage but a door that opens, not only an audience, but someone willing to make the spaces in which art and dance can breathe.

Through his years of service to the arts and his leadership of the Centre for Creative Arts, Dr Mahomed has helped create openings where there might otherwise have been walls, and possibilities where there might have been silence. “Dr Mahomed’s work has never been only about presenting what is already known, but about making room for what is still becoming building platforms upon which dance makers could gather their bodies, stories, questions and dreams, and take the risks that art requires.”

“Across festivals, programmes, collaborations and countless encounters at the Centre for Creative Arts, Dr Mahomed's leadership has helped weave connections between dancers, artists, communities and countries, as a bridge-builder, a door-opener, a provocateur of possibility, and above all, a steadfast believer in the necessity of the arts. For JOMBA!, Dr Mahomed's contribution forms part of the festival's longer choreography, one built not only of dancers and dances, but of those who have helped hold the space, nurture the vision, and ensure that the dance could continue.”

In accepting the award, the festival paid tribute not only to what Dr Mahomed has done, but to what his work has enabled: the artists and dancers who found a stage, the voices and dancing bodies that found an audience, the artistic conversations that crossed borders, and the possibilities that became real because he helped make space for them.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented with what organisers described as deep gratitude, admiration and affection, marking one of the milestone moments of this year's opening night.

JOMBA! runs until 6 September at various venues in Durban, and a shorter version of it runs a The Market Theatre in Johannesburg from 13 to 16 September.

More information can be found at https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/

Tourism's Carbon Story Is Bigger Than Its Footprint

This Tourism Month, Verified Impact - the sustainability standard behind a Southern African pilot programme helping tourism properties get a clear picture of their carbon footprint - is using real tourism data to show why measuring carbon footprints in tourism matters, why comparison matters even more, and why keeping wild places wild belongs in the climate conversation.

When one thinks about the climate impact of tourism, the conversation usually begins with emissions: flights, vehicles, electricity, generators and fuel. That does matter. But it is only half the story.

GweGwe Beach Lodge

This, according to Duncan Pritchard, Director of ETC Africa, Verified Impact's carbon measurement and verification partner: "Across Southern Africa, tourism provides an economic reason for vast areas of natural habitat to remain intact. Those landscapes are not simply beautiful places to visit. Their soils and vegetation store carbon, support biodiversity, protect water systems and sustain ecological processes that disappear when natural land is transformed. Wild areas are climate infrastructure."

Tourism has two carbon stories to understand: the emissions created by operating tourism businesses, and the invaluable carbon sinks that tourism helps give economic value to protecting.

In Toto Retreat

Verified Impact which is the tourism specific, local carbon footprint standard being developed  through the kimkim Climate Action Pilot Programme, delivered in partnership with kimkim, the Wilderness Leadership School, ETC Africa and The Eco Travel Boutique. The project is putting verifiable data behind tourism sustainability claims, while helping the industry better articulate the economic value of responsible, thoughtful tourism operations.  Kimkim is a US-based travel company that joined the 1% for the Planet in 2025, pledging at least 1% of its annual revenue to environmental causes while continuing to fund climate related  projects. 

"A carbon footprint is a starting point, not an answer," explains Pritchard. “Is 12 kg CO₂e per bed night good? Could it be 9? Why is another lodge at 25? Is that because it is less efficient, or because it relies on a carbon-intensive electricity grid? Does its remote location mean greater generator use or longer supply chains? Are game drives, laundry, food or low occupancy pushing emissions higher? Without context and comparison, carbon accounting gives you numbers. Benchmarking turns those numbers into useful information."

POD Camps Bay

Verified Impact benchmarks properties against comparable African tourism operations rather than international averages that often bear little resemblance to operating realities on the continent. In doing so, it is building one of the most meaningful datasets yet on the carbon performance of African ecotourism, creating a clearer picture of what good performance actually looks like in an African context

According to Pritchard, the patterns are already emerging, for example, grid-connected properties in the current dataset are averaging around 3.6 times the carbon emissions per bed night of comparable off-grid properties, largely because of the carbon intensity of South Africa's electricity supply.

Rhino Sands Safari Lodge

In safari operations, one of the largest operational opportunities can be something far less obvious: how game drives are managed. Emissions from game viewing vehicles tend to be one of the highest emissions sources at a lodge -not laundry, not the kitchen, the game drive.

The data is also revealing what Verified Impact calls a "behavioural dividend": emissions reductions that require little or no capital investment. Better energy optimisation, vehicle utilisation and basic operational discipline can reduce emissions before a property spends a rand on new technology.

“This is precisely why comparison matters. Knowing that diesel represents 30% of a lodge’s footprint tells you something. Knowing that its diesel use per bed night is twice that of comparable lodges tells you where to start asking questions. That is when carbon data becomes management data.”

But in many landscapes, tourism provides something conservation cannot survive without: economic value attached to keeping land wild. A functioning lodge creates jobs, purchases local goods and services, pays conservation and concession costs, and generates revenue from landscapes whose value depends upon them remaining intact. That makes reducing tourism's own operational footprint important for a much bigger reason.

“The goal is not simply to make tourism lower-carbon. It is to maximise the conservation and economic value tourism creates while minimising the carbon footprint required to create it.” says Pritchard.

Tourism Month traditionally celebrates arrivals, jobs, visitor spend and economic contribution. Verified Impact believes another measure increasingly belongs alongside them: how efficiently tourism creates that value environmentally.

“A carbon footprint shouldn’t just be a number in a report. It should tell us where we can improve, where we’re performing well, and ultimately how tourism can become a stronger force for protecting the places it depends on.” Says Pritchard 

For more information about Verified Impact go to: https://etc-africa.co.za/verified-impact

DIGITAL JOMBA! 2026 brings free screen dance from South Africa, France, Tanzania and Brazil

As part of the 28th JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, running from 25 August to 6 September 2026 in Durban, JOMBA! once again presents its digital dance offering, DIGITAL JOMBA! 2026 which is accessible to global audiences online.

Over the past six years, screen dance has grown into a significant creative form, and JOMBA! continues to champion it, particularly work coming out of the global South. This year's programme features a curated line-up of digital artists, screened free of charge via the festival's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/Jomba_Dance/streams

Darkroom Contemporary (Cape Town, South Africa) feature on Sunday 30 August @ 6pm (SAST) with a special retrospective programme drawing on sixteen years of filmmaking from Darkroom Contemporary, the Cape Town-based screendance company founded in 2010 by choreographer and filmmaker Louise Coetzer and photographer and filmmaker Oscar O'Ryan. Across the selected works, the company's ongoing exploration of movement, landscape, architecture, memory and the camera comes into focus, tracing the development of Coetzer and O'Ryan's collaboration and their sustained approach to choreography as a cinematic language.

Dream's Descent (Greg Maqoma, Sara CF de Gouveia, Inka Kendzia and Motheo Moeng)

The programme includes eight screendance films: Blue Funk, Not From Here, META | m o r p h, Lacuna, The Forgotten,give/take (the act of erasure), WRPD, and I walk the street with loose parts, featuring performers including Bronwyn Craddock, Mukovhe Monyai, Farnel Smart, Mthuthuzeli November, Christopher Sherwood Adcock, Louise Coetzer and members of the Dance For All InSPIRAtions Youth Company, among others.

Louise Coetzer is a Cape Town-based multidisciplinary dance artist, filmmaker and choreographer whose practice spans screendance, site-specific performance and digital media, presented internationally across Africa, Europe, North and South America. Oscar O'Ryan is a Cape Town-based photographer and filmmaker whose documentary work has included projects for the BBC and Discovery Channel, alongside screendance works screened in France, Mexico, the UK and Finland. Together they lead Darkroom Contemporary, with O'Ryan serving as the company's Technical Director.

NGIPHAMANDLA: Life in a Womb (Zandile Sphelele Phili)

Their work is supported by the National Lotteries Commission, the National Arts Council, the Christian Ludolph Marais Trust, and the Department of Cultural Affairs & Sport.

Brazilian choreographers Davi Pontes and Wallace Ferreira screen their work Delirar o Racial (Delirium of the Racial), on Wednesday 2 September @ 6pm (SAST). This work explores spatiality beyond conventional structures of space and time. Drawing on the thinking of philosopher Denise Ferreira da Silva, the pair use methods developed in their own choreographic practice, engaging with uncertainty, and disorder to build an experimental reflection on a timeless ethics of Black life.

Pontes and Ferreira's collaborative practice sits at the intersection of dance, performance, visual art and critical thought, developed through their ongoing Repertório trilogy, which frames dance as a form of self-defense training while engaging questions of race, coloniality and the politics of the body. Delirar o Racial was commissioned by the Pivô Satélite Program in 2021.

JOMBA! DIGITAL OPEN HORIZONS returns as the festival's platform for new screen dance talent on Wednesday 26 August @ 6pm. Following an open call for submissions earlier in 2026, an independent JOMBA! jury shortlisted eight works, with the final screening selection made through a voting process concluding in mid-August. The winner of 'Pick of the JOMBA! DIGITAL OPEN HORIZONS 2026' will be announced on Wednesday, 26 August, following the screening of the jury's selected works.

Works featuring in this open platform are:

Estela Lapponi: Seliberation #3 (Brazil)

Marcia Mzindle: The Weight of Being Seen: A Refusal (Durban, SA)

Zandile Sphelele Phili: NGIPHAMANDLA: Life in a Womb (Durban, SA)

Bongani Shezi: Silent Voice (Durban,SA)

Matthieu Nieto and House of Wondar: Our Mother (France/Tanzania)

Ruth Asidi and Guga Santos: Boca da Mata (Brazil)

Gregory Maqoma, Sara CF de Gouveia and Inka Kendzia: Dream’s Descent (Johannesburg, SA)

All DIGITAL JOMBA! 2026 programming is free to view at https://www.youtube.com/Jomba_Dance/streams

For more information, go to www.jomba.ukzn.ac.za

Acts of Care: Immersive Exhibition Brings Township AIDS Project Archive to Life

A new immersive exhibition is set to transform decades-old archival material into a living, participatory experience, inviting audiences to witness, recognise, and actively continue a legacy of queer community care that began in Soweto, Johannesburg, more than three decades ago.

Acts of Care is an Extended Reality (XR) exhibition drawing on archive material from the Township AIDS Project (TAP), held by the GALA Queer Archive. Using virtual reality, augmented reality, and an interactive creative public space, the exhibition explores how communities in early 1990s Johannesburg and Soweto organised care, education, and advocacy in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, at a time when the disease was poorly understood, deeply stigmatised, and often framed as a moral or political threat.

Acts of Care Poster 2026

Acts of Care will be launched on 5 September at the Latitudes Centre for the Arts (LCA) Shepstone Gardens in Johannesburg. It is one of the projects in Futures_Past: Amplifying Memory with Immersive Technologies, an initiative of the Embassy of France in South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi and the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS), in partnership with Electric South, with funding from the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

Structured in three interconnected experiential zones representing the past, present, and future, that map directly into the Acts of Care visitor’s journey and experience of Caring (Witness), Loving (Recognise), and Sharing (Act). Each zone marks a different type of engagement, carrying visitors from an intimate historical encounter, through recognition and affirmation, to collective and public participation.

The first station places visitors inside a VR reconstruction of an early 1990s community counselling room in Johannesburg, narrated by Enea Motaung, who ran TAP for many years. The scene draws on lived testimony to portray the quiet, often invisible acts of care that sustained communities during the crisis.

Poster from TAP archives.

The second station is a playful, full-body AR photo experience, drawing on the bold safe-sex campaign typography and graphic aesthetics of 1990s queer activist culture, allowing visitors to see themselves reflected within the visual language of the movement. Participants can pose, move, and experiment with identity in joyful and unapologetic space. This station connects past activism to present-day self-expression and collective visibility.

At the third station, visitors are invited to design their own posters, physically or digitally, using visual assets from the TAP and GALA archive. Completed works are pasted and projected onto a growing shared wall, forming a living, evolving archive of contemporary care and advocacy that builds throughout the exhibition's run.

Archival photo of TAP outreach.

Throughout, archival photographs, pamphlets, and testimonies from TAP and the GALA Queer Archive connect the three stations, grounding the experience in lived history.

"TAP's story has lived in our collection for almost three decades, known mostly to researchers and those who lived through the HIV/AIDS crisis. Acts of Care gives us the chance to bring that history out into the open, to let new audiences encounter it not as a static record but as something they can step into and feel. This is what it means for an archive to stay alive,” says Linda Chernis, Archivist, GALA Queer Archive.

"We didn't want to simply document TAP's history, we wanted people to feel what it meant to organise care under pressure, without a manual, without institutional support, and often without the language to name what was happening,” says  Kieran Reid, Artistic Project Lead. “Building this in VR and AR helped us to hold onto that intimacy while still inviting people into something collective and hopeful, and creative."

Simon Nkoli, Township Aids Project activist, in a workshop

The exhibition draws a deliberate line between the past and the present. As international HIV/AIDS funding, including support previously channelled through PEPFAR (the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) faces cuts that are currently affecting clinics, community health workers, and prevention programmes across South Africa, Acts of Care insists that the community-led practices of care pioneered by TAP in the 1990s remain relevant today.

“Futures_Past set out to show that archives are living resources, not just repositories of the past. Acts of Care embodies that mission entirely, taking a story of care and queer resilience from the 1990s and giving it new urgency at a moment when the very systems of care it documents are once again under threat,” says Jean Spiri, Director of IFAS.

Archival poster for Pride March 1992

Acts of Care is designed to engage queer communities, HIV/AIDS activists, and health workers, as well as students, researchers, and general public audiences. It runs until 1 December 2026 (World AIDS Day) at Latitudes Centre for the Arts (LCA) in Johannesburg. Parental guidance: the exhibition has an age recommendation of 16+.

In response to and alongside Acts of Care, LCA is proud to present How is a triangle the strongest shape?curated by Denzo Nyathi,This group exhibition ponders the methodologies of endurance associated with resistance, taking a particular look at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis in South Africa. Ephemera and other crafty practices are re-examined and brought to the forefront of fine art, with a queer cohort of artists — Talia Ramkilawan, Athi Patra Ruga and Sizwe Sama — practising their own forms of resistance. Exhibition details:

Venue: Latitudes Centre for the Arts, 12 Hope Rd, Mountain View, Johannesburg

Dates: 5 September to 1 December 2026 

Opening times: Weekdays, Tuesday to Friday, 10:00 - 15:00, &

 Select Saturdays (26 Sept, 31 Oct, & 28 Nov), 10h00-13h00

Programming for selected Saturday openings: https://twonamegames.com/actsofcare/ 

Instagram: @actsofcare_sa

Book here

South African Industry Organisations Featured at the 17th Durban FilmMart

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA (24 August 2026) — The Durban FilmMart remains a significant gateway to the African and global film industry for film professionals. This year, the programme, which is designed with panel discussions, masterclasses, pitch forums and networking opportunities, also offers a focus on South African cinema through its “SA in Focus” programming stream. This focus brings together the nation's most influential industry bodies, guilds and creative professionals to address the current state and future of the local audiovisual sector.

Taking place under the theme “Shifting Worlds: Turning Towards Ourselves,” the 17th Durban FilmMart, scheduled from 9 to 12 October 2026, once again anchors conversations about the health and future of the local industry within the wider market.

“The local South African industry is navigating real challenges,” says Durban FilmMart Institute Director, Magdalene Reddy. “The 2026 DFM has been programmed with a view that answers begin at home: it begins in the strength of our guilds, the ability of our practitioners to pivot, and our willingness to have honest conversations about what needs to change. By bringing together the organisations that represent South African film professionals, DFM 2026 reaffirms that a thriving local industry is the foundation for everything else we build internationally.”

Opening the SA stream, Animation SA will unpack how the sector is adapting to consolidation, shifting streaming algorithms and the rise of generative AI in the session “Africa-Centred Collaboration in a Shifting Landscape — New Strategies and Practices in Marketing, Distribution and Community Development for Animation and Gaming.” The panel features Isabelle Rorke, Mocke Jansen van Veuren, Rashid Juma, Xolile Vundla and Nick Cloete.

Xolile Vundla

The Documentary Filmmakers Association turns to the changing shape of nonfiction storytelling with “Slow Stories in a Fast World: Documentary in the Age of Infinite Content,” asking what remains uniquely documentary as creator culture and vertical storytelling reshape audience habits. The session includes Sara Hatira, Sifiso Nobela, Catherine Meyburgh, Jane Lipman and Jacqui Hlongwane.

The Writers Guild of South Africa presents “Writers vs the Machine,” tackling AI's growing role in writing and what it means for authorship, craft and copyright. The panel brings together Busisiwe Ntintili, Sizwe Fortune Zuma, Bongi Ndaba and Zunaid Mansoor.

Zunaid Mansoor

Making the case for involving editors earlier in the process, the South African Guild of Editors presents “Editors at the Table: Why Story Should Start Before Post,” arguing that stronger communication from development onward leads to healthier productions and better films. The panel features Melissa Parry, Nikki Comninos, Simon Beesley and Sifiso Khanyile.

Sifiso Khanyile

The Independent Black Filmmakers Collective confronts the structural pressures facing local production, addressing delayed incentive payments and funding uncertainty. The session, “The System Is Broken. Let's Fix It,” will also review lessons learned from countries that have successfully repositioned their audiovisual sectors. The panel brings together Lehlohonolo Mokhosi, Tumelo Chipfupa and Tshepiso Chikapa Phiri.

Tshepiso Chikapa Phiri

The Independent Producers Organisation joins this focus, the focus on the Olsberg SPI Economic Study.  The session will unpack the importance, relevance and potential impact of the study, with a particular focus on how its findings can inform the future development, sustainability and growth of South Africa’s film and television industry.  The session will feature Delon Bakker, Jade Gezane, Luke Rous, Paul Buys and Wandile Molebatsi.

Wandile Molebatsi

The South African Guild of Actors turns to questions of ownership and equity with “Turning Towards Ourselves: Performers as Co-Creators in African IP Ecosystems.” The panel discussion, proposing that performers share earlier and more fairly in the IP they help originate, rather than remaining downstream labour, will feature Adrian Galley, Vicki Bawcombe, Hungani Ndlovu and Neo Mothae.

Hungani Ndlovu

Ensuring women's perspectives remain central to industry change, Sisters Working in Film and Television (SWIFT) will present “Women's Voices on Industry Dialogues: Why Your Voice Matters.” This call for greater representation on industry bodies and in policy conversations will feature Miranda Ntshangase, Kaona Letlape, Loreley Yeowart and Amilcar Patel with Marion Seymour moderating the session.

Miranda Ntshangase

Alongside these industry-led panel discussions, the DFM programme will also feature South African policymakers throughout the event. Making their first appearance at DFM will be the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture's newly established cluster — the South African Audio-Visual Cluster and Pixel Creators (Animation and Gaming Cluster)— who will join discussions in October 2026 in Durban, positioning DFM as the essential gathering point for South African film industry advancement.

Register now: durbanfilmmart.co.za

For inquiries: info@durbanfilmmart.com

The 17th edition Durban FilmMart is funded by the Durban Film Office, eThekwini Municipality, Ford Foundation, the National Film and Video Foundation and IEFTF.

About the Durban FilmMart Institute:

Durban FilmMart Institute is the business hub of the African film industry in a world where film professionals and content are globally competitive and celebrated. The mission of the Durban FilmMart Institute is to provide appropriate and effective programmes and services to promote, support and facilitate investment in the African film industry.